Greetings Siestas and a hug to each of you! What a joy and honor it is to share here. Outside my dear family, there is no other group that I have enjoyed doing life with as much as with friends from this dear community. My name is Lora Lovin Osburn, and I live in Tennessee. I have been married to my husband Gary for 26 years and we have two lovely daughters. Our oldest, Audra Elizabeth, was married last year, and Victoria, our youngest, is studying pre-law. I enjoy the beauty of GOD’s creation, architecture, art, lamp lights, gardening, earrings, poetry and walking with my family and Lilly Belle (our 12 year old Maltese). Some of my best days are Sundays at my church with my family seated nearby, serving on the prayer team, and worshiping and applying the word with them.
We have had a year full of major life events including our youngest going to college, my invalid father moving in with us, our oldest getting married. There were numerous hospital trips, then selling our home, and moving to a new town. Many times the circumstances within the major events made me think that a hidden camera must be following me around! Life just seemed crazy at times. Though I would not have chosen the events of the last year to be knitted so closely together, I can say that my faith is stronger, my family is closer, my friends are dearer, and my sweet Jesus seems even nearer. The abundance GOD allowed me to experience through this year is why every phrase in this verse just lept off the page and into my heart:
“You crown the year with a bountiful harvest,
even the hard pathways overflow with abundance.” Psalm 65:11 NLT
“You crown the year”
I see GOD giving a crown at the beginning of the year. I cannot imagine any reality TV show that would start the season by announcing the winner or giving the prize at the beginning. Although it would seem to make for a lackluster, anti-climatic season to know in advance who wins; I feel like GOD has done that with us. Why would HE, who holds the highest rank and title, give a reward of victory, before the season begins? Because HE loves us and is for us! This is going to be a glorious year! I believe that every day of the year is encircled with a diadem from HIM.
“With a bountiful harvest”
Growing up working in our family garden, I thought that my dad had planted to feed an army, and not just for our family, because of the abundance; but Dad was able to give generously of the harvest, and I see our heavenly Father doing the same. When I see HIS overflowing cart of good gifts for us, I can’t help but think that this verse applies to us not only as individuals but also to the church. HIS Word also confirms that the harvest is great in the world. In spite of what we are going through ourselves, there is kingdom work to do! Let’s be active in picking up a basket and harvesting the fields where GOD has placed us so that many souls will be added to HIS kingdom. May we witness an outpouring of HIS SPIRIT on all people and may many lives be impacted by and for the Kingdom of GOD.
“Even the hard pathways”
If I had the choice of “two roads diverged”, I would certainly choose the one that resembles a flowery Monet painting, not a hard pathway. Who would choose a hard pathway? But, that aptly describes my last year. The example JESUS gives when faced with difficulty encourages me. JESUS submitted HIS will to GOD at the cross and wore a crown of thorns. GOD did get the glory with JESUS, and I pray HE does from our GOD-ordained steps.
“Overflow with abundance”
When the children were little we’d take walks to the park, and our youngest would stop and pick up rocks along the way. She wasn’t mining gems; but she was finding delight in the daily, ordinary pathway. Sometimes I just want my path to be easy like the walk to the park; but GOD has crowned the year with so much of HIM, so much of HIS glory, that even the hard, the difficult, the part that I think I’d rather not have, overflows with abundance. Even though we may be walking in a busy season, through a complex or challenging situation, or facing intense personal concerns, truth states that hard pathways overflow with abundance. I love that this is present tense! Hallelujah!!! I need that on my pathway today! How amazing is our GOD!!! There is such a sense of celebration here because HE can be seen, felt, experienced, and praised even during difficult days! Glory to HIS Name!
Let us offer thanksgiving, sing, dance and praise:
GOD pours out abundance on our hard pathways!
Believing that many souls will be harvested and saved,
And at the outpouring of GOD’s Spirit, may we be amazed!
I’m living in and looking for HIS overflowing abundance,
So thankful for this year and GOD’s crowning circumference.
Callee Houston, TX “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again rejoice! Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Don’t worry about anything but in everything through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thgouth, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4:4-8
Lindsey Buchanan St. Augustine, FL
“Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him.” Phil. 4:5
Krista Fehr
Chickamauga, GA
Colossians 4:2 NASB
Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;
Lisa Jensen, Lyman, WY
Now the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Corinthians 3:17 ESV
Phyllis, Irvine, CA,”Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.” Philippians 2:5-6 (NASB)
“You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness.” Psalm 65: 11&12, NIV
“It is the Lord who goes before you; He will [march] with you; He will not fail you or let you go or forsake you; [let their be no cowadice or shrinking but] fear not; neither become broken [in Spirit – depressed, dismayed or unnerved with alarm].
