Days. Our lives are lived out in days. No day is the same. One friend has a calendar where she writes one word to describe each day of her life as she journeys through the hours and minutes — joy, victory, challenge, trust, loss, big, busy, peace. And you know how it is. Sometimes clouds move into the landscape of our days. We see them coming. And the clouds make trusting God a challenge because clouds sometimes obscure truth, the reality of the Lord in our situation.

And when it gets really dark, we can be tempted to let go of hope and sink in despair. Paul said, “Therefore we do not lose heart.” And he goes on to explain why: “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17). There is purpose in our days. John Oxenham says, “The thread we see, but the pattern is known to the Master-weaver alone.”

In the dark days, how can you find the light from the Lord? When Moses blessed the people of Israel he gave them a promise from God in Deuteronomy 33:25, “Your strength will equal your days.” God promises to meet you in your dark days and provide everything you need. Run to His promises in His Word and find one you can live in that is equal to your circumstance. Here are some that I love:

After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you (1 Peter 5:10).

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand (Isaiah 41:10).

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13).

The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22-23).

Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5).

There is a day when the clouds recede and sunlight breaks through the darkness. And you realize that the sun was shining behind the clouds even in the darkness. So it is with the powerful presence of the Lord. He promises, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). Because of His presence in your life, you can say with the psalmist, “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).

So how are your days these days? Are there some clouds or is the sky clear and bright? Open God’s Word today and grab some of those precious promises. You will discover that “as your days so shall your strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25). And you will find great joy in knowing, by faith, that the Lord is accomplishing an unbelievable work in your days (Acts 13:41). May you experience His power and grace in increasing measure as you live out your days.

Blessings and Grace to you,

Focus. We all need focus to see the important and block out the unnecessary in life. Focus helps us sift priorities and affections and achieve our goals. The ability to focus is a learned essential in running our race and doesn’t always come so easily. Distractions may keep us on the sidelines for years until we realize how to concentrate on the one thing. Focusing on the one thing brings out its details and beauty and renders the unimportant powerless to deter us from our goals.

Focusing in on one area means other areas are necessarily out of focus. In photography the term bokeh refers to the aesthetic quality of the blur. Shallow depth of field renders the background into a blur so that the main subject is the highlight of the photo, as in this statue of Francis of Assisi. Notice the face is central to the gaze, and the background fades into a blur of colors.

The writer of Hebrews said:

Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lost heart. Hebrews 12:1-3

We need to learn this gift of fixing our eyes on the one thing — Jesus — and blurring everything else out.

Paul encouraged this focus when he said, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Focusing on the eternal brings out amazing details. Like the water pouring down this fountain, so His living water will flow in and through you as you focus on the eternal, and watch the temporal blur into the background.

May your focus be clear and concentrated on Jesus today. And may you experience His joy, love, and peace in increasing measure as you draw near to Him.

Blessings and Grace to you,

Growth. It’s beautiful to watch and even more astounding to experience. A miraculous process where one thing becomes quite another. A seed grows into a flowering verdant plant. But growth doesn’t just happen. It requires care, planning, and a lot of hard work. You can see this intention and purpose in the vines in a vineyard. The ground is tilled and each vine individually tended. And as the vines grow, the vineyard becomes a vibrant green landscape as the leaves reach towards the sky. Jesus likened our relationship to Him as a vine and branches. He said, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

Andrew Murray shares the following about the vine and the branches:

The branch does not exist for itself, but to bear fruit that can proclaim the excellence of the vine: it has no reason of existence except to be of service to the vine. Glorious image of the calling of the believer, and the entireness of his consecration to the service of his Lord. As Jesus gives Himself so wholly over to him, he feels himself urged to be wholly his Lord’s. Every power of his being, every moment of his life, every thought and feeling, belong to Jesus, that from Him and for Him he may bring forth fruit. As he realizes what the vine is to the branch, and what the branch is meant to be to the vine, he feels that he has but one thing to think of and to live for, and that is, the will, the glory, the work, the kingdom of his blessed Lord — the bringing forth of fruit to the glory of His name.

The parable teaches us the object of the union. The branches are for fruit and fruit alone. “Every branch that beareth not fruit He taketh away.” The branch needs leaves for the maintenance of its own life, and the perfection of its fruit: the fruit itself it bears to give away to those around. As the believer enters into his calling as a branch, he sees that he has to forget himself, and to live entirely for his fellowmen. To love them, to seek for them, and to save them, Jesus came: for this every branch on the Vine has to live as much as the Vine itself. It is for fruit, much fruit, that the Father has made us one with Jesus.

Look across a well-tended vineyard and, as far as the eye can see, those vines are growing and on their way to producing fruit.

So how can we grow? Abide in Jesus, the Vine.

So here’s the question. Am I growing? Am I abiding in Jesus?

And someday soon, as you draw near to your Lord, and abide in Him, your life will produce fruit that will amaze even you and bring great glory to God.

“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples” (John 15:8).

May the Lord encourage your heart today to continue growing in the grace and knowledge of Him (2 Peter 3:18). And may you draw upon Jesus, your source of everything you need for every circumstance of life. And may you bear amazing fruit for God and His glory!

Blessings and Grace to you,

How can you say goodbye to a place that has meant so very much to you? Spectacular views compel you to stop for an hour just to take in every detail. Spectacular views make leaving a challenge. Some things in life touch a part of your soul so deeply that you want to hold on forever so you never lose the experience. So how do you let go? Relinquishing anything held dear rarely comes easily in our life’s journey. Paul shows us the way. Paul had to let go again and again as he was called to build up the church and share the gospel with others. And here is what Paul discovered — the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord. He said in Philippians 3:7-8:

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.

Relinquish — the word means to surrender, let go, release. Counting all things as loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ. Don’t be afraid of letting go. You might even think of your surrender as a kind of departure in life’s journey. Letting go means leaving something — and it may be something very simple like a possession. Amazing how sometimes the little things are most difficult to relinquish. Remember this — departures, those things you’re called to relinquish and count as loss, lead to a new place of adventure with Jesus.

Say yes to the adventure. Allow anticipation to build in your heart as Jesus leads you. He knows the road. And those who walk with God always get to their destination.

If you are willing to relinquish, you will have precious memories of cherished experiences, and surprising joy just around the corner.

“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

May the Lord encourage your heart today to find real life and joy in knowing Jesus. And may He turn every loss, every surrender into a deeper walk with Him.

Blessings and Grace to you,

He wakes up early to get on the road. Hours of driving still ahead. More of the same tomorrow. He drives a mammoth truck, huge white cab and long flatbed trailer. Strong winds and pelting rain make the driving even more intense. Fog lifts and just a glimmer of light appears in the sky as he takes the turn towards the desert. Amazing how quickly the adverse weather can change. He has seen it like this before.

And there it is! To his left. From one mountain to another. Through the clouds. And the storm. A rainbow!

Rainbows only come with clouds and rain.

Raindrops acts as tiny prisms for light. Light enters the raindrops, reflect off the side of the drop, then exit. The light then becomes a spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. A rainbow. In the midst of the mundane. The storms. The rain. A reminder that God is here and He is not silent. He can break up the mundane with a panorama of color. And even give a promise of His covenant (Genesis 9:8-17).

God is Light and in Him there is no darkness (1 John 1:5). He is shining even in the midst of the darkest storm. The rainbow reminds us that He still rules. He still calms the turbulent waves. And commands the night. And brings meaning to every life.

Look for the rainbow in your storm. Remember it can come when light shines through drops of water. When your tears are falling hard, turn hard to the Lord, and His light shining will bring the rainbow in your life. For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). Weeping may last for the night, but joy really does come in the morning (Psalm 30:5).

Blessings and Grace to you,