Highest prized treasure

“I cried out to You, O LORD: I said, “You are my refuge, My portion in the land of the living.” -Psalms 142:5  

The word “portion” above, means “highest prized treasure.” Is God our highest prized treasure? He longs to be!

The One above all others

One there is above all others,

    Oh, how He loves!

His is love beyond a brother’s,

    Oh, how He loves!

Earthly friends may fail or leave us,

One day soothe, the next day grieve us;

But this Friend will ne’er deceive us:

    Oh, how He loves!

’Tis eternal life to know Him,

    Oh, how He loves!

Think, oh, think how much we owe Him,

    Oh, how He loves!

With His precious blood He bought us,

In the wilderness He sought us,

To His flock He safely brought us:

    Oh, how He loves!

Blessed Jesus! would you know Him?

    Oh, how He loves!

Give yourselves entirely to Him,

    Oh, how He loves!

Think no longer of the morrow,

From the past new courage borrow,

Jesus carries all your sorrow:

    Oh, how He loves!

All your sins shall be forgiven,

    Oh, how He loves!

Backward shall your foes be driven,

    Oh, how He loves!

Best of blessings He’ll provide you,

Nought but good shall e’er betide you,

Safe to glory He will guide you:

    Oh, how He loves!

      -Marianne Nunn

Alone in the crowd

She has felt that way many times. Living with a disability. Not only fearing rejection, but facing it. It was Christmas. She wondered who would notice her, sit with her, love her. Later, I was helping her into the restroom, and asked how her day was going. She told me it was, “the best day ever,” and that she felt SO loved. “I kept talking to Jesus ever since I got here,” she said. “He has answered my prayer!” Her husband made her feel extra special by secretly passing her his wedding ring in a small treasure chest, asking if she would marry him again. Different family members  massaged her stiff leg, got her food, visited, and warmed up hot packs to help relax her sore muscles. One family member made her a foot rest out of a wheel axle! 

Have you ever felt alone in the crowd? What if that loneliness was meant to draw you closer to Jesus? What if that loneliness was put there to cause you to pray? To reach out by faith, and find the hand of the Good Shepherd? (Isaiah 41:13) The One who said, “I will NEVER leave you or forsake you!” (Hebrews 13:5) The One who created us for relationship with Himself? 

Next time you feel alone in the crowd, or just alone period, look up by faith, reach out for HIM, the hope of the nations. He is there. Only a prayer away. “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8) 

Isolation or solitude?

It takes the fire of God to cleanse our hearts of selfishness in all its subtle forms. Even loneliness may be a form of selfishness.

One can reject friendship when it is not offered on the terms one chooses. One can reject the grace of God as Naaman the leper came perilously close to doing because it was not offered with the kind of ceremony he felt befitted his station. One can magnify his loneliness out of all proportion, as though he suffered something that is not common to man, forgetting that “this is life”- not more, not less. 

One can draw about himself a thick quilt of self-pity and isolate himself in other ways, but if one turns the loneliness into solitude and the solitude into prayer, there is release. It may require a willingness to be burned if burning is necessary as it was for Isaiah, but there is forgiveness and cleansing and peace. In Isaiah’s case, this was followed by God’s call for a volunteer to work for Him. With a heart at leisure now from itself, Isaiah could answer, “Here I am. Send me.” 

I was pondering this matter when the Lord brought straight to my kitchen table yesterday a living example of such a heart. A bright young woman and I were eating lamb sandwiches. I asked her if she is lonely. “Lonely?  Why should I be?” “You’re single. Most of the single people I know talk about being lonely.” With a look of surprise and then a laugh she said, “Oh no. You see, I have a sense of expectancy every day. What does the Lord want to do with me today? I have no agenda of my own.”

No agenda of my own. That is the key to Linda’s freedom. I continued to question her. Yes, she said, she knows what loneliness feels like- it’s isolation, when you think you can’t reach anybody, nobody reaches you, you’re cut off. You have your own agenda. 

“What do you mean by an agenda?” I asked.  “Thinking there’s only one solution and God has to give you that or nothing. You have a closed mind. A closed mind is a closed heart and a closed door.” 

Now I recognized the reason for the smile which seems always to light Linda’s face. I think it must come from her wholehearted acceptance of God‘s agenda. 

“I love solitude,” she said. “As I drove up here this morning (it was a dazzling winter morning of sunshine and blue sky and blue shadows on the snow) I didn’t have the radio on. I wasn’t listening to tapes. I was just quiet. I love times like that.” 

The heart which has no agenda but God’s is the heart at leisure from itself. It’s emptiness is filled with the love of God. It’s solitude can be turned into prayer. 

Taken from Elizabeth Elliot’s book, “Loneliness.” 

Others focused

Have you heard of them? Those rare people who minister to others inspite of their pain? Inspite of their loneliness? They look not on their own needs, but also on the needs of others? (Philippians 2:4) That’s my friend in long term care. She tells me it’s been 17 years now! Still very healthy in her mind and body, except for mobility issues, but she has a wheelchair to help with that. Tonight I learned, that she use to help feed some of the other residents who couldn’t feed themselves. She did that for 5 years, until under new management they wouldn’t allow it anymore. Food for thought... how can I be a blessing and minister to someone else’s need inspite of my own? “Lord, make me a blessing to someone today!” ❤️🙏🏻

“The answer to our loneliness is love- not our finding someone to love us, but our surrendering to the God who has always loved us with an everlasting love. Loving Him is then expressed in a happy and full-hearted pouring out of ourselves in love to others.” -Elisabeth Elliot

Belonging

As a single, you might find yourself asking, “Where, or to whom do I belong?” Everyone around you seems to be “coupled up.” May you find comfort in the words of this hymn written by Lucy A. Bennett, 

I am the Lord’s! O joy beyond expression,

  O sweet response to voice of love Divine;

Faith’s joyous “Yes” to the assuring whisper,

  “Fear not! I have redeemed thee; thou art Mine.”

I am the Lord’s! It is the glad confession

  Wherewith the Bride recalls the happy day,

When love’s “I will” accepted Him forever,

  “The Lord’s,” to love, to honor and obey.

I am the Lord’s! Yet teach me all it meaneth,

  All it involves of love and loyalty,

Of holy service, absolute surrender,

  And unreserved obedience unto Thee.

I am the Lord’s! Yes; body, soul, and spirit,

  O seal them irrecoverably Thine;

As Thou, Beloved, in Thy grace and fulness

  Forever and forevermore art mine.

Walking with Him

During Jesus three years as an itinerant rabbi he knew what it was to be weary, hungry, and homeless. The common people heard him gladly but the religious elite could not stand him. He was misquoted, misjudged, misrepresented, misunderstood. The Hebrew scholars were forever laying traps for him, challenging, quarrelling, quibbling. He was praised and scorned, followed and forsaken, loved and hated, listened to and rejected, crowned and crucified. He had every reason to feel lonely in the world of men, but it was thus that he learned and demonstrated for us the meaning of obedience – through the things that he suffered. If all he is asking of us just now is the willingness to accept the relatively small discipline of loneliness, can we not see it as a part of His gift of allowing us to walk with him? -Elizabeth Elliot