Even For Me

"Coming sinner, whatever promise you find in the Word of Christ, strain it as much as you can, so long as you do not corrupt it, and his blood and merits will answer all."  John Bunyan

 "But every time a godly man reads the Scriptures (remember this when you are reading the Scripture) and there meets with a promise, he ought to lay his hand upon it and say,  This is part of my inheritance, it is mine, and I am to live upon it."  Jeremiah Burroughs

 "If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desire not too strong, but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, we are like ignorant children who want to continue making mud pies in a slum because we cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a vacation at the sea.  We are far too easily pleased."  C. S. Lewis

     I have been thinking long on these quotes.  Thinking long on promises in the Scripture.  I've found Colossians 1:9-11 in which Paul prays for a full knowledge of the will of God, all spiritual wisdom and understanding, walking worthy, pleasing the Lord in all respects, fruit bearing good works, an increasing knowledge of God, strengthening and attaining all steadfastness and patience and finishing off with a joyous giving of thanks.  I've reread Luke 6:38 in which Jesus says our giving is given back "pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap."  I can't help but think of Ephesians 3:14-21 and lay my hand on my Bible, asking for God's riches in glory to be bestowed on me exceedingly abundantly beyond all that I ask or think.  And here I find a difficulty, I don't know what God's exceeding abundance looks like in such an ordinary person.
     Today time has passed slowly.  Today has been a day for cups of tea beside piles of kleenex, and girls laying flushed under quilts.  Today has been a day for digging in the mud, adding compost, and pulling out weeds.  There has been time for thinking and daffodil gazing and playing with the camera.  Today has been a day for scrubbing toilets, hanging laundry in the sun, and reading stories on the couch.  There has been time for a few stolen pages of Dorothy Sayers and an allowance for an English teaspoon filled with sugar stirred in my tea.  Today has been a day for daffodils in grandma's crystal and the bubbling excitement of giving a gift.
     God is in the midst of all of this and promises an exceedingly abundantly beyond, and that promise stretches my belief.  I need faith, the assurance of things hoped for, and so I ask for it and dare to believe God's promises are even for me.  Even for me.