Looking On

Looking on, keep looking on,
Expectantly await the dawn,
You who cling to hope may wait,
May yet your heart now satiate,
Oh do not cease from looking on!
Continue pressing on in hope
And its related isotope:
In joy, that is; may yours be full,
This is the substance of the tulle,
The fabric of the wedding veil,
Fastened quick with thankfulness,
The bride of Christ is thus arrayed,
The love of Christ therefore displayed
In one for whom He bled and died,
Whom Satan shall fore’er deride
Yet powerless fore’er remain,
The righteousness of God implied
That He should hold us in disdain,
We, in our Advocate, confide,
Sin, where is thy gruesome stain?

© 2011 David Andrew

Adoration

Lately, I have felt God pressing on my heart to stop asking Him for stuff. It all falls in line with my last two posts actually. I’ve been feeling challenged to pray only in thankfulness and adoration of Who God is and of His qualities as revealed in Scripture and my daily life. For the course of this next school year, when I go to pray, I will only thank God for Who He is and proclaim His character over my circumstances. At the very least, this will take my eyes off of my circumstances and put them back on the One Who ordains them and presides over them. Blessed be the Name of the LORD.

God is love. (1 John 4:8)

God is holy. (Leviticus 11:44; 1 Peter 1:16)

God is spirit. (John 4:24)

God is a consuming fire. (Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:29)

Here I begin; LORD, here am I.

Hineni: "Here am I Lord" by Sandi Padilla. Used with permission.

Visit Sandi Padilla’s Facebook page to learn more about her painting.

Random

I’ll be frank, I’m not sure what to say right now… I’ve been pretty tired this week. However, it’s been a joyful week as well. I’ve been learning contentment and honesty and surrender. I’ve been learning thankfulness.

In my copy of the devotional Jesus Calling, I read today that I should let thankfulness temper my thoughts. What a wonderful idea. Thankfulness keeps my attitude headed in a positive direction. Thankfulness keeps me from complaining.

Complaining is a dangerous sin. It fundamentally changes your attitude toward God. The Israelites complained in the wilderness and it drove God crazy. They didn’t trust Him even after all that He had done for them. God is looking for trusting hearts. Thankfulness sets us on the path of trust. Also, because God is faithful and does what He says, trust in Him results in joy.

Oh, so, I recently came across a study of water and how words, both spoken and written, affect its makeup. In this experiment, positive words would cause the water, when frozen, to form beautiful crystals under a microscope; whereas negative words would cause the water to freeze in random and disfigured patterns. One of the suggested applications of this experiment was that since our bodies are roughly 70% water, our words have a huge impact on our makeup as humans.

I feel like this ties together well with the idea of attitude—thankfulness leading to trust leading to joy. Joy starts with giving thanks. What we say has an impact on ourselves and other people, so let’s start giving thanks more often.

Okay, that just about sums up what I’ve been thinking about.