​This summer in Vacation Bible School we reenacted Saul’s conversion. We made gray paper chains and carried them to “Damascus.” We circled the room muttering threats against those awful Christians who kept preaching that God wanted us to trust in Jesus rather than follow a list of rules. 

Yesterday I took a long walk in the woods, stopping to pray attributes of God at various benches, stumps and logs along the way like the one at the site of this photo. This entry on "God, our Generous Provider," from Honey from the Comb seemed especially appropriate for this week after Thanksgiving. After all our gratitude  should be greater than what one day a year can contain. With no one to see me there by the lake, I threw back my head and opened my mouth like a baby bird as I prayed, ready to receive from God all the blessings he has for me.

GENEROUS PROVIDER
​
As great as God is, he reaches out to us generously and meets our needs beyond our imagining. As you meditate on these verses, thank him for his generosity to you and open your mouth like an infant to be filled.
 
I am the LORD your God, 
who brought you up out of Egypt. 
Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. Psalm 81:10
 
Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all. 1 Chronicles 29:12
 
How abundant are the good things
that you have stored up for those who fear you,
that you bestow in the sight of all,
on those who take refuge in you. Psalm 31:19
 
The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
Psalm 34:10
 
For the LORD God is a sun and shield; 
the LORD bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold 
from those whose walk is blameless. Psalm 84:11
 
Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! 
2 Corinthians 9:15
 
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32
 
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6: 33
 
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19
 
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15:7
 
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:7-11
 
What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived--
the things God has prepared 
for those who love him--
these are the things God has revealed to us 
by his Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:9 -10a
 
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9
 
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21

​Did you join us in prayer on Wednesday, February 21? Maybe you didn’t choose to fast or dedicate the day to prayer, but I hope you spent some time holding up this broken nation before the God of the Universe.
 
I watched the morning news with the pause button in hand, so that I could stop and pray about individual news stories. My instinct was to curl up with a bowl of cereal or stick in a piece of toast as I watched; I wasn’t yet hungry enough to remember I was fasting.
 
I even found myself thanking the Lord for a stand by President Trump. He is calling for strengthening background checks and a ban on accessories that turn legal guns into assault weapons. So common sense that it should be bi-partisan.

​​I recently attended a women’s retreat sponsored by my home church at Country Lake Retreat Center, Underwood, Indiana. I went, thinking it would be a chance to see lots of old friends. There were a few, but mostly it was a time of meeting new friends—younger women who are picking up the torch of encouraging women in their walk of faith and running with it.