Thoughts of Grace

Good Morning

From Streams in the desert, vol 1, this is my very favorite New Year’s devotion. I receive such hope and comfort from knowing ‘thy God careth’ and ‘the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it’.

Deuteronomy 11:11-14  But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:    A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.  And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,   That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.

Today, dear friends, we stand upon the verge of the unknown. there lies before us the new year and we are going forth to possess it. Who can tell what we shall find? What new experiences, what changes shall come, what new needs shall arise? But here is the cheering, comforting, gladdening message from our Heavenly Father.
“The Lord thy God careth for it.”
“His eyes are upon it away to the ending of the year.”

All our supply is to come from the Lord. Here are springs that shall never dry; here are fountains and streams that shall never be cut off. Here, anxious one, is the gracious pledge of the Heavenly Father. If He be the Source of our mercies they can never fail us. No heat, no drought can parch that river, “the streams whereof make glad the city of God.”
The land is a land of hills and valleys. It is not all smooth nor all down hill. If life were all one dead level the dull sameness would oppress us; we want the hills and the valleys. The hills collect the rain for a hundred fruitful valleys. Ah, so it is with us! It is the hill difficulty that drives us to the throne of grace and brings down the shower of blessing; the hills, the bleak hills of life that we wonder at and perhaps grumble at, bring down the shower. How many have perished in the wilderness, buried under its golden sands, who would have lived and thriven in the hill-country; how many would have been killed by the frost, blighted wit winds, swept desolate of tree and fruit but for the hill–stern, hard, rugged, so steep to climb. God’s hills are a precious protection for His people against their foes!

We cannot tell what loss and sorrow and trial are doing. Trust only. The Father comes near to take our hand and lead us on our way today. It shall be a good, a blessed new year!

He leads us on by paths we did not know;
Upward He leads us, though our steps be slow,
Though oft we faint and falter on the way,
Though storms and darkness oft obscure the day;
Yet when the clouds are one,
We know He leads us on.

 He leads us on through all the unquiet years;
Past all our dreamland hopes, and doubts and fears,
He guides our steps, though all the tangled maze
of losses, sorrows, and o’eclouded days;
We know His will is done:
And still He leads us on. N. L. Zinzendorf.

Trust God for your day . . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie