5 Minute Friday : Grateful

My soul sighed when I saw this word.
I have lived in such fear and worry. Wondering how it will all work out.... and staying blind to things that already have. No more does God come through on a need, than it has been swallowed up in some new worry.
Always something else that could go wrong.
But I need to just stop.
Stop.
Stand still.
Cease striving and know that I am God.
I caught my breath when I first read this version.
It added another dimension, another layer to the already arresting words, Be Still.
Cease striving.
Stop carrying on with all my worry! Stop striving to make it all work out.
Who's on the throne anyway? Did God abdicate when no one was looking?
Do I believe Him or No?
Am I willing to put my trust in Him and say thank you?
Say thank you that I still have food in my mouth, a roof over my head, a job for a Christian boss, many, many friends, family...thriving, soul feeding churches in walking distance.
All my needs met God.
Every. Last. One.
In all things, Giving thanks to the One who has keep of our souls.

Just Be Held...

Just be held by the One who calls you by name.
Just be held by the One who loves you wholly.
Just. Be. Held.
Stop striving and trying.
Its all in His hands.
Hands that are big enough and strong enough to hold you!

I Deeply needed this reminder this week.
 This was the third song to play when I started the music at work.
It set in a way, the tone for my day.
I so often come back to skeptically asking God if He really can be trusted. I mean, really.
I've been failed so many times before, God.
Yet He Will prove Himself Faithful.
Over and over. Slowly drawing on my heart. That constant, quiet reassurance that He's going to be there no matter what.

Five Minute Friday - Mess

oh, I used to be scared of you.
scared of how chaotic you were, how crazy you could tip my world.
Just the fact that you showed up in the dirtiest, unrefined way.
You didn't like to be controlled, you always escaped in some other shocking way. Just when I thought I had everything tidy again.
you were raw.
volatile sometimes.
emotions spilling everywhere and the reality of who I really was, was on display.
I thought Mess meant the absence of Beauty.
the absence of Good.
even, the absence of GOD.
it just ain't so.
HE's the only one I know, who could look at a mess and call her beautiful.
Only one who could look beyond the hurt and pain and see the desparate beating heart.
The One Who can see a Daughter becoming.