Today's praise is for the pure, clear, fresh water God provides

 Maybe I'm thinking of it more because we are currently in such need of it here - 

with summer heat and spreading wildfires in our province. 

The sky is a strange, glowing, golden, gray, and it has me longing for water to wash it away, and put out the fires.  It also has me thinking about how I long for the fresh, pure water of refreshing in God's Word, and to dwell near the stream, letting my roots go down deep and be refreshed while everything around me is just 

DRY! 

I'm feeling a little dry myself. 

Psalm 42:1

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.

It wasn't until quite recently that I noticed that the deer was not just stopping by the nice stream for a little lap of water: Oh look, a little stream, I think I'll have a sip... 

No, this deer is THIRSTY!  He's been running or he's been looking for water for a long time - He really needs it... 

He's DESPERATE! 

Are you desperate?  Are you parched by the dry winds of life, by the scorching heat of the world?

Just the day in, day out stuff of living as a Christian in a hostile land - you don't have to be facing lions in the Colosseum - 

just today's trials, setbacks,  & stresses will do it 

It makes me desperate for Refreshing.

And only God can do that!

And though water in the Bible is used for other illustrations, we primarily see it described as "living waters" - the stuff of life

Eternal Life - Unquenchable Life - In Christ

"...but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.  Indeed the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  (John 4:14)

And the Living Water is our Saviour - Life itself - Pure refreshment - a spring of living water (Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13) which we can and must drink from daily - over and over while we live in this dry, dusty, hostile world... 

We long for and desperately need His life-giving, refreshing water to enable us to stay strong, alive and bearing fruit in this this place - in the place He has you today.

Praise the LORD for His gift of Himself - the Life, the Spring of Living Water!

     I'm quite excited!  Blackberry season is about 5-6 weeks away (sooner if we don't get some rain soon), and it is a time of year that brings bountiful blessings in many ways. 

     Not only do we enjoy a generous harvest of berries from several wild blackberry patches in the area, but the very act of going out early in the morning, when the world is still quite quiet, affords wonders and joys not often found through the rest of the year. 

      It is a decidedly unique and glorious season of just 2-3 weeks in which I find myself lost in a reverie of thankfulness, not only for the berries, but for the myriad ways that God tells me about Himself, shows me things about myself, and teaches me:

 about praise, worship, and wonder - about Himself! 

     Allow me to share something I wrote last year upon returning home, full of scratches, stains, sweet berry smells, and a very full heart and soul.

When the blackberry season hits...I never cease to be amazed at God's bounty!  It brought me immediately to a place of Thankfulness!  

LORD, Thank You for this astounding display of your provision!...As I searched through the thicket for patches of plump, ripe berries, hacking back thorny runners and dodging overhead prickles, I realized that 'blessings' are as varied as anything else in God's economy.

                                      Let me explain: 

Some berries are just there - easily reached, few prickles stand in the way. Others must be searched for, worked for!  Sometimes those are fabulous, engorged berries - temptingly near - but just out of reach!

 If possible, I inch near to them, setting aside the thorny runners until I can gain the juicy treasures.  Some I drop! Some fall irretrievably into the thicket, some simply hang there, unattainable, telling me that not all blessings I see are mine, or that the blessing my Father has for me through those berry-moments, is to learn of Him - 

                     His ways, His Glory, His Perfection, His Love.

Full of praise  - thanksgiving - adoration - wonder - awe!  Who wouldn't be?  Who can stand in the shower of His blessings so manifold and varied and not wonder and adore?  

Can you look around you now and see something of the varied blessings of His love in your life? Sometimes they are obvious, and sometimes we have to search a little harder - maybe right now it's just being able to check out and SLEEP for a few hours,

      ...or to feel a gentle breeze,

               ...or receive some small token of love from someone near (or far), and dear

     If you can't find something to be thankful for - a reason to praise our God, 

             ...ASK Him, and He will show you - I'm sure of it - I'm praying now for you, to lift your gaze to the One Who gives all, and 

                                                         ...Praise Him!

And while you do, listen to this wonderful old song that often comes to my mind, heart and voice when alone in the blackberry patch.  For this is, indeed, My Father's World! 

 

     This is my first post, and admittedly done "on the fly".  Future posts will elucidate a bit more just Who we are praising and why, when, where and how.  For now, I post this clip:  Casting Crowns play "I Will Praise You in the Storm"  because we all have storms going on: big or small, long-lasting or temporary, they are the testing places for our praise, indeed for our faith.  James doesn't write for nothing:

 " Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:2-4 NIV)

And that is a good place to begin. Now, I leave you with the song, "I Will Praise You in the Storm"; The "You" is the One True God whom we worship and praise; He is the Lord of the earth and all creation, of all that ever is, was or shall be - including you and me! 

"Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
    worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness." (Psalm 29:2 NIV)