When you feel small

when you feel small PJ

There are days where we feel so insignificant, invisible even.

It seems as if we blend into the air around, lost in the ether.

Our voices feel weak as tiny bird. Our words fall flat on ears deaf to their sound.

Our place in the here and now looks insubstantial, shaky and small.

It feels like we’re hardly here at all.

Do you have days like that? I do. 

They are red flags to what’s going on inside of us. Warning signs to heed.

They are white flags of surrender. Cries for help beyond ourselves.

Because God becomes our only safe shelter in a world where we feel less than all He made us to be.

He knows the vagaries of the human heart. He listens to every beat it makes. Hears the inner laments and anguish of a soul in torment.

And His Father-heart cries over the cruelty of a world that scorns His Son and tears His children apart.

Because He knows how wearied we can become and how we are made for far more than this world offers.

I’m thankful for those who see, who hear, who listen, who respond and make me feel I have a voice, a tiny place of worth in the scheme of things.

But I’m grateful most of all for the unending, unconditional love of God who helps me to become all that I can be by His grace.

There are no losers, no left out people, no invisible or discarded ones in God’s Kingdom. We are people of great worth and value in His eyes.

We are the grace dwellers, the truth tellers, the anointed, redeemed, blood-bought children He loves beyond measure.

Yes, here.. and now, living in this upside-down kingdom, topsy-turvy world we’re in, we are very significant to Him.

Here

We live in a world addicted to gain

to ascending the summit of success

to amassing, collecting largesse

And yet you call me to dwell here

abide in quiet shadows of surrender

where I sense the humiliation

of my life so small against

the largeness of your love

Here I am nothing, yet remain

everything to you; my emptiness

the reason for your pouring,

filling, overflowing measure

of grace into every dark

and empty space inside my heart

Because your love leads me into

encounter, renewal, fresh start

©JoyLenton2015

When you feel small in the eyes of the world, remember Whose you are, my friend. Such thoughts stirred the  5 minute poem above.

I’m blessed to be joining in with the wonderful writing community that comprises Five Minute Friday. Today’s prompt is:‘Here’. Kate Motaung is our gracious hostess.

You’re very welcome to come and join us at her place as we celebrate the first anniversary of her time hosting this link up.

Also adding to the soul refreshment being served over at Bonnie Gray’s place for Beloved Brews. Do come over and take a fuel stop there.. 🙂

encounter PJ pin

 

A place of refuge

baby being held ~ safety file image

When the world wants too much from us and we have nothing left to give, when we are weary of waiting and hoping for change, when shame and pain have haunted our nights and days, when we long for a place of refuge and a person we can fully trust ~ to whom can we turn?

Only God can provide all the safety, healing, comfort and reassurance we need. We can crawl into His presence and be held fast.

Allow Abba Father to pour His unconditional love out on us. Be held. Be calmed. Be loved beyond all measure.

His arms are our sheltering place.

His heart is our home.

His love is our lasting comfort.

His joy is our strength.

His promises our hope.

His word our light and guide.

Friend, if you are hurting right now, if the world has wearied you, if you need a reliable person to trust and turn to then come, come to God and be helped.

He has been revealing to me lately that healing is a process, a gradual unfurling to God’s love, a continual learning from His word, a daily leaning on His mercy and grace and a laying down of all that keeps us captive to shame and disgrace.

Come and receive the sustenance your soul longs for. He is waiting to receive you as soon as you are willing to believe and turn to Him.

 ‘Safety’

Held fast in the circle

of Your embrace,

my weary head

falls to rest on

shoulders of strength.

Feeling my heartbeat

slow and steady

to match Your own.

Sense my breath

gulping deep,

drinking hard

the very air

You breathe.

There is no

condemnation here,

no fear, no pain

I can let go

tears and years

of struggle, of shame,

of hurt and fears

And asking questions

with no answers.

I can let go

deep-bone weariness,

weakness, sickness,

for they cannot abide

in Your presence.

For now it is just

You and me together

And I feel safe until

the material

world intrudes again.

©JoyLenton2014 

Joining with encouraging friends

Holley ~ Coffee for Your Heart

Jennifer  ~ Tell His Story

Bonnie~ Faith Barista’s Beloved Brews

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