Tag Archives: God’s love

Psalms 32:10-11 Surrounded by Love

by in Inspirational and tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
psalms 32:10

“Many sorrows come to the wicked, but unfailing love surrounds those who trust the Lord. So rejoice in the Lord and be glad, all you who obey him! Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure!” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭32:10-11‬ ‭NLT

What a wonderful reminder in scriptures, that God’s love, which NEVER fails, surrounds those who trust Him. Sorrow may follow those who do evil, but as we trust in the Lord, He surrounds with steadfast love. Trusting in God is built by relationship. The more we consistently come to Him, He is able to prove His faithfulness again and again. We can trust even if we don’t have all the answers because we know that God is there watching over us as He reminds us is vs 9.

As Proverbs 3:5-6 exhorts, we should trust in the Lord with all of our heart and don’t lean to your own understanding or wisdom( which many times is limited & can’t see the big picture. As we acknowledge God is all of our plans, ways, thoughts, He will direct us. That is a promise!

We can and should rejoice in this knowledge that God has our back! That as we follow Him, He surrounds us with love, His perfect love that casts out all fear, all anxiety. As we rejoice, we become stronger in Him because the joy of the Lord is our Strength!

During this week, as we remember all that Jesus endured so that we may have this vibrant, victorious relationship with Him on this earth and eternally, may your joy overflow and permeate all that you do. May that joy strengthen you, even as it did when Paul and Silas praised the Lord in their chains, breaking the hold of those chains on them and everyone else in that prison! We are surrounded by God’s unfailing love which is always with us! That is Good News!

Things That Matter: People Matter

by in Inspirational and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

ppl-matter

People matter.   I was talking with my sister recently about an important issue, and I said to her glibly, “I guess I should be talking to the folks that matter.”  Upon its utterance, I immediately corrected myself saying, “Well, everybody matters! To me, anyway.”  And just then, like Morgan Freeman’s character in “Bruce Almighty”, a man walked by and said with a beautiful big smile, “That’s right! Everybody matters!” He didn’t slow down, but pointed and kept smiling at me in approval.  People matter.

People matter.  Today, we find ourselves categorizing, stratifying, slicing and dicing folks into statistics and numbers, by ability, aptitude,  or mere words:  the 1%, the 99%, the talented 10th, low-mod-mid-high income, race, ethnicity, disabled, urban, suburban, at risk, wealthy, blue-blood, blue collar, white collar, illegals, conservative, liberal, C-Suite, earners, takers and on and on and on. Many corporations/governments/communities  take it a step further and make decisions on allowable percentage of “casualties.”  This language deliberately erases the faces of REAL MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN,  so that they are dehumanized and marginalized – therefore worthy of less treatment, less resources, less of everything;  even life itself.  Consider that the terms abortion and capital punishment sanitize the killing of human beings.   People matter.

People matter.  We matter because we are divinely created by the hand of God.  Psalms 139 tells us how intimately acquainted God is with everything about us, but in verse 14 it says:   “I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well”.   God’s invitation of relationship is extended to ALL of us – not just some.  He gives to EACH of us freely, as we are willing to receive.  We see His great love for us, when He gave everything He had through His son Jesus, so that we have restored and completely reconciled relationship with Him. People matter to God.  People matter.

People matter to me also because I saw that people mattered to my parents.  They extended themselves inconveniently many times to take care of a need, be a listening ear, a hand to hold, give counsel when needed.  People matter.

People matter. Resist the temptation to refer to PEOPLE as a number, statistic, a category, a group, an issue, a label, and instead,  put a fearfully and wonderfully made face on it and remember that EVERYBODY MATTERS.