The UnEnding Gift

GOD and my relationship with Him is like an unending gift.  Like a gift that I keep unwrapping, only to eventually discover there’s yet ANOTHER gift there, waiting to be unwrapped!

At first I received the gift of Himself, Him reaching out to me, to offer the 2^nd gift, forgiveness.  Then after that He offered a relationship with Him!  The Master and Creator of the universe & all that it contains!  Then later I realized He’s given me eternal life, with Him none-the-less, through Jesus Christ His son.  Then I realized He’d filled & sealed me with His own Holy Spirit, to protect & lead & guide me, every day.  He has also given me spiritual gifts that He delights in seeing me use.  And He delights in working in and through me via them, to bless those around me.

He has given me the best friends I’ve ever known.  He has given me strength & endurance & perseverance & victory in the darkest times of my life.  And now, as I’ve begun to learn how wonderful & powerful & beautiful He is, I’ve come to know how vital it is, to my daily life & health, that I invest quality time with Him, each day.  As I’ve begun to establish that daily time with Him, I am again blessed to realize that when I give Him my time & attention, myself really, He lets me become centered (focused on Him, ignoring all else) and experience His amazing peace.  Centered & at peace!  Do you know what a gift that is?

HE is unending!  I am filled with hope, as I realize the potential of all that is still to come!  If He has given me all this, and SO much more, what else lies around the corner of time?  He has convinced me how real & good & faithful He is, and how full of a “lavish & unfailing love” He is. Lavish & unfailing.  Think about that for while. 

Lavish:  very generous or liberal in giving or spending, often extravagantly so, more than enough, very abundant…. 

Unfailing: not failing, never ceasing or falling short, inexhaustible, always reliable, certain….

Oh, how I delight in the prospect of discovering, personally, more of who He is.

By Nancy L. Kenaston
written May 2008

Anthem against FEAR

I don't know how often you battle with fear, but I've come to realize lately that I deal with it just about every single day. It may not show up looking like fear, as it may come dressed in "concern" or "worry". But I've come to realize that anytime I start to wrinkle my brow, wring my hands, and feel my heart start racing a bit faster than it should, if I look around, fear is often lurking somewhere nearby.   

I took a look at my list of favorite scripture that God has given me over the past 16 years and then I started looking to see which of them were related to fear or peace. I came up with a list, and then looked over them, searching for the essence or core of what God was saying.  (By the way, did you know the words "fear not" are listed about 365 times in the Bible? 1 for each day of the year! Guess I'm not the ONLY one who struggles with it.)

When I looked over the verses, words started surfacing, like: with me, guide me, power, peace, strength, praise, etc.  I wanted a distilled, powerful shot of His Word to be able to speak out loud, the next time Fear came knocking.

So I just kept looking at those precious and yet powerful words given to us.  Soon phrases began surfacing.  As I started jotting them down, they began flooding & filling my mind with TRUTH about His great love for us.

Anthem Against Fear

God is WITH me!
He WILL NOT LEAVE me!
He GUIDES me!
He gives me POWER & AUTHORITY!
He is my PEACE & STRENTH & JOY!
I will REMEMBER how GREAT HE IS
   And what GREAT THINGS HE HAS DONE!
I will PRAISE Him!
I will BELIEVE Him!

What are your favorite verses? What themes do you see?  What is the essence or core of what God is saying to you?  Create your own powerful anthem of truth.

By Nancy L. Kenaston

August 3, 2023

Great ¯ Music to accompany this:  John Butler – Ocean (Live and Solo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdYJf_ybyVo

Pruning

By Nancy L. Kenaston

February 4, 2024

 

Yesterday I pruned my two blueberry bushes.

I should do this ever year, but often I forget.

They’ve been a bit spindly, because I haven’t.

There are lots of long, thin branches, some producing little or no fruit.

Especially one bush, that was planted too close to a red maple tree, where it competes for space.

 

As I clipped, thinned & trimmed yesterday, I got into a “flow” state, where I began organically looking at the bush, seeing where branches crossed, where limbs were crowded, where limbs were too long & gangly or had altogether died.

 

To help the bush, I started cutting.

 

·       I cut nearly every tip of a branch off, leaving only the first 3-5 branches, depending on how long and healthy the branch was. This reduced the resources need and increased what each fruit would receive, improving the quality of the fruit.

·       I cut branches that were crowded or running into others, increasing the air flow and amount of sunlight where needed.

·       I removed branches that were eventually going to create a crowded or sun-blocked area.

·       I removed every dead branch or tip.

·       I trimmed back very long branches that looked out of place, giving a more pleasing shape to the bush.

·       I let new shoots remain that are coming up where very old branches will soon need to be removed.

 

Reflecting on this, I realized so very many of these “reasons” for cutting back mirror the same type of work God does in our lives.

