Is that why joy hurts – God stretching us open to receive more of Himself?
There is unwavering peace today when an uncertain tomorrow is trusted to an unchanging God.
As long as thanks is possible, then joy is always possible.
Like the wind, Grace finds us wherever we are and won’t leave us however we were found.
It’s habits that can imprison you and it’s habits that can free you. But when thanks to God becomes a habit – so joy in God becomes your life.
The brave who focus on all things good and all things beautiful and all things true, even in the small, who give thanks for it and discover joy even in the here and now, they are the change agents who bring fullest light to all the world.
Busy is a choice. Stress is a choice. Joy is a choice. Choose well.
We only enter into the full life if our faith gives thanks. Because how else do we accept His free gift of salvation if not with thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is the evidence of our acceptance of whatever He gives. Thanksgiving is the manifestation of our Yes! to His grace.
Joy and pain, they are but two arteries of the one heart that pumps through all those who don’t numb themselves to really living.
The moment when you are most repelled by a child’s behavior, that is your warning light to draw the very closest to that child.
Your naked body deserves the honor of being shared only with someone who is covenanted to never stop loving your naked soul.
God’s purposes are not for me to understand His plans: His plan is for me to understand Who He is.
You can give up the need to compete in the world- when you accept being complete in Christ.
The prayers we weave into the matching of socks, the stirring of oatmeal, the reading of stories, they survive fire.
Who would ever know the greater graces of comfort and perserverance, mercy and forgiveness, patience and courage, if no shadows fell over a life?
Real joy is not found in having the best of everything but in trusting that God is making the best of everything.
Satan prowls but he’s a lion on a leash.
Joy is the realest reality, the fullest life, and joy is always given, never grasped. God gives gifts and I give thanks and I unwrap the gift given: joy.
We were made to live in a posture of grateful worship, and when we live in praise we live our purpose, and all the pieces fall in place, us all falling down in thanks.
I don’t want a Christmas you can buy. I don’t want a Christmas you can make. What I want is a Christmas you can hold. A Christmas that holds me, remakes me, revives me. I want a Christmas that whispers, Jesus.