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The Comfort Chapters…and Grace and Truth Link Up

March 13, 2020 by Lauren 17 Comments

Last week I wrote about my studies in the book of Job.  You can see that post here.  My sister mentioned to me that Jeremiah 30-33 were called “the comfort chapters”, so I decided that would be a good next landing spot for personal perusal.

 

These chapters are messages of hope and deliverance for God’s people in the midst of a book mostly about judgement.  Jeremiah prophesies about the return from captivity of the nation of Israel, but he also looks forward to the end times and the final restoration of God’s people.  So in determining if these promises are meant for us today, I believe they are.  So I decided to share what I learned from this time in God’s Word, in case anyone else needed to hear it too.

 

  1.  God will do what is impossible for anyone else.  He will deliver, heal and restore to Himself.
  2. When we remain submissive, He molds us into His image.
  3. The fruit of the Spirit cannot be produced when all is sunshine.
  4. God comforts and reassures, urging us to greater faith.
  5. Pray and He will answer beyond our present understanding.
  6. He is infinitely high and infinitely nigh.
  7. He is matchless.  No one can compare to Him.
  8. Our God has limitless vision.
  9. He has to humble himself to even behold the things of heaven.  (That one of from Psalms 113, but it fits)
  10. God’s goodness is nowhere more apparent than in the midst of suffering.
  11. He will carry us through every trial and adversity.
  12. Whatever God permits to come into our lives is meant to conform us to the image of His Son.
  13. We have a wonderful, personal Lord.
  14. He is too loving to be unkind and too wise to err.
  15. The love of our Savior liberates us.
  16. Suffering never has the final word.
  17. Out of death, the Lord brings life.
  18. His ultimate purpose is always, always, always for our good.  Amen.

(Some phrases taken directly from the Believer’s Bible Commentary by William MacDonald.)

 

And now for this week’s featured post!

 

Riding the Ferris Wheel of Circumstances  by Christine of Instaencouragements spoke to me on a deep level this week.  As I navigate hard things with my family, this piece buoyed me toward our Father for strength and stability.  Hop on over here to read and be sure to leave a comment.

 

Now for this week’s link-up! Let’s bless and encourage one another in our walk with the Lord.

 

Grace & Truth : A Weekly Christian Link Up

Grace & Truth exists to point people to Jesus! We hope this link-up will be a source of encouragement every week. If you’re a blogger, we hope you’ll use this space as a way to meet new friends within the Christian blogging community. If you’re a reader, we hope that you’ll encounter new bloggers that love Jesus as much as you do! Most of all, we hope you’ll meet Jesus here.

Join us each Friday for the Grace and Truth Link-Up!

To receive a weekly reminder of when the link-up goes live subscribe to laurensparks.net in the right hand column of this page.

 

 

Maree Dee

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
 

Lauren Sparks

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
 

Heather Hart & Valerie Riese

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
 

Lisa Burgess

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
1.)  Following your hosts via their blog and social media channels is not mandatory, but appreciated!

To receive a weekly reminder of when the link-up goes live subscribe to laurensparks.net in the right hand column of this page.

2.) Leave 1-2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. Please do not link DIY, Crafts, Recipes, etc. We will delete these links. We also reserve the right to remove articles that don’t align with the theme or are deemed by the hostesses to be inappropriate.

3.) Visit 1-2 other links and leave a meaningful comment! We want to encourage community among us, so please don’t link and run!

4.) We sort all links randomly – feel free to link as early or as late as you’d like. The playing field is even!

Featured Post Requirements

5.) Grab a button or link back to encourage new linkers. It is not mandatory, but it is required to be featured.

6.) Each host will choose one link to emphasize and promote via their social media channels next week.

Grab a Badge and Link Back to this Post.

And now, let’s link up!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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To find some great places where I might be sharing this post, click here.

