My friend, Stephanie wrote this on Facebook…

“As a kid, I read The Swiss Family Robinson,

a book about a family that was shipwrecked

and stranded on a desert island.

As their ship sank in a violent storm, all of the lifeboats were taken

and the Robinson family was left to go down with the ship.

Thinking quickly, the resourceful and determined Daddy Robinson

strapped them all tightly to makeshift rafts of loose wood

or whatever would float.

He then sent his family,

one by one,

out on the water,

bound tightly to their only hope

and the next morning the family

was reunited on an island where they lived until rescued.

When God’s promises take longer to happen than we hoped,

frustration and discouragement easily wear us down

and batter us loose of our hope.

Simply, ‘holding on’

may not be enough after a while.

If Daddy Robinson had sent the children into the angry waves

merely grasping their rafts,

they would all have surely perished.

No!

He TIED the children to what would save them.

Then it didn’t matter if they grew weak or tired.

They could even have passed out

and stayed afloat because,

for all practical purposes,

they were a part of that raft.

God’s promises fulfill themselves.

Attach yourself to the promise.

Bind yourself to it.

Travel with the promise

instead of simply trying to remember it.

Intentionally, stubbornly, defiantly even,

make it part of you.

You’ll do so much better than just survive.”

You’ll Thrive!!!!

“…the idea of ‘Thrive’ came out of our student ministry.

For years I’ve been using the idea of Psalm One

in showing them what a believer looks like…

If you’re not getting into the Word for God to define Himself to you,

you will define God with what makes sense to you

and what makes sense to us is,

‘I better do good or I’m in big trouble’

and ‘He’s going to stick with me for so long,

but I’m going to blow it.’

That’s not the picture that the Bible has.

God didn’t put you here just so you could survive through hard times.

He put you here to thrive,

to dig in

and to reach out

and this record is an effort to draw a picture of what a believer,

a follower of Jesus, would look like

if they dug into their roots

and understood God and themselves more.”

-Mark Hall-

https://www.castingcrowns.com/music/lyrics/thrive

Dig Deep…and Thrive!!

Here in this worn and weary land
Where many a dream has died
Like a tree planted by the water
We never will run dry

So living water flowing through
God, we thirst for more of You
Fill our hearts and flood our souls with one desire

Just to know You and to make You known
We lift Your name on high
Shine like the sun, make darkness run and hide
We know we were made for so much more than ordinary lives
Its time for us to more than just survive
We were made to thrive

Into Your word, were digging deep
To know our Fathers heart
Into the world, were reaching out
To show them who You are

Joy unspeakable, faith unsinkable
Love unstoppable, anything is possible

Oh, Yeah…Amen!!