The Refrigerator

By a twist of events we landed in the basement for prayer. We were a bunch of men sitting around asking God to pour out love, and as we sat emptying out hearts and refilling, recharging with that sweet Spirit of the Lord, I became aware of the old refrigerator next to me.  

It was gurgling and churning, chugging away.   It was scraped up, dented, paint chipped, and soiled from its many years living in the basement....yet here it was next to me, whirring.

It was doing its job.

I don't know the brand name of the refrigerator.  I don't know how old it is, how well it's made, or how much it cost the day it was wheeled off the showroom floor.   Don't really care.
It's doing what it was designed to do.
Fulfilling its purpose.
Plugged into the source of power, and it's working.

God,
To the rest of this world, make me like this refrigerator.
If I can just keep plugged into the source, if I can remember daily that my value, my identity, is found in You, I'll be able to do the things in this world that You designed me to do.
The world might kick me shut now and then, doors might slam shut from time to time, and on that outer shell if I've really lived, there should be an ample amount of scrapes and scars.  Life should be soiled into my pores.
But on the inside, where the power of Your Love flows, I'll be filled.
Not measured by the standard of man, but instead by the breadth of Your Hand.
When I'm held by You my name, my status, my rights.... my glory is not my own.  
Help me to do just what You built me to do.
In Your Name.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  
Eph 2:10


For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self–discipline. 
2 Tim 1:7


If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 
1 Cor 13:3

God's Blessings

So this morning I was thinking about how old my hubby and I are and how it seems we are "just" feeling the Lord's blessings. We have bought a new home(from renting for 7 years) and are currently blessed with our jobs, we are loving each other more every day, our kids are healthier than ever, and the kitchen is stocked. Instantly, I realized only in the past few years have WE truly been blessing the Lord.
Deuteronomy 29:5-6 says "During the forty years that I led you through the desert, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet. You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink. I did this so you might know I am the Lord your God."
Looking back we always had enough, we were always provided for somehow. Always blessed whether we realized it or not. And we knew it was by no other means than the Lord's love for us that we were making it. Through our time of drought and trials we grew to know and depend on the Lord, we began serving the Lord, praising the Lord and honoring Him. We know that He is our Lord our God!
How are/were you blessed. How are you blessing the Lord today?