Recently a friend asked me to paint a portrait of their home for an anniversary gift for her husband. Don't you just LOVE their house? I really enjoyed this assignment. Especially the white porch railing and the red door. The reference photos they sent me showed rocking chairs on the porch. What a great spot for a glass of iced tea and a good book.
My favorite part of this project, though, was thinking about their family and how they have given of themselves to others, using their home as a gift from God to be used for His wonderful purposes.
| "Bless the LORD oh my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name!" |
It was not possible to include in the painting, but there is a Bible verse written just above the door on that very welcoming porch. That's what got me thinking...
How am I stirring up my deepest self to magnify God's character? Am I using all the resources I've been given to "show off God"? Am I yielding up to God the secret areas of my life that I like to control so that I better reflect Him? Charles Spurgeon said it better than me when he commented on Psalms 103:1
"Soul music is the very soul of music. The Psalmist strikes the best key-note when he begins with stirring up his inmost self to magnify the Lord. He soliloquizes, holds self-communion and exhorts himself, as though he felt that dulness would all too soon steal over his faculties, as, indeed, it will over us all, unless we are diligently on the watch. Jehovah is worthy to be praised by us in that highest style of adoration which is intended by the term bless...Many are our faculties, emotions, and capacities, but God has given them all to us, and they ought all to join in chorus to his praise. Half-hearted, ill-conceived, unintelligent praises are not such as we should render to our loving Lord. If the law of justice demanded all our heart and soul and mind for the Creator, much more may the law of gratitude put in a comprehensive claim for the homage of our whole being to the God of grace." (from Treasury of David)
Karen has kindly written about my painting on her blog if you care to check it out. Karen's blog post