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A Sacrifice of Thanks

November 21, 2019 by Lauren 18 Comments

Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God,
    and keep the vows you made to the Most High.
15 Then call on me when you are in trouble,
    and I will rescue you,
    and you will give me glory.  Psalm 50:14 NLT

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

 

As a family we sit in a very different place than this time last year.  And the year before that.  With my husband back in a stable work environment and my cancer in the rear view mirror, we have many reasons to praise and thank God.  Actually, the truth is that God deserves our thanks ALWAYS, but in my faithlessness, I forget.

 

If you have followed this blog for longer than a minute (thank you!), then you know my recent history of doubting God’s kindness and goodness while in the throes of painful experiences.  It actually took the funeral of a two year old boy to wake me up to my own stubborn ungratefulness.  The precious parents of this boy asked for the mourners at his service to sing the song “Good Good Father” by Chris Tomlin.  Two week prior the praise band at church lead us in this very song and I refused to sing.  In my heart, I didn’t feel it.  And yet these missionaries (once over seas, but on this day to me) knew that our Father God is always good.  They sang of this goodness with empty arms and broken hearts.  And I realized I could too.

 

That’s what Psalm 50:14 is all about.  We bring glory to God when we praise Him for His provision, even as we wonder how the bills will get paid.  We bring Him glory when we thank Him for family, even with strained relationships in the picture.  We honor Him when we thank Him for a life even after that life passes on.  We show the world His tender mercies when we thank Him for his comfort in the midst of hard times.  And we showcase His majesty when we accept His gift of Jesus with a beholden spirit.

 

As young parents, we started a new tradition to help us and the kids remember all God does for us (and emphasize the meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday) by putting up a thankfulness tree.   For many years we adorned our artificial tree with construction paper leaves and turkeys with handwritten Bible verses about giving thanks.   We also wrote on them the names of the people and things for which we were most grateful.  This year with my bonus son out of the house (and married with kids of his own) and both daughters firmly in their teen years, the construction paper didn’t seem quite as charming.  So we decided to let our tree grow up and bought a few ornaments instead.  Acorns, leaves, pumpkins and footballs now hang on the branches.  But even though we changed the tree, I wasn’t ready to give up our family gratitude practice.

 

We now have a tabletop card holder in the middle of our kitchen table with a sharpie and blank leaves and turkeys and pumpkins.  Every time we sit down to dinner as a family, we add something we are thankful for.  Some days it’s easy to give thanks, and sometimes it’s a sacrifice to set aside our feelings and look at who God is.  Who He has always been, through good times and bad.  Because the truth beyond our circumstances is that He is good.  And it’s always for our sanctification to acknowledge it.

 

Happy Thanksgiving.

Sharing is caring! If you liked this post, do me the huge honor of sharing it to your favorite social media accounts. And if you want to get these essays emailed to you once a week, subscribe!

 

And look up these great writers I link up with every week:

InstaEncouragements, Literacy Musing Mondays, Hello…Monday,

The Good. The Random. The Fun.

BloggerClubUK, Tea and Word Tuesday, Purposeful Faith,

GraceFull Tuesday Link-Up, Hearth and Soul Link Party,

Let’s Have Coffee, Welcome Wednesday, Recharge Wednesday,

Worth Beyond Rubies, #TellHisStory Link Up, Porch Stories,

Encouraging Word Wednesday, Tune In Thursday,

Stories of Hope, Moments of Hope, IHeart Verse Link Party,

Legacy Link Up, Fresh Market Friday, Feature Friday Time,

Friendship Friday Blog Hop, Faith on Fire, Traffic Jam Weekend,

Faith ‘n Friends, Dancing with Jesus, Grace & Truth, Booknificent

Lastly, my posts may contain affiliate links and I earn from qualifying purchases. If you buy anything from one of these links, I will receive a few pennies to help offset the cost of this website at no additional charge to you. Thank you in advance for your help.

 

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About Me

I love Jesus, my husband and caffeine. The order of these can change depending on how tired I am. When my two daughters, stepson, and 4 grandchildren get to be too much, I practice yoga. God graciously allows me to share our adventures, victories and flub-ups from my laptop. May He be glorified here.
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