Such a quote sets my mind to reminiscing the many delightful blessings that have crowded our family’s lives with happiness over the years—all manifestations of his awe-inspiring attributes.
And the thought occurred to me, what a gratifying exercise it might be to list a number of God’s traits and name an event to illustrate each one.
Perhaps this list will trigger memories of your own refreshing joys.
WATCHFUL CARE
It was my responsibility to disarm the alarm at church for our Women Connect meetings. After opening the door, a timer ticked off thirty seconds until the alarm sounded. But one morning I couldn’t find the new code in my wallet.
More than a few tense moments transpired while I rummaged, and then, just in the nick of time the slip of paper with the code appeared, and I quickly punched it in.
About half an hour later, our pastor came by and asked, “Do these belong to anybody?” He held up my rubber-banded charge cards, license, insurance cards, etc. They must have popped out as I grabbed the paper with the code, and in the dark hallway I didn’t see them.
PROVISION
I just happened to come across pertinent ideas in Jesus Always (by Sarah Young) that fit perfectly with what I was preparing to share as a devotional for the Mother’s Day Brunch at church. Such a lovely discovery.
CREATIVE POWER
Perhaps you too have stood amazed on the shore of Reflection Lake in Washington State, gazing up at majestic Mt. Rainier, whose peak reaches 14,410 feet and whose base covers approximately one hundred square miles. How mind-boggling to contemplate God’s creative capacities!
COMPASSION
Countless times over the years, when feeling apprehensive about the future, we’ve received God’s comfort through such scriptures as: “Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?” (Judges 4:14b). He’s proven everything is under his capable control.
GOODNESS
Indeed, my cup overflows (Psalm 23:5)! I enjoy the delight of a loving family, wonderful friends, a vibrant church community, Steve’s continuing health after a liver transplant nearly eight years ago, and SO much more.
WISDOM
In hindsight we see God’s astute engineering of events for our benefit. One outstanding example: in 2001 Steve just happened to be assigned as pastor of a church that just happened to maintain a scholarship fund, thanks to a generous endowment and successful fund-raising.
Our younger son just happened to be preparing to enter the ministry. He received a full scholarship to attend seminary, and has now served as a pastor for more than fifteen years.
NURTURING
All my life I’ve been blessed with spiritual teachers and mentors who’ve guided and inspired my experience with God and contributing greatly to my growth in biblical understanding. The instruction of his Word continues to give me much pleasure.
PROTECTION
Another purse story! One day I left my purse at the outdoor student-dismissal area where I taught school. An hour after I’d returned to my classroom from that duty I suddenly remembered. God watched over that purse until I retrieved it, saving me from a heart-sickening and time-consuming setback.
ENCOURAGEMENT
Sometimes spiritual refreshment comes through an experience rather than words.
One morning on my way to school I reveled in a scene worthy of a painting: dark green trees and vegetation reflected from the calm surface of a pond as a great egret gracefully winged across just above it. His brilliant white feathers against the dark foliage provided a breath-taking sight.
The moment felt like a special gift.
RIGHTEOUSNESS
SO many times over the years, circumstances or decisions we’ve been concerned about have turned out “just right,” thanks to God’s leading and provision. One example: our home in retirement, close to our older son and his family, perfect in size and layout.
There you have it: ten of God’s attributes, demonstrated in personal blessings. My heart is indeed crowded with happiness as I remember the wonderful works he has done (Psalm 105:5a).
Now it’s your turn. Please share in the comment section below an example of a “refreshing joy” that has crowded your heart with happiness!
Images credits: http://www.pxhere.com; http://www.easy-peasy.ai; http://www.publicdomainpictures.net; http://www.canva.com; http://www.unsplash (Aaron Burden); http://www.easy-peasy.ai; http://www.canva.com.
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I could deeply relate to all the examples you gave here about how the Lord provides for us and crowds our days with happiness and His unending love. He takes delight in His children, and when we delight in Him, He will give us more than we could ever hope for, ask for, or deserve. His watchful and loving care means everything to me. Thanks so much for your reflection, Nancy! Blessings!
You’re welcome, Martha. No doubt every life is touched by every one of God’s attributes mentioned here. We just need to practice attentiveness. I found that keeping a journal to record God’s faithfulness helped me to live more aware. All of the above illustrations were taken from that journal!
What wonderful examples of God’s love! It reminded me to look at the blessings in my own life. Thank you, Nancy!
You’re welcome, Dana!
What wonderful examples of God’s faithfulness! I especially appreciate the ones where God rescued you from potentially stressful situations. God is gracious and merciful.
He is indeed, Linda. As a matter of fact, the notebook journal where these events and many more are recorded is titled, “God Is Faithful!”
💜
wonderful examples of God’s provision! I especially like your opening quote – a new one for me. 10000 delights. That alone made me smile. Wonderful uplifting words.
Thank you, Jean. Isn’t that a great quote? I love it too. Just meditating on those words for a moment brightens my spirit!