 

·       Removing what is dead, useless or potentially harmful or damaging to present or future fruitfulness in our lives.

·       Removing what is not lovely, harmonious or pleasing.

·       Raising up new “branches” for future need.

·       Reducing workload or resources needed, so better fruit quality (though lower quantity) results.

·       Making sufficient room/space/time to receive what is needed, to ensure fruitfulness.

·       Preventing future crowding/stress/disease.

 

The same thing goes for my herb garden or berry patch or rose bushes. I remove the dead or week plants or branches or just the gangly, energy-sucking unfruitful branches. (Hmmm…this sounds very much like time/energy suckers in life, like social media can be.)

 

Removing the bad is easy. But at times it felt cruel or counter-productive to cut off all the good, healthy, growing, sprouting areas! It helps to see now, that removing even the good and living and productive looking areas are all to

1)      Ensure sufficient resources are received

2)      Encourage better quality fruit

3)      Prevent future stress, struggle, disease, and

4)      All while making room for future growth, to ensure continually increasing quality & fruitfulness.

 

It still may hurt when God cuts or trims what appears good from our lives, but now I can see more clearly all the good potential He is making room for. It hleps to know He wants larger, sweeter (though probably fewer) fruit in my life.

 

I look forward to seeing what my blueberry harvest will be like this year.

 

Armor of God Reflections
By Nancy L. Kenaston
June 21, 2022
 
For years now, the subject of the armor of God has kept coming up in my life.
The Armor of God study by Pricilla Shirer, was really good at embedding this section of scripture into my mind and heart. Now I’m reading her book Fervent and ran across it again, and this time something new surfaced. Pages 46 and 47 bring up this “battleground equipment” list again and just give a short description of each piece. The 6^th chapter of book of Ephesians goes into detail about this armor.
 
Here’s what she wrote:
“Truth is God’s standard—the unchanging, objective benchmark of the Bible by which we govern and align our lives.
 
Righteousness means right living—the process by which we apply this truth to our lives and, by His Spirit, produce conduct honoring and pleasing to God.
 
Peace is the deep, inner, eternal stability the believer posseses by virtue of relationship with Jesus, a ssense of balance that’s not subject to external circumstance. It’s also the quality that enables us to live harmoniously with others.
 
Faith is the application of what one believes—the process of putting feet to our beliefs and living in lights of it…in practical terms.
 
Salvation is both our eternal security in Christ, as well as the full inheritance we’ve been given because of our relationship with Him. It includes our blessings, status, and identity—everything we’ve received that enables us to live victoriously for Him.
 
The Word of God is His present, relevant, personal Word to us today. The Bible may be an old Book, but God’s Spirit makes it fresh, new and alive for us.”
 
It dawned on me, these 6 gifts, the armor, are EXACTLY what the enemy of God is trying to steal from us in this life! He knows how VITAL of a weapon each of them are! Truth! Living right! Peace! Faith! Salvation! The very Word of God! Little alone prayer!
 
So he starts with TRUTH. If he can erode or steal that…he’s got us completely undone. A soldier NEVER went into battle without his belt. It was the foundational piece of all his battle equipment, holding everything together. If we don’t have truth…what else matters?
 
Today’s culture is trying to dissolve truth. Our kids, and many adults, use the term “my truth”.  I was thinking, "My. Truth. Seems like putting those together is...sort of an oxymoron." Ron Brackin said, “Subjective truth is an oxymoron; objective truth is redundant. Subjective truth is feathers in a wind tunnel, blowing anywhere and everywhere. Objective truth is an anvil, bolted to the floor of the wind tunnel. “
 
Once truth is taken, all the rest is easy to take. Without truth, how do you know how to live right? Without truth, peace evaporates. Without truth, how can you believe or trust anything? Without truth, how can you be protected from harm? Without truth, what is the point of God’s Word? Or prayer? See what a slippery slope that was?  Turned into a cliff quickly, didn’t it? Again, if we don’t have truth, what else matters?
So, the enemy steals truth, and then the game is fixed. 

No wonder there are skyrocketing rates of anxiety and depression! Without truth, suicide seems a viable option to end our suffering and pain. 

But WITH truth? Everything changes! Suddenly you can feel the ground under your feet again, you can get your balance, you can look around you and figure out where you are, and where you want to be. Like coming up out of the frothy water, after getting knocked down by a surprise wave, you get your feet on the ground, and you can look up and find the beach, and head that direction, to solid ground.

No wonder the enemy wants to steal truth. He knows without it, we will continually suffer and never thrive.

Sometimes Being With God is Like…

Nancy Kenaston

Aug. 29^th, 2017

Sometimes being with God is like doing pushups. Sometimes it’s just plain hard work!  To focus, to pay attention, to listen, to direct my thoughts, instead of letting them drive me elsewhere, everywhere else, but where I want and need to be.

