Blessed to See Another Sunday Morning

How awesome our God is, and I am grateful to be able to tell anyone who will listen about His lovingkindness, justice, and His righteousness. Earth, wind, water, and fire are the elements of my world, and He controls them! Yet, He, in all of His meticulous care, has had the number of hairs on my head numbered. In all of His great power, He has taken the time to care for me as a momma does for her children. He has actually counted the number of hairs on my head, counted then, y'all! That tells me that if He went to that length to know all about me, He cares and He has made a long-term investment in me. That means that He is in control and is going noplace. He loves me and will not abandon me. What an assurance. What a God!  What a mighty God we serve! These are the things that I had listed on yesterday's blog to be covered today on the topic of being grateful:

1. The earth – He moves it at His will. As I make my sojourn through this world, I walk upon the earth. And I serve a God who can move it at will. If He wants to move a mountain, He says so, and the mountain will move. If He wants the earth to move and shake, He tells it to, and it does His bidding. Yet, He is mindful of me. So, when the earth starts rocking and shuddering and pitching in my life, I remember that I am anchored to the God Who controls it all. And then peace stills into my soul, and I step on. That is why I am so grateful.


2. The wind – He tells it to escalate or be still at His will. You remember Jonah don't you? He told the wind, water, and lightning to rage until the raging got Jonah's attention. You can read chapter 1 in the book of Jonah for the rest of the story. The point I was making is that He can escalate storms at will. And then I think about how He stilled the storm on the sea of Galilee when He saw that the fierceness of the storm was frightening His disciples, His children. And I am grateful some more because that reminds me that all I have to do is ask, trust and obey Him and He will still my storms when I have learned whatever lesson I needed to learn from it or them. I'm grateful, y'all. He cares. That is why you might see an adult like me, do a little hop and a skip every now and then. Hopping and skipping for what, just the joy of my head hairs being numbered by the Omnipotent One! It takes me back to one of my favorite scriptures, "If God is for you, who or what can be against you?" (Romans 8:31, KJV)


3. The water – He produces it whenever He wants to and has it doing His bidding according to His great will. We all know what He did with water at the Red Sea. (Exodus 14-15, KJV) And He has set a limit on it as to how much land it can cover. (Job 38:11, KJV) He has told the sea, you come this far and no further because this land houses my children. He produced water from a rock when He saw His children's thirst. (Exodus 17, KJV)  Has a woman's body to cradle a baby in a sack of water for nine months. It's like He told the water, "You hold the baby and cushion its ride until it is time for it to be born and then you help to usher the baby forth." He changed it into wine at one point in the Bible (John2:1-11, KJV) and into blood at another point. (Exodus 7:14-25, KJV) My body is 70% water just as this earth is 70% water and both were made by Him. So, I am grateful to know that He knows every little thing that could go awry with this body of mine, after all, He is the Artisan, Who fashioned it. Dare I say it again? And He loves me, y'all, even me!


4. Fire – tells it when to burn and when not to.  When the Hebrew boys were thrown into the fire, He told the fire not to even singe the hairs on their heads, and He told the smoke not to even touch their garments. (Daniel 3, KJV) At another time, He commanded a chariot of fire to come to earth and pick up one of His servants. Elijah and the chariot of fire went on home to glory in a whirlwind. (2 Kings 2:11, KJV)  At another time, He sent fire from heaven to lap up water and the altar! (1 Kings 18:38, KJV) And this God loves me?! Yes, I am grateful!


5. The promise that if I live according to what He has had recorded in the Bible, I get to go back home to that paradise that we would have still been in if sin had not separated us from Him.  You see, when He made man, God placed him in a special place. He was placed in a jewel of a place. A garden with trees that bore all type of products. All we had to do was obey the rules that He had set forth for His garden. That' all! But, then sin entered the picture.  But get this. His love for man was so great that He took man out of the garden and set up flaming swords to guard the way (Genesis 3:24, KJV), to keep man from getting into harm's way again. I think this is like a momma putting her child in a playpen to keep him or her safe while she prepares dinner. Eden is real, y'all and I am grateful that if I live according to His will, I get to go to a placed prepared for me. It will be a place where I will not worry about the cares of this old world because all of that will be over with. Just think a place so wonderful that "It has not entered into my heart, the joys that He has prepared for me because I love Him!" (1 Cor. 2:9, KJV)  Yes, I am grateful for His promise of a home with Him forever! I'm going home one day, y'all. Don't you want to go?

I hope that this treatise on gratefulness has brightened your day and that you remember Whose child you are and that you go to worship this morning and give Him praise.

Doing What I Can, While I Can Because I Am Grateful Enough to Care,

Alma L. Stepping On Carr-Jones