Thank you for the examples of God’s goodness that you have shared. One day after Aaron and I had eaten at a restaurant, our old land line phone rang. I ignored it. It later rang again so I answered it. I could hardly understand the girl on the other end but she said something about finding an item of mine in the booth where Aaron and I had been sitting. Turned out it was my wallet! I hadn’t even missed it. As this young lady had been cleaning our table, she found it and the only number she found inside was our old land line number. I was so grateful to her and to God for taking care of me that day!
Thank you for sharing your story, Patty. Praise God for his attentive care, even in matters quite small on the catastrophe-scale. I wonder how many times a day God performs little miracles like these for all his children around the world?! The number would undoubtedly boggle our minds!
His goodness was on full display a couple of weeks ago when Mom got up too fast, got dizzy, fainted, and woke up with a gash on her ear. We called the squad and they checked her over at the hospital. Her blood pressure was too high. She had decided to give up driving which means a loss of independence; that is very hard for her and I believe contributed to the high BP. Other than that, this week’s semi-annual physical showed that for the age of 96 she is in really good shape. Her doctor always tells her that he hopes he is as healthy as she is when he gets to be that age. Her BP is back to normal and this month she will be visiting her older sister Phyllis (in Indiana). Aunt Phyl will be 100 on September 25. My nephew will be driving her there. I’m sure this visit will do them both good. God is, indeed, good. I hope I inherit her genes! The squad man said he couldn’t believe she was 96!
Praise God for his loving care over your mom, Cheri. And God bless that nephew for taking her to see her sister. No doubt they’ll have a glorious time celebrating Aunt Phyllis’ 100th birthday!
I was serving on the worship team and during the Thursday night practice, we had a prayer time in which I felt “elementary” next to the beautiful prayers of the others on the team, so when Sunday morning’s practice came, I prayed my prayer before I got there and told the Lord I wasn’t going to pray in front of the others today. It was as if He asked, “You’re not praying out loud?” and I said, “Not today. Sorry.” When I got to practice and waited for the others on the team to get plugged in and mic ready, the leader of the team, who was at the opposite side of the stage than me, looked directly at me from such a distance and said, “Sharon, will you open us in prayer?” and I wanted to laugh out loud and high five the Lord!
‘Had to smile when I read you served on the worship team for your church, Sharon. We have that experience in common! Such wonderful memories of making music together with delightful people, worshiping together (even in rehearsal) with hearts, minds, and souls in sync with the Spirit. So invigorating! / I love the way God gave you a little nudge out of your comfort zone that Sunday morning. He surely had good reason to inspire the leader to ask YOU specifically to pray. Perhaps what you said, coming from who you are and what you’ve experienced, was particularly meaningful to someone on the team. Coming from someone else may not have been as impactful!
Nancy, this made me think about my situation as a retired individual. I suspect when some step away from work, they to some extent feel like they are entering the final chapter of their lives…which they are of course…but they can become overwhelmed with focusing on that clock ticking. What shall I do? What haven’t I done yet? However, one thing I made it a point to do for myself when I retired was to take time daily to pray thanks for all the things I have done, and been given the grace to experience. It should be a time for gratefulness as far as I am concerned, and I make time to do just that. You certainly are grateful for those above life experiences as well, and I can definitely appreciate that feeling.
That’s a great habit you’ve established Bruce. Gratitude to God is a game-changer, proven by research!
Nancy—when I read your blogs–so often I find reasons for my head and my heart to rejoice in the Lord. Thank you for engaging the whole person with your examples, your teachings, your scriptures—-they are an encouragement and a refreshment to my soul!! (and to many others) God bless you for your writing ministry!!
Praise God you find encouragement and refreshment here, Katie! Thank you so much for your kind words.
You are most welcome–I also am praising God for the courage your words impart!! 🙂
Hallelujah!
🙂
Every time you ask for an example of God’s presence, I find it comforting I can always come up with one from recent experience. If I just go with your first category – Watchful Care – I think about tickets to a football game last weekend. I bought ten of them for family and friends. When I went to move them from the app to my electronic wallet (everything’s electronic these days with sporting events), the app wouldn’t let me. It looked entirely as if someone else had taken them (i.e. scam). So I contacted the Ticket Office in a cold sweat, but was instantly reassured that I’d simply not followed the right process to get the tickets. A little redirection (intervention?) and bingo – tickets. Watchful care indeed!
Some would call that just a happy coincidence that the Ticket Office could solve your problem so easily. But “every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father (James 1:17a)–including the move of football tickets from an app to an electronic wallet! Thank you for sharing, Dave. God does indeed demonstrate his loving care with just such incidents.
Refreshing joy…looking out the window while sitting at the computer typing and seeing my little waterfall surrounded by vincas; hearing the doves sing; the blue sky with white fluffy clouds. Sitting in His Presence and enjoying a glance at His creation refreshes me, Nancy.
I agree, Lisa–there’s nothing like nature to refresh the soul–even a window view! Yours sounds particularly delightful.