Here’s a little tune I’ve been working on. I don’t know if I’m done with it yet. Maybe I’ll add a bridge or something. I definitely don’t have an ending yet. If you even sorta like it, share it on Facebook because I’m taking an FB hiatus. I still have my account, I’m just not getting on there.
Thanks!!!!
A heart is a fragile thing. It has four chambers: one to fill with sorrow, one with love, one with longing and one, secrets.
And like an old home, we store our old things in the chambers, things we cannot bear to throw away. We wander from chamber to chamber, holding these things in our hands, letting them soak into us, feeling every fear, pain, joy, cheer and grief until it overwhelms.
Sometimes we stay too long in a chamber and we can’t seem to find our way out again. The fragile walls of the chamber squeeze in around us, suffocating us, paralysing us. We wallow in our sorrow too long and our skin becomes pruny, hanging from us like the droopy jowls of a basset hound. We love too deeply and the sting of unrequited feelings burns us until we become numb. We sink into longing until the ache tightens our chest becoming a corset, leaving us gasping for air. Our secrets isolate us in a tower of our own making and our own destruction.
The heart is a fragile thing, and a prison.
And in my life I’ve only ever known one who can release me from my prison, who can stop the walls from collapsing around me. Holy Spirit. He alone can ease suffering. He alone can reinforce the walls of the four chambers to keep them from falling in around us.
““The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.””
Isaiah 61:1-3 NKJV
The heart is a fragile thing, but it doesn’t have to be a prison. It can be a temple, a place of divine contemplation. Instead of sorrow, joy. Instead of being broken by love, we are renewed by it. Instead of longing unfulfilled, we are content beyond measure. Instead of secrets to isolate, honesty to open us.
These are Holy Spirit’s doings.
My only job: when my heart becomes a prison I must remember who liberates me.
The heart is a fragile thing, but I’ve given it to the one who restores all things.
Sometimes instead of saying “shut up”, my girls and I say “gently close up”, because “shut up” is rude. So if you couldn’t tell by the title, this post is about shutting up.
As I was worshipping my God this morning, I was impressed that I needed to shut up. Lol. Or more specifically, I realized that as Christians we often treat prayer and worship as a time to entreat God to enact change in the world. And that’s not a wrong idea. It’s just not the end. It’s not the only purpose of prayer and worship.
Prayer and worship can also be a time for God to enact change in us.
But if we don’t stop talking about the change we want to see God enact in the world, we miss the change God wants to enact in us.
Psalm 46:10
“He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.””
He is God. He will be exalted. He’s not too worried about it. You, BE STILL for a few minutes so He can be exalted in YOU.
I don’t have much more to say. I could actually, ironically, talk a lot about being silent. But I’m not gonna type your ear off today.
Just “gently close up” for a few minutes and be still, let Him enact change in you.
Amen. The end. Hasta la vista, baby.
Maybe you feel like a failure in the Kingdom of God. But if you’re still walking behind Jesus day after day, you’re not a failure. To succeed in God’s Kingdom you need to do only one thing: get behind Jesus and stay there.
If you’ve walked away from Him, and you feel like a failure, you only need to do one thing to become a success again: get behind Jesus and stay there.
The disciples followed Jesus around for 3 years before He ascended to heaven. And after His ascension they were filled with the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was alive, did they get everything right? Did they fulfill His will perfectly every time? No. When they received the Holy Spirit, did they always perfectly hear His voice and put action behind His words? No. But they succeeded because they never stopped trying. They never walked away. They got behind Jesus and stayed there.
In Mark 4, when the storm arose and Jesus slept and the disciples thought they would die He said to them:
Mark 4:40 He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’
They messed up. Their faith was lacking. Did Jesus write them off? Tell them to find a new Rabbi to follow? Go out looking for new disciples? No. He didn’t because they weren’t failures. And they weren’t failures because they were still following Jesus.
Nor did He kick them to the curb in Matthew 17 when they were unable to heal the afflicted boy.
Matthew 17:16 “I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”
Even after Jesus ascended into Heaven and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter still messed up.
Galatians 2:11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong.
Can I let you in on a little secret? They were human. *Gasp* And, you know what else? You are too. *Gasp, Gasp*
Humans make mistakes. It’s what we’re most famous for. And, believe it or not, God knows that.
Psalm 139:1-2
1 O Lord, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.
2 You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
***
Sunday morning, I stood alone praying. I poured my heart out to the Lord. I told Him that I felt like such a failure and I felt so lost. That’s when I felt the overwhelming feeling inside, that I was not a failure because I was still showing up. Yes, I’d made mistakes. And, yes, I’ll make more mistakes in the future. But I’m gonna keep showing up. I’m gonna keep trying to see the face of my Lord. And as long as I’m doing that, I’m not a failure.
PLEASE READ EVERY SINGLE WORD OF THE FOLLOWING SCRIPTURE. BECAUSE IF YOU HAVE READ THIS FAR, YOU NEED TO READ THIS TOO.
Romans 8:31-39
31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?
36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”)
37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
38 And I am convinced that NOTHING can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If we live by the standards of this world, then, yes, we are all failures! So thank God that failures are His favorite kind of people!!
1 Corinthians 1:27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.
The heroes of our faith, the patriarchs that we look to in the scriptures for guidance, they all have their faults on full display for all to see. No humiliating detail was spared in scripture. The message we should see staring us right in the face when we look into the scripture is this: God uses the losers, the bastards, the orphans and the whores because He loves them and they love Him back. The world sees them as failures. They see themselves as failures. But God says, “Keep showing up. That’s all I ask.”
Here’s the song I wrote on the subject: For Sure
Luke 14:16-24
16 Jesus replied with this story: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. 17 When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, the banquet is ready.’ 18 But they all began making excuses. One said, ‘I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.’ 19 Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.’20 Another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
21 “The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ 22 After the servant had done this, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’ 23 So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. 24 For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’”
God’s recipe for success in His Kingdom: SHOW UP.
I don’t know, but I think I can do at least that.
Every Day Bonnie 
