He Means It!

This morning, I truly enter God's gates with Thanksgiving!

"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

 Know ye that the Lord he is God:

it is he that hath made us, 

and not we ourselves; 

we are his people, 

and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, 

and into his courts with praise: 

be thankful unto him, 

and bless his name.

For the Lord is good; 

his mercy is everlasting; 

and his truth endureth to all generations." 

- Psalm 100

He has indeed done marvelous things!  

"I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;
    I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.
I will be filled with joy because of you.
    I will sing praises to your name, O Most High.

My enemies retreated;
    they staggered and died when you appeared."

                                                       - Psalm 9:1-3

As you can see, this "Tip In" that I've added to my Bible not only opens to show the text, but gives me a place to showcase specific instances of God's power over my enemies.  (see my last blog post about how my enemies are a lack of faith, joy, etc).  I am so grateful - not only for the blessings given, but the way He has demonstrated once again that His ways are not my ways and His ways are better!  And He definitely caused my "enemies" to retreat - to stagger & die as Psalm 9:3 says!

Yesterday I was working on something in preparation for an event last night.  It soon became clear that I would NOT have enough time to complete all that I felt I needed to get done in time to make my deadline.  One of those things was getting acquainted with some choreography so that we would be able to dance it cleanly.  I found myself starting to stress over it - after all, how does it look if the dance teachers can't dance the dances well?  

I caught myself starting to stress about things and reminded myself that stress was evidence that my "enemies" were seeking to overtake me.  I thought again of the truths I had been reminded about just yesterday:  I needed to put my trust in God, set my hope in Him and take refuge in Him because He is my God and I am His servant. (Ps 143:8-12)  So, I put the stress behind me and I prayed, asking God to deliver me from my enemies and restore joy, faith, and gratitude in my heart.  And He did it!  I was able to relax and trust, do what I was directed to do - even though we didn't get time to look at that choreography - and trust God for the rest.  

As Paul Harvey would have said, "the rest of the story" appeared that night when it came time to dance the choreography that we hadn't had time to look at.  We discovered that we HAD ALREADY looked at it - 2 weeks ago as a part of our role in choosing special choreography for something else!  Truly, before I called He had already answered! (Isaiah 65:24) 

Thank you, Father!  It is so much fun to see the miraculous ways you work in my life when I am willing to put my trust in you and let You vanquish those enemy thoughts.  Thank you for bringing these things to my attention and giving such a clear demonstration of how you can work in my life!  Father, once again I look to you for guidance for this day.  Please keep me centered in my faith in you and may your joy and love flow through me to all I meet this day.  Thank you, Father!

As I continued my devotions - wanting to do something to highlight Psalm 100 too - I got another chance to experience an enemy retreat!  The illustration here was simple - a stamp that I added a bit of color to:

I've used StazOn ink before with stamps in my Bible without prepping the page and while there was a bit of ghosting, there was no bleed-through.  So imagine my shock when, using the same type of ink, but green instead of black (and perhaps not as dry a stamp pad), I turned the page over to discover that the ink had bled through so badly that I couldn't read the text in some places on the back side of the page!  This is the sort of situation where I have too often allowed those "enemies" to take over - telling myself what a big mistake I made, how I've ruined everything, should never have started journaling in my Bible, but at least should have prepped the page, etc. etc.  However, with the memory of recent studies and events fresh in my mind, I didn't go there!  I asked God what He had for me to learn, instead. 

While I'll admit my first thought wasn't thanksgiving, I set about to figure out what I could do to fix things.  Then I thought of the white gesso that my husband had purchased for me without my asking him (and frankly, had wondered why he had - a good lesson for me about being thankful for ALL things!).  I decided today was definitely the day to try out that white gesso!  It took several thin coats before it covered well enough to suit me, but it DID work.  As you can see from the picture below, you now see no bleed-through on the page - just a little ghosting if you look closely!

Yes, I then had to hand-write some of the words in and it's not as "nice" as before, but I figure the very messiness of the text illustrates the meaning as the Psalmist speaks to God of his discouragement and depression - before  reminding himself that God can be trusted.  While I know it will seem like a small thing to some, it was of importance to me, and God knew it - and provided yet another example of 'Before they call I will answer'.  

Father, I am SOOOO grateful that you had that white gesso already in my hands before I needed it!  You and I both know that my "enemies" would have stood a better chance of getting to me if I had to see that mess in my Bible for several days or weeks before I got the supplies needed to fix it.  You are SO gentle with me - and so firm with my enemies!  Thank you, God!  I am so very grateful to you for all that you do on my behalf - both large and small things.  Thank you for the visual lesson of why I should be thankful for ALL the gifts you bring into my life - even when I don't understand them or even think I don't want them!  Father, I can just imagine how much more joy-filled my life will be as I take these lessons to heart and am grateful for ALL that shows up instead of sometimes trying to "look the gift horse in the mouth" and decide for myself whether the gift is "good or evil".  Father, I no longer want to eat from that tree!  I want to eat from your tree of LIFE!  Thank you, Father, for ALL your blessings - even those I've been too blind to recognize as such!  I love you, Father. I am SOOO grateful for your love and guidance, your gentleness, and your goodness! You are an amazing God!