November 23
As you sit quietly in My Presence, let Me fill your heart and mind with thankfulness. This is the most direct way to achieve a thankful stance. If your mind needs a focal point, gaze at My Love poured out for you on the cross. Remember that nothing in heaven or on earth can separate you from that Love. This remembrance builds a foundation of gratitude in you, a foundation that circumstances cannot shake.
As you go through this day, look for tiny treasures strategically placed along the way. I lovingly go before you and plant little pleasures to brighten your day. Look carefully for them, and pluck them one by one. When you reach the end of the day, you will have gathered a lovely bouquet. Offer it up to Me with a grateful heart. Receive My Peace as you lie down to sleep, with thankful thoughts playing a lullaby in your mind.
‘For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
—Romans 8:38–39
‘You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.’
—Psalm 4:7–8
This was my reading yesterday from Jesus Calling
Those verses in Romans 8 have special meaning for Leah and I.
Rev M. Mc Keown read that passage to us before we went to Bristol for Leah’s treatment.
In the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit and at other difficult times during Leah’s illness we read and reread that passage to remind ourselves that no matter how horrible the side effects of chemo, no matter how awful Leah’s illness was or the complications of her treatment, NOTHING but NOTHING could or would ever separate us from God’s love for us, that He showed to us by sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.
Leah’s favourite band, Rend Collective, have a brilliant song based on that passage of Scripture:
Romans 8:31-37 (NIV)
More Than Conquerors
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
My Journey: 