Sometimes life's struggles can steal the peace and joy of the Lord from
our hearts so quickly, can't they? Even in the midst of all the blessings, we can
become so focused on the struggles that we lose sight of the Lord!
That happened to me recently and God had to get my attention and remind
me, once again, to be thankful in the midst of hard times!
He started bringing songs to my mind...
and there's just something about singing out our praise and thanksgiving to
the Lord that brings a peace and a joy to our hearts and reminds us that He
truly is big enough to handle whatever concerns us! And... when we are
trusting Him... our hearts ARE happy, aren't they? Do I hear an amen?
So what, you may wonder, has been stealing my joy? The biggest thing has
been my sweet husband's health. He was really sick for over a week which...
leaving out all the details has resulted in him having to go in for surgery
either this coming week or the week following. It's not life-threatening at
the moment but will become so if untreated.
Thankfully we have insurance, but with him being self-employed, his not being
able to work for several weeks was also stealing the joy from my heart!
But... since God got my attention...
I've been singing an old chorus... "Jehovah Jireh, my Provider...
His grace is sufficient for me... for me... for me.
Jehovah Jireh, my Provider... His grace is sufficient for me!"
And it is... for me... and for you too... no matter what you''re facing!
I've also been putting off tellling you that the book proposal I mentioned a
couple of weeks ago was rejected. I wasn't totally surprised but I was
disappointed and knew many of you would be too. I am believing it is the
Lord and confident that if He wants it published it will happen in His time.
I have been painting up a storm though... and having some serious FUN doing
it! And as you can tell by this new owl painting... HOPE is a constant theme
throughout my art. Hmmm... I wonder why? Can you imagine what living in
this world without hope in Christ would be like? Actually, I still have memories
of those days... and it's not fun... no... not fun at all.
So though we go through various trials and tribulations...
because we are in Christ... we can count it all joy...
as long as our confidence is in Him and not in ourselves or in the world.
( from James 1:1)
So together, let's keep singing and making music to the Lord...
and let hope make our hearts happy!
xoxo
Karla
