Seeking Him in the New Year

It’s a new year. But it’s also just another day, another opportunity to seek the face of God. And I hope – I pray – we do not pass the opportunity that alone has power to transform and to redeem, to give hope and to restore life. May we be filled with a knowledge of Jesus Christ, of His death, resurrection, and return, so that our lives would be wholly consumed by the glory of God.

“Oh God – strip us of the meager desires that consume us day-to-day and put an ache in our hearts for your will to be done, for your kingdom to come, for your glory to wholly transform us so that we no longer live for ourselves or for this world, but that our life would be found completely in you, Jesus, and in no way apart from you.

I pray your church would be a people redeemed by the blood of Jesus so that His work would not go futile in our lives.

May we not diminish the work and name of Jesus Christ by not allowing it to completely redeem and transform our broken lives, to conquer the sin and death we’ve lived in. But may the work and name of Jesus Christ be magnified in us as we surrender every facet of our lives to Him so that the wholeness of His work and power and life may be embodied in us.”

Be filled with His truth, brothers and sisters, and seek His face today. It is in His Name – the Name above all Names – that we pray, Amen.

Abandonment

I had to share this video with you, and I hope you take 10 minutes to watch it. Misty Edwards is a worship leader at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. Her songs have led me into the presence of God over and over again.

What she says in the short video…it’s what life is all about. If we don’t understand this truth, then we’re missing the entirety of God’s Word — and the purpose of our lives.

I hope we grasp this truth.

I hope we wrestle with it.

And I hope…I so hope…that we surrender to it.

The Day LOVE Will Save

We’re waiting on Him. When will be the day that He will save us? Life is full of trials. But God can make the poor man rich and the weak man strong. He can turn sorrow into joy and ashes into beauty. He can take the struggles of this life and bless us with His presence, His promises, His hope. Why? Because…

There is no sin that the grace of God cannot forgive

There is no hardness of heart that the love of God cannot tenderize

There is no obstacle that the Conqueror cannot conquer

Nor poverty that the richness of God cannot satisfy

There is no sorrow so great that the Comforter cannot comfort

Nor wound so deep that the Healer cannot heal

There is no destruction that the power of God cannot restore

Nor life that the Risen One cannot redeem

Nothing is impossible with God

And His love reigns

…But He will not do it unless you first surrender…

Surrender the sin and the pride, the obstacles and the chaos, the sorrow and the pain. We all have something to surrender today. And there is an unprecedented POWER that is released when we surrender to the LORD. It is extraordinary. Friends, our God is able to do more than we can even imagine. He can meet you where you are and transform the otherwise non-transformable. BUT you must surrender. It opens the door to His Spirit and allows Him to move and work in your life. If you don’t surrender, you are locking the door; you are denying the Spirit.

Nothing is impossible with God. And His love reigns.

Love’s Passion

We are people of passion. Love has at times taken over us and we cannot do anything but surrender to its power. Yet we throw out this word as though it were a catch-all phrase and in so doing, completely downplay its power and its demands. Love demands attention. It demands surrender. Yet it demands authenticity, faithfulness, and genuineness of heart.

God is love. It’s not just some sweet, sappy love story. His love is a jealous and zealous love; a holy and relentless love that drove Him to the cross in complete surrender. I struggle with this. I struggle that someone could love me so much that it would cost Him His life. I struggle with a love that is so sacrificial and wholly complete that it is not in any way conditional upon my response or behavior.

And yet that is the beauty of Grace. It is unfair. He loves us even though we don’t deserve His love and even though we have not always loved Him. He loves us with a zealous and relentless love; a jealous love that demands response, yet is not conditioned upon our response. He loves me. He loves you.

Lord, may we feel the depth and weight of your love fall on us right now. How great is your love! How faithful are You who is Love! May we know this love and respond to it even now.

♥

“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, It would be utterly despised.” -Song of Songs 8:6-7