93 - Photographs

'...forget not all his benefits...' (Psalm 103:2)

Mum's been sorting out some old photos of ours into albums and I recently used a voucher to get 200 pictures printed all nice and shiny. 

This reminded me how thankful we should be for photographs. How many memories would we have lost without them? How many fun days would become a blur without the visual reminders? 

Pictures from space point us to the glory of our Creator. 

Pictures of family, friends, our world - they are all reminders of the many, many blessings He has given us. They are promises that He will continue to keep blessing us far beyond what we deserve. 

He's been good in the past. 
He's being good in the present. 
He will be good in the future. 

THANK YOU LORD!!! 

92 - Dustbin men

I can't imagine that being a dustbin man is one of the most popular jobs in the world. Maybe some kids think that's want they want to be when they're younger - I wonder how long that lasts.

Yet it's a job that needs to be done. I remember the dustbin men going on strike in Southampton once - not pretty. We need people to do this job, yet how often do we leave our bins out on a Monday morning and take it for granted that they will be emptied? We'd soon notice if they weren't!

God, thank you for those who regularly empty our bins - a job that must be so thankless, yet is so important. May I never overlook the importance of people like this.

91 - The Unstoppable Growth of God's Kingdom

'And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how...“To what shall we liken the kingdom of God?..It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.” (Mark 4:26-27, 30-32) 



Recently our church had the privilege of Jeff Purswell visiting. He preached a sermon on the passage quoted above, and it was such a huge encouragement, as well as a reminder of yet another reason we can thank God. 

I don't know about you, but when it comes to telling others about Christ, I feel like a huge failure. I can't think of ways to bring up such conversations, and if the opportunity ever arose, I'm sure my mouth would dry up. I look back on past conversations with friends from sixth form and wonder if I should have said more, or said it better. The thing most important to me is the thing I can't even talk about with the passion it deserves. 

Well. That's OK. 

Because I am a failure. But Christ is always victorious. He was the one who planted the seed of His kingdom. And it's growing, regardless of how useless an evangelist I am. 

If someone doesn't get saved, it's not because I wasn't good enough. God doesn't look down and go 'Whoops! Should have sent someone else!'

No. He knows our weaknesses, yet He uses us anyway, helping us grow stronger in the process.

Thank you God that the growth of your kingdom is not reliant on us. Thank you for using us despite this. Thank you this can encourage us to share your word all the more! 

90 - Strength for tiredness.

'...they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength...' (Isaiah 40:31) 

This week I served at a conference that meant I had to get up at 6:30 in the morning two days in a row, something my body was not used to. What's more, the conference ran late which meant I went to bed late. 

Needless to say, this made me feel pretty tired. 

How do we cope with tiredness? Physical exhaustion? The reminder we live in a fallen world, and cannot keep going forever?

Because God gives us the strength we need. We have food to give us energy; sleep to help us recover. And determination. 

How else could new parents keep rising every night to attend to their new child?

How else could a father come home after a long day at work and still make time to play with his children and help his wife around the house? 

Thank you Lord that, not only do you give us strength when we're tired, you have also promised to one day give us eternal rest in Christ. How we long for that day! 

89 - Memorised Scripture

'I have stored up your word in my heart...' (Psalm 119:11) 

We know in our heads that memorising Scripture is of such spiritual benefit to Christians. But it's all the more wonderful when verses directly apply to a moment in our lives. 

For example, I was in Bath this week and I had to walk through it a night. Normally, I would've been fine with this. I mean, Bath is posh, right? What's the worst that can happen in it? Well, the day before I'd seen this guy in a shop threatening people and shouting abuse at them and didn't really fancy running into someone like him at night! 

But as I walked, verses from Psalm 23 came to my mind. 

'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.' (v. 4)

Yeah, I know I wasn't exactly facing death. But it was still such a huge comfort. A reminder nothing's more powerful than God; that fear itself loses all its power to scare us.  A reminder that His presence watches over us always. I walked through that city with far more confidence. 

Your word is powerful Lord. And I thank you for giving me a mind capable of storing it! 

88 - Worship Leaders

'...the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.' (John 4:23)

On Friday evening, my Mum, brother, sister and I had the blessing of attending a worship evening lead by Matt Redman and Christy Nockles. 

And it was INCREDIBLE. 

I love those moments of worship when God's presence is so strong that you don't want it to stop; you just want to keep on singing and dancing and worshipping the God you love so, so much. 

It takes a gifted worship leader to lead a congregation in that direction. 

But what makes a worship leader even more of a gift from God is when he points not to himself, but to the one we worship. 

'He must increase but I must decrease.'

Matt Redman is such a leader. 

And people like that are truly something we can thank God for. 


(Who knows? Maybe they'll lead worship in heaven? Or maybe we won't need leaders, because we'll be so full of joy from being in the actual presence of God!

I guess we'll have to wait and see!)