How We Hear....

You guessed it! Whitewing are cooing, flowers are blooming and all is peaceful out back…just sitting back and hearing God’s creation amazes me every time.
Sitting out here always has me thinking about “how” we hear.  Cuz “what” we are hearing is important, yes… but the “how” determines the “what”, the depth of our hearing. Guess, as I sit in the calm of our garden, this all really amplifies the contrast of the world outside our fence. The world is soooo noisy, it is easy to go thru the day and only hear the clatter and clutter of things. It becomes “what” we hear and can form a wall that dampens the whispers of God to our soul.

He is God, He doesn’t have to yell, He speaks to us in so many unique ways! Nature, literature, people and places ~ the list is endless ~ He is always speaking to us, no doubt, but can we hear? Are we listening?

One of my favourite verses is….

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace, as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

Just love this! It was written by the apostle Paul, yes…but since all Scripture is inspired by God, then that means that God wrote this, and all the rest, to us! For me, when I read this word with that in mind, it is like God is saying….

May the God of Hope (that’s Me, Your Holy Father and Friend, btw)

fill you with all ( ⇚it all belongs to Me, so yeah I can do that!)

Joy and Peace (whatcha get when you hang out with Me)

as you trust in Him, (you can do that…trust Me, lean on Me, I got this!)

so that (here comes the good part!)

you may overflow (no skimping on things for my kids!)

with Hope ( ⇚ that’s Me!)

by the power of the Holy Spirit. (You’re not in this life alone, I will never leave you or forsake you! I will always, always love you…come on kid, lean in, trust Me)

That’s my prayer for us all ~ that we will learn to lean in and “hear” God speaking His love over our souls. That each one will seek and find the unique way that God is speaking to us…

Wait…Listen…Do you hear that? ♥

Learning

“…and find out what pleases the Lord.” 

Ephesians 5:10

Today’s walk was full…full of quiet and peace. The very crackle of the bamboo under my feet seemed an intrusion. I took a copy of the “Labyrinth PRAYER Guide” with me, which I had not done in quite a while. The Scriptures practically jumped off the page.

It begins with Matthew 11:28, The Message Version, and in part it says to “Learn the unforced rhythms of Grace.” First, this is one of my favourite verses of Scripture.

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

The other thing today, is that word “learn”. It seemed to echo in my head throughout this afternoon. To learn the Lord’s Grace, unforced ~ being accepted by me into the TRUE reality of each moment. This brought my prayer to ask that He ‘search my heart, O God’. As I looked down, just under some bamboo leaves there was something sticking out, so I reached to pick it up. It was one of the little wooden hearts from the cross, on the other side of the labyrinth!

He does that, ya know. He reaches down ~ searches and finds that which is lost ~ our hearts, buried under the stuff of this world and far from His cross and He faithfully brings it back into right step with His own heart. He leads us into the Center of His will for each moment. Thank you, Lord that You search for us, find us, lead and teach us ~ O, may we learn!

Learn….the echo of the day. Another word in that phrase is “Grace”.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Galatians 5:22 ~ NIV

Did you notice that Grace is not a fruit of the Spirit? It isn’t in that list! Grace is God working His will out in us, thru us. Grace is a Fruit of HIS Presence and Peace. A part of our learning Grace is to look for Him in all things, to “find out what pleases the Lord.” We cannot “be” Grace, or become Grace-ful. We are only Grace-filled….unforced, given over and offered UP and that is what changes our earthbound hearts.

Later, when I was typing this up, it was really sweet to see how these Scriptures from Matthew and Ephesians worked together in a paraphrasing sort of way ~

And find out what pleases the Lord by learning the unforced rhythms of GRACE….