Sometimes being with God is like taking out the garbage.  Sometimes it just stinks!  I have to deal with stinky attitudes, smelly motives, or memories, stuff I’d rather turn away from and not have to deal with. And I have to clean out the garbage can too! I have to humble myself, and lay down all my pride, get down on my knees, get my hands dirty, while I clean it all out of my heart.  And as I lay it all out before Him, being honest, and eventually seeking and receiving His forgiveness, He makes all things, including me, new and clean again.

Sometimes being with God is like sitting in class, listening to a topic I’m not interested in.  He usually quits talking then, not wasting either of our time.  But, He’ll bring up the subject again and again, until I’m ready to hear and learn it.

Sometimes being with God is like doing laundry or dishes.  It feels a bit mundane, but necessary.  And there’s a therapeutic element to it. It actually can be relaxing, if I focus and am present.  Things are ALWAYS better when I’m done.

Sometimes being with God is like me desperately pouring my heart out to Him, and He is utterly quiet and doesn’t say a word.  I won’t say He doesn’t “respond”, because I know He hears me, and I’m pretty certain He has thoughts and feelings about what I’m saying, but He’s not revealing any of them to me.  I frustratingly wonder and ask “Why God? Why is this happing?  Why do You let it continue?  Why don’t You stop it, or teach me a better way?  Why don’t You change me or them?  Who don’t You tell me what to do? Why are You so utterly silent? What is it You want me to learn? Or do? What???

Sometimes being with God is like walking in a beautiful garden, looking, listening, learning, being grateful and or amazed at the beauty, gifts and blessings before and around me.  Being surprised by new discoveries!  Being delighted by the things He reveals to me.

Sometimes being with God is like being at a rock concert, and I’m the ONLY one in the audience!  I’m up front, right on stage!  He’s talking to me?  He’s focused on me?  I’m SO focused on HIM!  He is speaking loud and clear, with a message directly to and for my heart only.

Sometimes being with God is like being on a sweet, lovely, quiet date, with the lover of my soul.  He knows me!  Better than I know myself!  He created me!  He knows exactly where I’ve been, every day of my life, and where I am today, right now, and where I am headed, even though it’s all still a complete mystery to me. 

Today it’s been like a lovely walk in a garden.  Discovering! Him revealing.  Me staring in amazement, in awe, at the loveliness of His creation, and His tender and gentle revelation to me. Lovely! Amazing! Beautiful.

Growing Slow?

This quote was too good not to share...

"I need to slow down.

And I'm asking the Lord to help me do it.

I want to move slowly enough to be aware of all the joys He has hidden for me.

I want to slow down enough to grow as He wants me to grow. 

I want to be quiet enough to hear His voice. 

I need His wisdom to know how to spend my time and how to order my days."

by Kathryn Hillen

 

It was stunning to stop & ponder about how growing "slow" could possibly be a good thing.

Slow? What????

At first I was thinking, "No! I want to GROW fast! I want to 'get there', be mature! Wise!"

But then...God brought to mind, a dieffenbachia plant I have.

 

When I used to have it in in my very sunny bathroom, it would grow REALLY fast .

So fast that the stems were all slender, and when they would get any taller than about 1 foot,

the whole plant would start leaning over, and eventually fall,

being too heavy for the too slender stem to hold up.

 

Ah-hah.

I finally can see that growing SLOWer can have it's benefits,

that we can be strong & sturdy enough to handle the weight of what He allows into our life.

 

Yes, words to chew on.....and chew on...and chew on.

I can tell it's going to take some chewing to get this "bitter but good for me" news
to go down deep into my soul.

 

The Ocean

By Nancy L. Kenaston

January 2013

The ocean…whatever a mysterious gift I receive there…

the ever-present, unpredictable, continually changing and yet changeless aspect…

the raw, mighty power…

the stunning beauty that I just sit & watch, in awe…

the reminder of how small I am, and how I am not in control of anything but me.

It’s “hushing” voice, calming me…

the flat, steady horizon, helping me focus…

the massive water form that hydrates my soul!

It comes in, and goes out, just like my breath, again & again & again.

It has rhythms and cycles just like me and life.

It carries and holds life, and provides a form of sustenance for us.

It carries deep mysteries we don’t yet know.

I am changed when I am in its presence.

It reminds us all that we are not in charge of this earth,

we are mere stewards, able to manage only small areas.

It provides the water that is continually rising, evaporating, then condensing and falling,

to moisten the earth, which provides food and beauty and variety.

It provides a sense of healing…

And I feel like it always welcomes me, with wide open arms,

having patiently waited for me to return.

Yes, the ocean reminds me of You, God, over & over & over again!
Repeatedly, continually, unfailingly.

It shouts to me, who You are!

Oh, what a gift!