I have been blessed with steadfastness. My family calls it stubbornness, willfulness, self-absorption. I get that, I am humbled by my manifold human failings. I also know that when I meet trials of various kinds, my faith saves me.

James 1:2-4 - 

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:2-4 Bible Gateway link

When we want things that seem impossible, we are filled with resentment and self-pity. We close the door and just get angrier and angrier that others have something denied to us. We get to choose; anger or love, impossible or possible, resentment or acceptance. God will do what he does, you can be on his side or not. Personally I choose God, I am home, I am barren AND a joyous mother.

The Lord is high above all nations, 

  and his glory above the heavens! 

Who is like the Lord our God, 

  who is seated on high, 

who looks far down

  on the heavens and the earth? 

He raises the poor from the dust 

  and lifts the needy from the ash heap, 

to make them sit with princes, 

  with the princes of his people. 

He gives the barren woman a home, 

  making her the joyous mother of children. 

Praise the Lord!

Psalm 113:4-9 -Bible Gateway link: Psalm 113:4-9

I grew up in an old growth forest on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. I love trees. I wrote poems about trees. This verse from Ezekiel is a foreshadowing of Christ and it is a reminder that God is in charge. I love the idea of being a tiny flitting bird nesting with my family in Christ’s shade.

Ezekiel 17:22-24 -

Thus says the Lord God: “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest. And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord ; I have spoken, and I will do it.”

Bible Gateway link: Ezekiel 17:22-24

In the past when I heard Bible readings in church, the words would alight and then fly away. Now in my continuing study of the Holy Bible, I try to digest God’s word, really metabolize it into my being. I am more humble now. I am wiser. Nothing has ever nourished me more or kept me healthier.

 Ezekiel 3:2-3

So I opened my mouth, and he (God) gave me this scroll to eat. And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.

Bible Gateway link: Ezekiel 3:2-3 (ESV)

This is a vital New Testament verse for me. Sobriety first, but resisting the devil is KEY. He is a coward. When you face him down, he will flee. Plus the promise comes true: suffering (“a little while,”) restoration, confirmation, strength and establishment. To all: the devil is prowling, be watchful.

1 Peter 5:8-10

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

Bible Gateway link: 1 Peter 5:8-10

I once gave up, or tried to give up gossip for lent. I was stung by how often I found myself gossiping. I also noticed how demoralized it made me feel, “down into the inner parts of the body.” God helps me stay away from gossip. He also helps me to pass on this universal wisdom.

 

The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; 

they go down into the inner parts of the body.

Proverbs 26:22 - Bible Gateway link

There is so much talk. Talk, talk, talk. Does anyone actually do anything? Jesus says the word and it is done. He heals us. He saves us. We rejoice at “all the glorious things that were done by him.”

 Luke 13:10-17 - Gospel lesson 10-25

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.”

And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

Luke 13:10-17