I am a singer, songwriter, wife, mother, Jesus follower. I send out a 2-minute read every Tuesday about Jesus and life in God.
On Every Side
|
Hi Friends, I remember a few years ago I was reading through Psalm 23:2-3, “He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my soul”. I sang this chorus about it: You touch my heart and cause me to thirst It’s Him on every side. Cognitively, we know this. We teach it to our children in infancy, right? “Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong…” And yet somewhere in the growing up and the walking out of our faith, we can take on an anxiety—a pressure. We walk around with a weight on our shoulders that says we should know better, do better, measure up. That we shouldn’t be so needy. The truth remains that in the midst of all our maturing and obeying and following we are, in our core, utterly dependent upon Him. We never grow out of this truth. We are a beautiful need for the beautiful Source. He is behind and before, and He lays His hand upon us. He makes us lie down in green pastures. He leads us by the still waters. He restores our souls. He prepares a feast in the presence of our enemies, and He is the very bread and wine on the table, ready for us to take Him in. He is the all-knowing Shepherd. He is the slain, bloody Lamb. He is the Maker who formed our souls around a “thirst”: a desire for Him. He is the Shepherd of our souls who leaves the 99 to throw us over His shoulders and carry us in His mercy to the water banks. And right there, after leading us to the water’s edge, He opens our eyes to see that He Himself is also the living water pooled before us, ready to satisfy. It’s Him on every side. Let’s lean into Him today, the source of both our need and our satisfaction, and let some of the weight come off our shoulders. There He is again- the lifter of the burden and the giver of a new, easy yoke. —Anna |
Anna Blanc
I am a singer, songwriter, wife, mother, Jesus follower. I send out a 2-minute read every Tuesday about Jesus and life in God.
Hi Friends, My heart has been stirred today with a simple meditation rooted in John 17:12. Jesus prays to the Father, saying: “I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost…” Kept. What are you facing today? Take heart. You’re in the hands of Jesus. He keeps and loses not one. A few hours after this prayer, when He is in the garden of Gethsemane with His disciples, Jesus demonstrates this keeping: The soldiers and Pharisees come with weapons and...
Hi Friends, I love a good checklist. I have one for my “to-do” list today, I have one for cleaning the house, I have one for the next grocery run. I google for a list of pros and cons when buying new shoes or a replacement vacuum. I peruse the listed benefits on which zoo passes to buy the family. “Do you want “package A” with this list of benefits or “package B” with these?” Boom. Decision made easy. I love it. Imagine the thrill in my list-loving soul when I stumbled on James 3:14-18 and...
Dear Friends, As a Christian, I love the cross. I love the cross. And yet I am prone to race right past it. Past the gore, past the scandal of it, right to the blessedness of resurrection and redemption. You could never overstate resurrection and redemption. But when I take a moment to look my friend Jesus in the face, to ponder His life, His sacrifice, I’m brought to my knees at the cross. Below, in bold, is a chorus I sang about this.How has it come to this?Jesus You’re bleeding Son of the...