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.