A New Heart

"Jesus calls us; o'er the tumult
Of our life's wild, restless sea,
Day by day His sweet voice soundeth,
Saying, 'Christian, follow Me.'"

 --from the hymn by Cecil Alexander, 1852

When you find yourself in an unexpected season, how do you react? I have found myself taking up both hardness and surrender, with a heart that has revealed my own tendencies to waffle back and forth.

But God has no intentions of letting my waffling change His Plans. He is forever working to bring about GOOD.


When this week's prompt showed up at Ronovan Hester's site, Ronovan Writes, 
for his #Haiku #Poetry challenge,
with the words "Shell & Coast,"
I was set to find pretty lakeside images
with dreamy vacation thoughts.


Oh, but how can I not listen to my heart when it is being stirred
with the truth of where I am actually walking? 

 

 

 

 

A New Heart

Break this hard heart shell

When I want only to coast

Thru life, Lord, move me.

 

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekial 36:26



In these days where my physical condition of waffling between pain and rest
mirrors the way of my heart,
I hear a VOICE beckoning to me,
calling me.


Come, follow Me,
and I will remove your stony heart
and give you a tender heart of flesh
with a single minded will
to pursue the way of love.



Whatever the place where we find ourselves,
be it planned or unplanned, 
there is a way to choose
LOVE
within the day,
within the moment.

There is always
SOMEWAY
that our lives can speak of Love.
There is always
SOMEONE
to be blessed by a tender heart
and a tender word.



I am thankful for these online communities that prompt my heart in ways both surprising and convicting. Take a risk and give it a try for yourself! You may just find an inner poet lurking within your heart as well.

Great sites to link with this week:

#RonovanWrites 

#Glimpsesofhisbeauty 
#TeaAndWordTuesday 

 
 
 





 

Deep Unto Deep

We were drenched with rain this weekend, after a long dry spell. And my heart answered the call of those raindrops when a writing prompt was given by Jamie Wright Bagley over at her blog last week. 

 Click here,

to find her own words and the question, 

"What do you do when the rain calls you?" 

Splashing, sputtering, swishing,
The rain washes everything in sight
Including me!
I come
The drops wash over my soul
Splashing, sputtering, surrendering.

--BG

 

 

But when the sun broke through, the call to surrender

continued. Here in this place of stillness and slow,

my heart is looking up, longing to find HIS beautiful

freedom.

And after a long break, I found Haiku words again for the poetry challenge given by Ronovan Hester here,

at his site, where the prompts this week were "Darkness&Deep." 

Deep Unto Deep

Out of the darkness

comes a cry, deep unto deep

Light answers, flows free. 

--BG

 "Deep calls to deep
    in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
    have swept over me.

By day the Lord directs his love,
    at night his song is with me—
    a prayer to the God of my life."

Psalm 42:7-8 NIV 

There will come a day when darkness 
will no longer hold sway
over our hearts.

The gray of the rain 
will be washed
to brightest blue.

The pain of this world
will be measured pure
with healing for all
who wait for Jesus
to bring us Home.

So color my days here now
with hope for the journey
surrendered
and
free
Looking above.  

And here is the announcement I promised last week! The winner of Susan Chamberlain Shipe's latest book, 52 Commands of Jesus for Children is my instagram follower: ggmullins2016!

I will be in touch with you to get your mailing address, and Susan will ship your book to you! Congratulations!! 

(I used the service at Random.org to generate the results.) 

 

The book is available
 on Amazon here
for anyone who
would like a great 
resource for
Family Devotions! 


And click here
for Susan's own website,
where she offers more coloring
pages for you to download.

I am linking this week with these great bloggers:
Meg Weyerbacher, #TeaAndWordTuesday 
Barbie Swihart, #Glimpsesofhisbeauty 
Debbie Kitterman, #TuneInThursday