Monday, September 5, 2011

Finding the Joy!

Happy Labor Day, everyone! I hope you are enjoying some rest and family time today!


I have “holed up” this long weekend to focus on writing. Focused writing is hard for me to do at home with so many distractions (dust, laundry, animals, etc.), but at 4:30 on Monday afternoon, I finally feel a measure of productivity. I appreciate your prayers in this project (Finding Joy in the Journey). The outline is complete; in fact, I presented the class at our women’s Sunday school group earlier this year. I am now trying to make it ready for publication and that, truly, will take an act of God to accomplish. I believe that this is His will; otherwise, I would just put this topic away and begin drafting something new for our Sunday school women.

Today I wrote on finding joy in our trials, which led to Chapter 21 of John. Peter and several of the disciples spent all night fishing and came back to the shore with empty nets. Matthew Henry comments, “The hand of the diligent often returns empty. Even good men may come short of desired success in their honest undertakings.” Not very encouraging words for a wanna-be writer. I could put a tremendous amount of work into this project and end up with an empty net.

However, here is the joy: Jesus stood on the shore and instructed the disciples to throw their net again, on the right side of the boat where the fish were. Behold, the fishermen were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish! As the boat reached the shore, the disciples saw a fire burning with breakfast ready. Jesus invited them to enjoy the breakfast that He had prepared for them.

If Jesus desires that I have filled nets, filled they will be, and in His perfect timing, not my own. Even if my nets stay empty, He loves me just the same and prepares a feast for me that we will someday enjoy together. Jesus ministers to our hearts and it is He who provides. There is great joy in that!

“When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.” John 21:9

3 comments:

  1. Hi there! So glad to have found your blog again and verrry excited about your writing project. Just keep growing, learning, writing and believing. "There's a time and season for everything under the sun..." Mega hugs from here!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kristin Hanson-HofmannSeptember 17, 2011 at 2:06 PM

    I didn't realize you were writing. Can't wait to hear more about it and read it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the encouragement, you two!! :)

    ReplyDelete