With Cupped Hands

This past Wednesday we were blessed to share a Thanksgiving concert for our community, knowing that we would lack the time this December for our promised yearly Christmas concert.

As we reflected on the blessings of the past year, sang and shared from our hearts, we blessed the Lord for the fruit of trials, griefs and loss in our lives.

It struck a chord in the hearts of many in the audience, as evidenced by the tears running down their cheeks as we sang, and the thoughts some chose to share privately afterwards... 

“Troubles nearly always make us look to God; His blessings are apt to make us look elsewhere.” Oswald Chambers

“Our sorrows do not spring up out of the ground.  In every affliction God has a purpose to work out for our good.  Every blow that destroys an idol, every providence that weakens our hold upon earth and fastens our affections more firmly upon God, is a blessing.  The pruning may be painful for a time, but afterward it ‘yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.’  We should receive with gratitude whatever will quicken the conscience, elevate the thoughts and ennoble the life.” ML 93.

My Lord, draw me nearer; help me to trust the Hand that was nailed to the cross for me.  Make me willing, with cupped hands, to receive all the gifts of Your providence , whether they produce tears or laughter in the moment, confident that if I receive them with gratitude and faith, they will yield peace and joy in the end and will help work out Your glorious purpose in my life...

“...weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Ps. 30:5

“For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.  

“O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. 
And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.” Is. 54:10-12






Untitled from Nebblett Family on Vimeo.