"AND BEHOLD, IN HER MOUTH WAS A FRESHLY PLUCKED OLIVE LEAF"

After watching session #1 of 1000 Gifts small group study, I was left with some of my own questions....Do I look right past the gift, the beauty ....and start reaching? Just like Adam and Eve looked right past the beauty of the garden.....reaching for the apple?  Am I really so different from old Adam and Eve?  Why do I love the garden after I've been kicked out of it? 

Why do I wonder why I didn't try harder, love more, say (or not say) the needed words until after the relationship is broken? 

I want to get on the front side of this thing called life and beauty and grace and joy.

God’s Word teaches me just how to do just that by learning how to walk in the Spirit! And this book we are studying, "1000 Gifts" is going to be a big help to me in this endeavor.

My son Gabe happened to call me Sunday night and ask me if he could pray over me. "Uh Yeah!!"  In his prayer he mentioned that I was the Lord;s dove. Weird huh? But my mind immediately went to Noah's dove in Genesis. So the next morning I went straight Genesis 8 and read that part involving the dove. 

At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.  And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.

I thought to myself, "Lord I can imagine the thrill on Noah's face as the dove flew back with hope, peace, and a chance for a new start. The storm is over. We can go back out and try again at this life thing!"

The bible refers to this actual dove in scripture as a "she"!  For me, personally, after Gabe’s prayer for me, the fact that the dove was a she was pure delight!! 

This she dove brings proof (the olive leaf) and the good news of new life after devastation. This thought brought that beautiful scripture to mind from Isaiah 61:4 (ESV)

" They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations;
They shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations."

 I'm here to tell you there is new life after a flood.  There is hope after your life has been devastated. There is a place of peace after the horrible storm that pretty much drowned out all your dreams. Here is an olive branch from The Lord. There is a hope that does not disappoint. And that hope has a name.....Jesus.Rom 5:5 tells us;

"And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." 

Let Your peace Lord, replace the striving and the disharmony in our lives...simply naturally hopefully just as sweet and as natural as the dove carrying an olive leaf to Noah.  Step by step. 

Let us choose to be like the little child Jesus talks about in Matthew 18:2

"And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. "Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

 And remember last week’s sweet verse. Psalm 131:2 

"But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content."

 Let's get rid of the cynical adult. The voice of the cynic says, "Been there done that" but the heart of a child wants to believe and trust and run to Him. 

Well I'm just "childlike" and filled with enough faith to believe and trust that He brings new life and new hope when I choose to turn to Him and put my trust in Him. I believe God has been preparing my heart to bring this message to you and to bring to you this olive branch of hope.  Someone reading these words right now needs this oh so badly!  He is coming with a promise of new life if we will trust Him and make Him the center, the Lord of our lives. I believe we can do life with a fresh newness....throwing out the discontent that permeates our attitudes and inviting in a new way, the way of graceful and joy-filled thanksgiving offered up to The Lord. I must remember that at times this is an effort, a sacrifice.

Psalm 50:23

"But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors Me...." 

Here is the key to pushing forward...it lies in my choosing. We like Noah have to be willing to open a window. Genesis 8:6.

"After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark" 

 My heart is just like that window and I can choose whether or not to open it up to The Lord. I often remind my young teen girls in our afternoon Bible study, we get to choose. I have them repeat it after me quite regularly. God loves me but I get to choose. Have you been closed up for a long time? Will you soften your heart and open a window for the Holy Spirit to come and bring you hope....perhaps a new way of living, with Jesus as the center of your life?

Maybe you've made Jesus your Savior for eternal life with Him, but you have never given Him Lordship of your life on earth as it is in heaven?

PRAYER

AH LORD GOD I THANK YOU

FOR HOPE THAT DOES NOT DISAPPOINT.... JESUS

I NEED AN OLIVE BRANCH TODAY, HOPE...ITS A GIFT FROM YOU

AND I RECEIVE IT LIKE A LITTLE CHILD.

FORGIVE MY CYNICAL SIDE

YOU PROMISE THE OLD PASSES AWAY AND ALL THINGS BECOME NEW WHEN I

CHOOSE YOU

AMEN