Deut. 31.8 AMP
Brandi Hunter, Memphis, TN.
Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.
Galatians 6:9 NASB
Dayton, Ohio “And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord ? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”
1 Samuel 15:22 ESV
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!””
Romans 8:15 ESV
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
1 Peter 3:15 NIV
Delba
Dorsey,MS
“Keep me a the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadows of your wings Psalm 17:8 ESV
Connie Ozbirn, Dallas, TX
Psalm 65:1 (NLT)
“You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance.”
Dana from Ashland, KY
Psalm 2:7 NLT
The king proclaims the Lord’s decree:
“The Lord said to me, ‘You are my son.
Today I have become your Father.
Tammy Dornberger-Price, Myrtle Beach, SC “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.” Isaiah 26:3
Mansfield, Ohio
“The LORD is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise him— my father’s God, and I will exalt him! The LORD is a warrior; Yahweh is his name!”
Exodus 15:2-3 NLT
Sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day. (1 Chron 16:23 NIV)
Kathi Anglin
Sykesville, MD
But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it–he will be blessed in what he does.
James 1:25 NIV
Robin Wickman, Merriman, NE – “You crown the year with a bountiful harvest,
even the hard pathways overflow with abundance.” Psalm 65:11 NLT
Psalm 25:4-5 “Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths, guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are my God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.”
susie McNeely Russellville ar
“He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.”
Psalm 147:8 NIV
Rebecca. Eagle point, OR
“But he knows the way I take: when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold”
Job 23:10. ESV
Susie Mcneely
Russellville Ar
“He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.”
Psalm 147:8 NIV
“bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
Colossians 3:13 ESV
Great reminder, Laura!
James 1:2-4 NIV
Consider it pure joy, my brother, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything.
Madeleine Corrales: My son if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, Turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, Proverbs 2:1-2 NIV
Diane from Cypress, Texas
(NIV)
Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction
Lynn Bennett, New Smyrna Beach, fl
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” ESV Rom 8:18
Kira Chaloupka
Auburn, AL
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NIV)
“Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.” Isa. 53:12a NIV
Pam Tucker
Fairhope, AL
praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints
Ephesians 6:18 ESV
Sheila, Williston, ND;
“He has brought me to his banquet hall, and His banner over me is love.”
Song of Solomon 2:4 NASB
Tijeras, NM
“So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:11 ESV
Lynn Greene, Shelby, NC Romans 8:18 NIV
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
Melody, Jefferson Georgia
2Corinthians 4:16 (MSG)
“SO WE’RE NOT GIVING UP. HOW COULD WE! EVEN THOUGH ON THE OUTSIDE IT LOOKS LIKE THINGS ARE FALLING APART ON US, ON THE INSIDE, WHERE GOD IS MAKING NEW LIFE, NOT A DAY GOES BY WITHOUT HIS UNFOLDING GRACE.”
Laura, Englewood
For we all stumble in many ways. If someone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect individual, able to control the entire body as well. James 3:2 NET
Melissa, Sacramento CA
“Finally then, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received from us how you must walk and please God- as you are doing- do so even more.”
1 Thessalonians 4:1
Teresa, Houston, TX “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” John 7:24, ESV
Gabby, Houston, TX “You make known to me the paths of life; in your presence is fullness of joy.” Ps 16:11 ESV
Karen, Dallas TX:
For I am the Lord your God, who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you,
Do not fear, I will help you.
Isaiah 41:13 NIV (1984)
Jill Hill in Houston – NIV James 1:21 – Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Addy, Houston, TX “My determined purpose is that I may know Him, that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him…” Phil 3:10 AMP
“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthy body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 NLT
Raleigh, NC
2 Chronicles 20:17 ESV
“You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.”
JulieP Tierra Verde FL
“one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Ephesians 4:6 NET
Rachel H., North Alabama
“For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.”
Hebrews 9:24 ESV
but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness is, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6.33
Darlyn Knapp – Singer,LA – “For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.” Psalm 149:4 (NASB)
Carol Marshall- Gilbert, AZ
Psalms 23:1
The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. ESV
Elaine Brady, Jefferson, GA
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge.
2 Peter 1:5 NIV