Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. Psalm 57:1 ESV
Some days the hawk sits silently While the thunder crashes round And swallows swoop into the barn Where the chickens huddle down
Tall cranes stand in the rushes In her house the blue bird sleeps While the chickadees are twittering In the thickets dark and deep
But eagles fly up to their nests When they hear their children cry And shelter them under their wings While the rain is passing by
Then why should you and I do less Who know our place to fly Up to God our refuge strong While the storm is passing by
Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Isaiah 55:1 NIV
When we lived in the mountains of Northeast Pennsylvania we had two Elkhounds: named Sonya and Thunder. Though they were sisters from the same litter, and looked alike, their personalities were completely different. Thunder loved nothing better than to sit with me and let her ears be scratched, but Sonya was always looking for a chance to escape and would usually entice Thunder to run after her. Late one snowy Winter night, I cracked the front door open to see how much had fallen, when Sonya suddenly shot out between me and the door, with Thunder close behind. “Sonya! Thunder! Come back!” I shouted after them, but rather than turning or even slowing down, they hurried off into the darkness. As Elkhounds I knew they weren’t in any danger from the cold, and since they were ignoring me, I simply shrugged my shoulders, closed the door, flicked off the light and went to bed. In the morning you never saw such a meek couple of puppy-dogs, curled up by our doorway and eager to be let back in.
Sometimes our walk with God looks like that night on the mountain. God loves us to come sit close to Him. He wants nothing more than to care for us and keep us safe in His presence. In today’s verse, He calls to us, “Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters.” But sometimes our heart longs to run, and when we do God doesn’t chase after us. We think we are getting away with something, but in reality, we are trading a safe warm home for a night in a snowstorm of doubts, fears and false promises. How amazingly good it is that God doesn’t lock His door and vow to never speak to us again. Instead, when we limp home with our feet frozen from the cold, and huddle up outside His door, He calls us again, but this time He says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest!” Can you hear Him calling? Are you ready to listen to His voice? The moment our heart says, “Yes” we will discover a rest that He paid for on Calvary and the home that He has prepared for us to stay in forever!
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-31 NIV
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord; you know that I love you. He said to him, Feed my lambs. John 21:15 ESV
One old gospel song has a line that says, “Let us have a little talk with Jesus” And when people mention prayer usually we usually start thinking of what we will say in that little talk. But usually, what we really need to do is to let Jesus talk first! In today’s verse, Jesus is telling Peter something He had been trying to say for years. Bur Peter had been so busy talking that Jesus just couldn’t get Him to listen. One time Peter even boasted that He was more faithful than any of the other disciples.
But that same night Peter denied even knowing Jesus three times. If you were Jesus, what would you do? What Jesus did was to come and have a little talk with Peter. Though we might criticize Peter, deep down inside we know that we have all failed just as badly or even worse. But the good news is that Jesus still comes and asks for us start walking with Him again, and He asks the question, “Do you love Me?” Then, when He has our full attention, He gently but firmly commands, “Then go feed My lambs!”
praise2worshipdotnet 
You must be logged in to post a comment.