GOD BLESSES WHAT REMAINS

Isaiah 61:3 NIV To all who mourn in Israel he will give: beauty for ashes; joy instead of mourning; praise instead of heaviness. For God has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory.

When we have a family Christmas meal there are sometimes leftovers which we can use the next day, and very often we enjoy the remains even more the second time around!😊

When Jesus fed the 5,000 He instructed the disciples to go round and pick up what remained of the food which amounted to 12 baskets full. Scholars estimate they held roughly 35.24 litres (about 9.3 gallons) which represented a significant volume of leftover bread and fish. Jesus obviously had a purpose for those leftovers otherwise He wouldn’t have bothered, but He did, so they mattered to Him.

Likewise God can use what remains of our lives because they matter to Him too. Isaiah tells us even the ashes can produce beauty and hold unlimited potential in God’s hands. He promises to give joy instead of mourning and our part is to receive and believe His promise.😊

Revelation 3:2 TLB Now wake up! Strengthen what little remains. Now we may be young or old, or somewhere in the middle, but even if we think we’ve not got much left God can use it. He wants us to cooperate with Him and allow Him to strengthen however little or much we have, not to underestimate what remains of our lives. If we’re still breathing God wants us here for a purpose.

He encourages us to stay faithful with what we have because it’s never too late and He can still use us, even if we’ve been in a wilderness like Moses! We can still believe to take mountains and be like Joshua and Caleb who said, “We can do this!”

God wants us to have an expectation for the future because He has told us, “Wake up! Strengthen what remains.” If we do that He can abundantly bless what remains and how encouraging that is to us all.😊 Amen.

Have a blessed weekend.x😊

Photo by Swiss Educational College on Unsplash