“As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation -- either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
LAMENTATIONS 3-5
14The elders are gone from the city gate;
the young men have stopped their music.
15Joy is gone from our hearts;
our dancing has turned to mourning.
16The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned!
17Because of this our hearts are faint,
because of these things our eyes grow dim(5:14-17)
HEBREWS 8
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
11No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”c
JOURNAL
We are created to know God. Yet we live in a world where truly knowing God is in competition with so many distractions. I no longer have to worry about persecution for worshiping God or claiming to follow Jesus...yet my own heart and emotions often betray what I know to be true. Too often my mind is filled with thoughts and concerns of tomorrow and the future, when scripture tells me that I am to rid my heart and mind of those thoughts, worries and fears. Too often I let patterns and habits of the past invade my mind and actions when scripture tells me that all has been forgiven and that I am a new creation.
Jesus lived and died so that I can be redeemed. Joy has been transformed in my heart. We know longer exist just to exist, we exist now as an extension and branch of God himself. Our souls are filled with the power of the creator of the universe. The energy radiating from us is the same energy that created the world and that raised Jesus from death. Yet too often I don't own this truth...too often I brush this amazing miracle aside.
Yet Father you still come after me and love me in spite of my rejection. This love and redemption is the answer to everything I am searching for in my life. It is greater than all the wealth of the world. It is greater than any honor or earthly relationship. This is why we are called to surrender our lives...because God knows that until I surrender I do not have room for him. For God does not desire part of my heart, he desires it all.
Jesus lived and died so that I can be redeemed. Joy has been transformed in my heart. We know longer exist just to exist, we exist now as an extension and branch of God himself. Our souls are filled with the power of the creator of the universe. The energy radiating from us is the same energy that created the world and that raised Jesus from death. Yet too often I don't own this truth...too often I brush this amazing miracle aside.
Yet Father you still come after me and love me in spite of my rejection. This love and redemption is the answer to everything I am searching for in my life. It is greater than all the wealth of the world. It is greater than any honor or earthly relationship. This is why we are called to surrender our lives...because God knows that until I surrender I do not have room for him. For God does not desire part of my heart, he desires it all.
31“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
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