Month: February 2015

Mender

/ Susie Stewart / 3 Comments

 

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Are you in a state of disappointment?

A state of hurt?

Has someone pained your heart

messed with your mind?

 

Is it all you can do

not to focus on imaginary conversations

you would have

if you could

speak vengeance?

If you had the courage to hurt back?

 

All your focus

All your focus

on that offender…

 

Because, after all,

the offense continues…

in your mind

or in real life.

 

Your heart begs to be mended.

 

If you could,

you would have a surgeon stitch

all the torn parts

because it hurts

and it consumes

and it is all you can think about.

 

We are a broken people.

 

We need mending.

 

Only the Uncreated

can truly mend

the created’s heart.

 

The only thing is…

You’ve got to force your focus

off the offender

and onto the Mender.

 

Only then can you genuinely heal.

 

And like the best of all surgeons

He stitches up

and binds up

and HEALS

your broken heart.

 

So that your focus

will stay on Him

the One who loves and cares the most.

 

Let Him mend.

Don’t stay broken.

 

Then God’s mending love

can reach out to others broken

through you.

– Susie Stewart

 

 

 

 

Change

/ Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

 

Things have changed for you.

For the good or the bad.

 

From your perspective things are looking up!

Or down…..

 

But yesterday, or last week, or last year

things were different….

 

The sand dunes of life are ever shifting

ever changing

ever not the same as they were.

 

And you’d like to hold on to certain parts

and you’d like to forget certain parts

and you get tired of the ups

and the downs.

 

You long for same

Or better

Or steady.

 

But one thing’s for certain.

In this life there is always change.

There is always better and worse.

And the only certainty we have

is in God and His Word.

 

So in the shifting sands of day in and day out,

take heart.

Things will always change

and shift

and be up

and down…

BUT

if you keep your eyes and your heart

on the One and only One

who does not change

and you focus on His promises,

you will walk these shifting sands

with perspective

and light

and steadiness

and courage.

With a grateful heart.

– Susie Stewart

 

“I am the LORD, and I do not change.”    Malachi 3:6 (NLT)

Heart

/ Susie Stewart / 4 Comments

A stubborn heart.

A hard heart.

An unyielding heart.

I read about Pharoah

and his stone-cold heart.

And I’m incredulous.

Good grief!

How could he continue

holding the Israelites captive

plague

after plague

after plague

after plague…

God spoke!

Pharaoh feigned surrender.

He wouldn’t let go.

The consequences

the consequences

the consequences…

Destruction, pain, death.

A stubborn heart.

A hard heart.

An unyielding heart.

I can relate.

I have hardened my heart at times.

God goes to great lengths to soften it.

He works on making my heart pliable

as He unclenches my tight fists.

They go together – tight hearts and tight fists.

As I open those hands,

as I surrender all to Him,

as I trust that He knows

He knows

He knows,

my heart softens.

A stubborn heart.

A hard heart.

An unyielding heart.

It forfeits blessings.

It affects others.

It alienates.

It distances.

It creates chasms

between you and people

between you and God

between you and who you could be.

Lord, continue to make my heart pliable.

Let it bend and curve to Your beckoning.

I want

open hands of surrender

and

an open heart of trust.

– Susie Stewart

God in a Box

/ Susie Stewart / 5 Comments

You have Him wrapped up tight, don’t you?

 

In a box

of your own design

of your own size

of your own weight, height, depth.

 

He fits, doesn’t He?

Fits in your constraining box.

 

Of course He must fit, right?

He must fit, because you get to choose….

 

When to bring Him out,

when to acknowledge Him,

when to worship Him,

when to listen to Him,

when to take advantage of His power.

 

As if He were a genie

at your beckon call.

 

It is surreal to try and imagine

GOD in a box.

 

If there ever was anyone who didn’t fit

in a box

it is Him.

 

But we try to do it, don’t we?

 

We try to just bring Him out of that box

on Sunday

when we are afraid

when life is caving in

when we walk through the valley of the shadow…

 

What would we do with a God

who could fit in a box?

 

We would manipulate Him

to do what we want

We would keep Him in there

when we didn’t want Him to see

our sin

our choices

our mediocrity.

 

We would not respect Him.

Because He would be a God

who could be placed in a box.

Relegated to a list.

Put on a shelf.

 

But don’t be fooled.

If anyone is in a box, it is the one who tries to put God there.

 

He is trapped and confined

by his schedule

his sin

his choices

his lack of vision….

 

of THE GOD

who is in all

over all

Alive

Infinite

Uncontainable

Un-boxable.

 

For the one who is wise

God will not be able to be contained

in your mind

or on your list

or in your box.

 

He is so big and so all-encompassing

and so lovingly piercing

that you will know Him

in every part

in every corner

of your life.

 

And you will worship Him

during any moment

in every circumstance

with love in your heart

for God

 

Who cannot fit in a box.

 

He wants your everything.

Are you willing to give it to Him?

Or do you still think He fits neatly and you get to choose?

– Susie Stewart

 

…one God and Father of all,

who is over all, in all, and living through all.

– Ephesians 4:6 (NLT)

Ambassador

/ Susie Stewart / 2 Comments

 

Home.

It’s somewhere I’ve never been.

Amazing really.

That I long for this place.

That there are people I love there.

And I want to spend time with them again.

But I am here.

 

You put eternity in my heart, God.

And when I look to the sky

and the clouds part

it’s almost as if I am trying to see

Home.

 

Where I truly fit in.

And feel completely fulfilled.

And there is no pain.

And there is no feeling lonely

for home.

 

You tell me that I am a citizen of heaven.

I believe You.

Because You are first in my heart

and I trust You when You say

that you have prepared a place for me.

 

I am a citizen of another place.

Let me live as if I truly believe it!

 

You, Lord, made me Your Ambassador.

Your representative citizen of heaven

here in the world I was born into.

The world of humanity.

The world that sometimes feels like home, comfortable and safe.

But I know better.

 

My promised home is perfect.

Imperfections abound in my temporary home.

 

That’s why I am an Ambassador.

An Ambassador to bring reconciliation

between God and people.

I’m calling out to those who are weighed heavily

with those imperfections

to accept His invitation!

to come home.

 

He calls all of us from beyond,

and in our hearts.

 

Will you embrace this earthly home

with everything you have to give?

Or choose a perfect home

swept away to its streets of gold

in the twinkling of an eye

on the day of God’s choosing?

 

I embrace that which is beyond what my human eyes can see.

For I am seen.

And I am His.

And He will call me
some day

Home.

– Susie Stewart

 

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

– 1 Corinthians 13:12 (NLT)

 

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

– 2 Corinthians 5:20 (NLT)

 

…He has planted eternity in the human heart…

– Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NLT)

 

Photo taken by Susie Stewart