04:19 Sun Dec 23

“The way to love someone is to lightly run your finger over that person’s soul until you find a crack, and then gently pour your love into that crack.”

Is the healing of my brothers and sisters not pleasing to Him? I know that if God were only to speak the word, the lame would rise and the walls of Jericho would come crashing down.

The persistent widow becomes just a widow. Although we serve an all-powerful, all-good God, some great things never come.

With every new day picking at the wound, how can we begin to hope again? “I didn’t think it would end this way.” End? No, the journey doesn’t end here.

The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it. There is more to the story. There are more pages yet to come. The difference between a tragedy and a comedy depends not on how it begins, nor on what surprising turn it takes in the middle, but on how the story ends. Despair forgets that there are more pages. It gazes at the brief span of our lives and complains that all should be fulfilled before the page is turned.

But hope loves the whole story. Hope breathes, laughs, and draws courage from gazing upon something grander than self. It grows in an epic tale, a tale with joys that cannot be abridged within one hundred years on earth (Proverbs 31:25). This literate hope that delights in the story is not a psychological crutch or wishful thinking. It is waiting for reality, a reality as tangible as a baby born in Bethlehem and as sure as the empty tomb. It is the conviction of things unseen that we call “faith” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith believes God when he says there is so much more than what we currently see. The greatest things are sure to come, because he is sure to come.

Child of God, embrace your role as Daughter of the Most High King, and while your thoughts about yourself may not always be as precious as His. You need to hear in the center of your being the voice of God saying, “In spite of everything you’ve done, I love you.” You, who laugh at the future, let her say “I am His ambassador, set apart for a holy purpose. I have been hand-picked, hand-chosen, and mercifully forgiven. I am the work of His hand. I have been created perfectly and for His glory. AND I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. This is my calling and my thanksgiving.”

Fight through anguish and remain resilient amidst your trials by remembering whose you belong to. The enemy comes to steal and destroy us. He plants seeds in our hearts that cause us to doubt and misjudge our past, our present, and our future. We belong to a living and holy God who breathes into us the power to break every stronghold that tries to hold us down and we must guard our mind from anything that would defile this knowledge (2 Corinthians 10: 3-5).

Remember His promise that nothing will separate us from His love (Romans 8: 31-39). Remember that faith’s most severe tests come not when we see nothing, but when we see a stunning array of evidence that seems to prove our faith in vain (quote from Elisabeth Elliot). Don’t give up. You are always face the struggle, the greatest opposition, the greatest discouragement right before the breakthrough. God Almighty is in you. God is the one willing in you (Philippians 2:13). God is the one working in you. He will complete the work he started in you (Philippians 1:6).

God delights in communicating Himself to every child who is prepared to receive Him.

You know in daily life what absolute surrender is. You know that everything has to be given up to its special, definite object and service. I have a pen in my pocket, and that pen is absolutely surrendered to the one work of writing. That pen must be absolutely surrendered to my hand if I am to write properly with it.

Our Father, Our Shepherd, He is the God of your story. I come with a message to those who are fearful and anxious. God does not ask you to give the perfect surrender in your strength, or by the power of your will; God is willing to work it in you. Do we not read: “it is God that work in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2: 13)?

And that is what we should seek—to go on our faces before God, until our hearts learn to believe that the everlasting God Himself will come in to turn out what is wrong. He will conquer what is evil, and work what is well pleasing in His blessed sight. God Himself will work it in you. We have experienced God’s grace in weakness in ways we never would have in my own strength. This message is for me as well.

Do you think it was by accident that God found that Abraham, the father of the faithful and the friend of God? Do you think that it was Abraham himself, apart from God, who had such faith and such obedience and such devotion? You know it is not so. God raised him up and prepared him as an instrument for His glory. And you my friend was raised and prepared for such a time as this.

Anyone can start a story. But only really good storytellers know the exact experiences and outcomes needed for each character to discover their truest identity. No one tells better stories than Father God. We are to be like our Father. We trust Him with your Story… especially the chapter we are in now.

May your spirit find life in this blessing, especially if you are facing challenging circumstances, and may you be inspired to speak God’s blessing over those around you!