Psalm 59:8-11

Key Largo, Florida, July 2013

Awake, my soul!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn.
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens;
your faithfulness extends to the clouds.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
Let your glory be over all the earth.
Psalm 59:8-11

Our challenge, sometimes, is to rise with thankful hearts and give thanks for a day we know will bring trials; to rejoice in God despite our pain.  There have been days, I am sure, when I have failed to choke back exasperation and bitter lament. Our God can handle that, too.

MATTHEW 18:14

Sunset, Key Largo, Florida, July 2013

So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.
Matthew 18:14

God entrusts the future generations into our welcoming hands.
How have you welcomed a child as a brother or sister in Christ, today?

Isaiah 44:21-22

Key Largo, Florida July 2013

Remember these things, O Jacob,
and Israel, for you are my servant;
I formed you, you are my servant;
O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.
I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud,
and your sins like mist
return to me, for I have redeemed you.
Isaiah 44:21-22

The Lord has forgiven, but have we let go, in our own minds, the sins that cling to us and wound our soul? 

Luke 11:33

Florida International University Nature Preserve, June 2013

No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar, but on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light.

Luke 11:33

How is the light of Christ shining in and through you for the sake of others?

Philippians 2

Greynolds Park, North Miami, July 2013

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:1-4

How will you spend your time today? Is there room for looking after the interests of others and in doing so to bless the Lord and bring his joy to completeness? 

From Psalm 43

Greynolds Park, North Miami, July 2013

Do not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
Psalm 43:18-19

It is so easy to allow our own history trap us into a distorted reality of what can be. Our God is the God who makes all things new. Who unfreezes the paralysis brought on by our past mistakes. Whose grace sets us free to live, to truly live. To walk forward without fear.

Fern Forest Nature Center, Coconut Creek, FL June 2013 

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
Psalm 23:1-3a

How is the Lord inviting you to find peace and a time for care of your soul this summer? And will you listen and tend to that which is of utmost importance?