I write down short thoughts from time to time, as they coalesce from what I’ve read or heard in a talk, or from insight about what I’m experiencing. You might do this, too. Here are a few of those I’ve had recently, which aren’t long enough to turn into a post on their own, but offer some observations to consider.
(If you have any to share, please do so, in the comments)
I want God to change my circumstances; He wants to change me. He wants to change how I look at what’s happening – how I feel about it and respond to it.
To see others as God sees them is to see the light in them – their potential, for beauty, goodness, and wholeness. It is to have compassion for them, to accord them mercy and forgiveness, and to desire their progression and fulfillment (of destiny).
‘All things denote there is a God’. The world – the universe – tells me that:
- there is a God
- He loves us
- my power of and desire towards creativity comes from Him
Creation – the earth, etc. – gives us hope. Beauty exists because God placed it there, and prepared and ordered it. It’s not strictly necessary for our physical existence; it is there because it’s good – beautiful. Because it inspires, uplifts, and comforts our spirits. It’s ‘proof’ of God.
There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion,’ said Holmes, leaning with his back against the shutters… ‘Our highest assurance of the goodness of [God] seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.
Arthur Conan Doyle, quoted by Ben Wilcox in his lesson/study helps for Genesis 1-2, Moses 2-3 & Abraham 4-5
Like the ‘brother of Jared’ had faith that the Lord could take the plain stones he offered, touch them with His power, and turn them into lights to guide their journey, I need to have this same sort of faith: that God can take me, who am like plain rock in comparison to the wonder and beauty of an exalted soul, or Him, and touch my soul so that I become filled with light and beauty; transformed by His power.
Peaceable Treasures 