With God’s help, we can cultivate our thoughts, pulling up weeds and planting the fertile soil of His Word.
From Colossians 2:6-7: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
David Jeremiah (born 1941) is an American pastor and Christian author.
From 2 Peter 1:5-7: “For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love.”
Our Father’s goodness
Glory, God and King
Bless and praise His name
Mighty greatness sings
Through generations
Honor His great deeds
Infinite wisdom
God’s faithful Word leads
Glorious splendor
Kingdom never ends
Eternal, Holy
Wondrous works, God sends
From Psalm 145:8-9: The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and His compassion is over all that He has made.”
His greatness declares
Lord everlasting
Praising righteousness
Mercies broadcasting
Cries, our Father hears
From darkness, redeemed
He stands, always near
God’s goodness, esteemed
Truth, call upon God
Grace, freely given
Love, witness a Cross
Sins, now forgiven
From the words of American pastor and Christian author, Charles Swindoll: “There are four words I wish we would never forget, and they are ‘God keeps His word.'”
From Psalm 16:1-2: “Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.'”
Facing uncertainty
More questions than actions
Reaching out to Father
Love’s trusted interactions
Harboring inner doubts
Weakened by rising tides
Praying now to Father
Mercy brings answers to guide
Choosing to always trust
Assurance speaks to heart
Listening to Father
Grace nourishing faith’s fresh start
Tasting heavenly joy
Life’s outlook now renewed
Receiving from Father
Page turned, filled with gratitude
Rejoicing in hope’s light
Righteous path before thee
Conversing with Father
His peace calms as darkness flees
From Psalm 16:11: “You show me the path of life. In Your presence there is fullness of joy; in Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
From Ephesians 4:31-32: “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”
Life’s battered bucket sometimes overflows
Facing daily challenges, too immense
One challenge standing apart from the rest
Using forgiveness seems much too intense
Our righteous Father teaches forgiveness
Extending His mercy through earnest hearts
Breathe every truth in its entirety
Receiving His grace with humble hearts
Take in God’s Word, His Holy Commandments
Burying bitterness, it lifts the heart
Always best to forgive, forget, move on
Beating with freedom’s light, opens the heart
As humans, reacting much too quickly
Expressing heated anger, fixing blame
Slow to forgive, even more to forget
Stepping now with humbleness, drowns the flames
No longer in the enemy’s darkness
Praying the sun does not set on one’s rage
With our Lord’s truth, filling with righteousness
Following God’s way, life writes a new page
From the words of American pastor and Christian author, Jim Cymbala: “Looking back over my life, all I can see is mercy and grace written in large letters everywhere. May God help me have the same kind of heart toward those who wound or offend me.”
Originally published July, 2020.
From Psalm 5:11-12: “But let all who take refuge in You rejoice; let them ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them, so that those who love Your name may exult in You. For You bless the righteous, O Lord; You cover them with favor as with a shield.”
Spirit infuses Scripture with God’s joy
Rejoice in His masterpiece of each day
Nourished with grace, forwarded to enjoy
Always Holy, shall be His fruitful ways
From heart’s depths, God composes grace with joy
Righteousness forever breathes from above
Mercy descends in Savior He deploys
Forgiveness rebuilds empty faith through love
God’s blessings harvest His fullness of joy
Truth’s timely interactions, never gray
Promises of faithfulness He employs
Gateway of grace received, let all now pray
Salvation’s light transforms darkness of sin
Joy praises covenant of faith’s linchpin
From Psalm 16:11: “You show me the path of life. In Your presence there is fullness of joy; in Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
What we need is faith. For faith is not a tame and spineless thing that does nothing. Real faith dares something, something big and brawny, beyond the human.
From Proverbs 28:1: “The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.”
Clovis G. Chappell (1882-1972) was an American pastor and Christian author.
God does not give us everything we want, but He does fulfill His promises, leading us along the best and straightest paths to Himself.
From Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.“
German-born Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a Lutheran pastor, theologian, and anti-Nazi dissident. Many of his writings express the role of Christianity in mankind’s daily lives. He paid the ultimate price for his activism against the Nazi regime during World War II.
Exercising
Faith’s outreach
Building every muscle
Serving God with obedience
Strengthened
Nourishing
Faith’s journey
Reading God’s Word
Believing in His promises
Empowered
Expanding
Faith’s outlook
Accepting God’s grace
Making straighter life’s path
Trusted
This series of poems (written in the German-inspired style of Elfchen or Elevenie) shares a total of eleven words in each poem, with a sequence by line of one, two, three, four, and one words.
From 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12: “To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of His call and will fulfill by His power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Holy shall be Father’s name
His grace praises morning sky
Walking life’s highway with Him
Prayer becomes faith’s reply
Righteousness fills Father’s Word
Fortified with fruitful grace
Embracing mercy’s outreach
Faith follows heavenly pace
Grace bears truth from Father’s light
Savior rises just as planned
Washing away sin’s darkness
Faith’s cornerstone henceforth stands
Love expressed in Father’s faith
Grace bequeathed in His Son’s name
Kneeling at Calvary’s cross
Forgiveness erases shame
Faith cherishes Father’s grace
Love fills hearts of every saint
Bringing glory in His name
Forever bright, never faint
From 2 Timothy 2:19: “But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this inscription: ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Let everyone who calls on the name of the Lord turn away from wickedness.'”
From Psalm 138:7: “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You preserve me against the wrath of my enemies; You stretch out Your hand, and Your right hand delivers me.”
Facing great troubles
Darkness surrounds thee
Grasping faith’s mighty Rock
Through Christ’s grace, one sees
Delivering light
Victory at hand
Watching enemy flee
Forever Christ stands
Fulfilling purpose
Gentle voice shares love
Lasting promise of peace
Christ views from above
Rising with new life
Fed with living bread
Preserving lasting hope
From Christ’s blood, He shed
Praising His Father
Mighty are His deeds
Sharing joy from His heart
Christ’s righteousness leads
From Psalm 138:8: “The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; Your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of Your hands.”
Big Sky Buckeye 