Thoughts of Grace

As early as November
these iris begin to bloom
despite the cold and cloudy days.

Good Morning

Psalm 125:1-2
They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion,
which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.
As the mountains are round about Jerusalem,
so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.

I hope it may be the happiest year of your life,
as I think each succeeding year of everybody’s life should be,
of only everybody were wise enough to see things as they are:
for it is certain that there really exists,
laid up and ready to hand,
for those who will just lay hands upon it,
enough for every one and enough for ever.
I am quite sure that the central mistake of all lives
that are mistaken is the not taking
this simple unchangeable fact for granted,
not seeing that it is so,
and cannot but be so,
and will remain so “though we believe not.”
I think I can trace every scrap of sorrow
in my own life to this simple unbelief.
How could I be anything but quite happy
if I believed always that all the past is forgiven,
and all the present furnished with power,
and all the future bright with hope,
because of the same abiding facts,
which don’t change with my mood,
do not crumble,
because I totter and stagger
at the promise through unbelief,
but stand firm and clear
with their peaks of pearl cleaving the air of Eternity,
and the bases of their hills rooted unfathomably
in the Rock of God?
~~ James Smetham

2Timothy 2:13
If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

Believe in spite of feelings . . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie