Laced With Grace

I hope you don’t mind that I am reposting an “old” devotion this morning.  It has been a crazy week and I am “empty”.  I thought of this devotion, realizing that I have been pouring myself into lots of other cups, but not taking the time to allow God to fill and REFILL me!  So, fill me up, Lord!  I pray you, too will be blessed today…..

“My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will never be shaken…Find rest in God alone; my hope comes from Him. He alone is my fortress, I will not be shaken.” Psalm 62:1-2, 5-6

Wow! When I read this passage, these verses gave me goose bumps. Oh, how they spoke to my heart. “Oh, yes, Lord!” I thought. “You are my rock. I do find rest in You alone! I will never be shaken!”

And I immediately heard, “Uh huh. Hmmmmmmm. Do you really find rest in me ALONE??? Do you really depend upon Me? On ME ALONE? Am I really your fortress, Tracy?

OUCH. If I were to be honest, then, no, I had not been seeking my rest, my hope, my needs in God, and certainly not Him ALONE.

Then, God showed me a water pitcher in my mind with 6 empty cups sitting in front of it. He showed me how He fills me- the water pitcher with clean, fresh, life-giving water each morning WHEN I seek Him in prayer and bible reading. I am filled with “streams of living water.” (John 7:37-39) My heart is full of Him, my pitcher is full. I am able then to pour out this “water” and fill up the cups in my life. The 6 cups in front of me are my husband and 5 children. But, we also fill many other cups~ work, volunteering, friendships, work relationships….to name a few.

Now, God showed me that there are tiny holes in the bottom of the cups and the water leaks out of them (showing me that these people can NOT depend upon me to fill THEM). My “water” will never sustain them!  God had laid upon my heart was that I was trying to get my water BACK from those cups. I was looking to my husband, to my kids (or work, friendships, relationships…) to FILL ME BACK UP.

But, because there are holes in the cups, I will never be filled with that recycled water. When you try to fill the pitcher up with the cups, there isn’t enough water~ it has run out. Looking to these outside sources will never fill me up- I have to look to God alone for this rest, this hope, this salvation. If I don’t want to be shaken, then I need to trust in God alone.

I had been expecting Brian, my husband, to fill up my water pitcher, and honestly, he was NOT getting it full! God showed me that Brian never can. No earthly relationship can. Only God can.

Psalm 62 also says, “Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge.” (Verse

Lord , may I always pour out my heart to You, drinking in the refreshment and the rest only You can offer. Help me to remember that people and things can never fill me up. Only You can do that. And, that only happens when I pour out my heart to You. In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.

Many blessing to you today and may you be FILLED with streams of living water.

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“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds (a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy), yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”  Ecclesiastes 3:11 (Amplified Bible)

From the moment of birth we’re craving.
Love.
Food.
Acceptance.
Comfort.
Understanding.
Knowledge.

Why is it so hard for mankind to acknowledge this stirring of the heart, mind and soul as being divinely implanted deep within each of us at conception, that we might seek Him, the One who created us?

He gives us glimpses of Himself everywhere, and yet we do not see Him.

And so we crave all the more. Consuming all that He’s given, and yet we fail to see Him, the One we actually crave.

We fail to say thanks because we don’t stop to see how intricately  everything is connected by the One who holds all things together. (Colossians 1:16,17)

All we touch, all we see, all we hear, all we hold dear, all that surrounds us, all we’ve been given, all we stand in awe and wonder of is actually His presence.  His wooing us to Himself.

Recently I stand awestruck looking down at a tiny creature crossing the dirt road I was walking,  I’d never seen anything like it. It looked like a red tick. (I later learned it’s a red velvet mite.)  I captured a picture of it, thanked God for allowing me to see something of His creation I’d never seen before, and then I found myself craving more. Like a child with an “I Spy” book, my eyes keep searching, yearning, craving for more.

But more what?

More creation?  More victories?  More gifts to record?

No, it’s that implanted desire for God, that I might seek Him in all my cravings.

Each gift He gives is so I will crave Him more and be satisfied only in the giving of thanks to Him in all things.

He speaks to my cravings.

Be sensitive today to My presence in the world around you.
Let My Spirit awaken your senses to the sublime, to all natural beauty.
Smell the flowers along the way with deeper joy, watch the scurrying of a bug with greater amusement, feel the wind upon your face as a friend.
Put your hands on the earth; feel its pulse. Loving My world is a form of humility because you must put your inner conflicts aside to communicate with life outside yourself.
Can you appreciate the sunlight streaking across a wall?
Can you see skilled art in rivers of rain marking a dusty, pollen filled window?
If your heart is over-powered with the drumbeat of worry, you will miss the anthem of a sunset.
You’ll miss My sigh of love for you.

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.
He will receive blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah
(Psalm 24:3-6 ESV)

Every night I lift my little 3lb weights to keep my arms in shape. The other night as I was facing the window in our bedroom, I noticed little white flakes on the curtains. After close examination I realized that the ‘flakes’ were actually dust (yikes!!!). I told myself that I would get the curtains down on Saturday; and I so did. Little did I know that not only the bedroom needed cleaning, but also my heart.

After I pulled off the curtains to throw in the wash machine, I noticed a lot more dust. So out came my little duster to go over the door-frames, the walls and every nook and cranny that I noticed needed cleaning. Although I dust on a regular basis, I don’t do a deep clean as I did on Saturday. I even pulled all my stuffed animals from the dresser to throw in the wash so that no dust would be left in the room.

As I was moving around the room on my hands and knees, I started to think about how we too let things (grudge/emotional pain/unforgivingness) get in every nook and cranny of our heart and soul. But once the Light shines on us, we notice how yucky we really are. We show little white and gray flakes that are not very attractive in the Light.

To tell you the truth, I was humbled by my white and gray flakes. I had some unforgivingness and emotional pain settled in my heart that I had buried deep down and didn’t want to confront.

Sometimes it takes a little house-cleaning to get to the heart of emotional pain. As I was getting the dust out of every corner in the bedroom, so did God get to the bottom of my heart. It was all-in-all a wonderful cleaning; a clean room and a clean heart before God. How about you? Do you need a deep cleaning from God?

Lord of Heaven and Earth. Thank You for the time You spent with me on Saturday morning getting into every nook and cranny of my heart. Lord, I needed the deep cleaning You performed on my heart as much as our bedroom needed to have the dust removed. Your love is amazing and gives peace to my heart. In the precious name of Jesus ~ Amen.

Photo & Content Copyright © Iris Nelson