4.16.2010

"let our faith be not alone"

"Let our faith be not alone, may our hearts be not of stone
Give us souls that never close, to the grace that you bestow
May our eyes be quick to see, you are here
you've come to rescue me"
- T. Johnson, R. Owens, R. Seay, T. Tjornhom

I've had a lot on my mind lately. Thinking a lot about a dear friend dealing with loss, weighing once seemingly weighty decisions (now so irrelevant), figuring out what it means for me to be happy... all-the-while forgetting that my worry, my attempts at planning or solving or organizing really is pointless.

God's grace allows me to be removed from all those things that flood my brain, leaving me restless and sleepless, and exhausted... even hopeless. Faith steps in to restore, revive, reassure. There's hope in my faith in Christ. So why is it so hard for me to live and daily- minute by minute- accept God's grace? He carries my burdens, our burdens... and all I have to do is have faith that he is always there to rescue me, every day, from the weight of my sin and the weight of my humanity, my mortality.

Isaiah 35 talks about how he takes what we have, who we are, how we are and he creates beauty from it. He promises to turn our mourning to singing, to be our strength in our weakness, to be hope for the hopeless. His promises never fail. He WILL restore. He will revive. And in His promises we should find assurance.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1

I hope that the Lord is glorified in me. I hope that the recognition of my struggle, almost inability, to truly accept God's grace brings him glory. What a lowly, weak, unimportant vessel I am. Still he chose me. So I will fight the fight, press on toward the end of this race, remembering God's grace meeting me EVERYWHERE, and my faith in who he is. 

My only happiness is in him. My only fulfillment is in him. My only hope is in him. 

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