speechless

I have sinned and come short of His glory;
So have you - you have your own story.

My sin is legal; now yours is too
But neither of us will make it through.

Not without sacrifice, not without blood
not without accepting the only true love.

Every knee will bow to Him, every tongue confess
In the end the Creator is the one who knows the best.

The darkness is overwhelming, but I pray my light can shine
So on that day we both can say: "I see! No longer blind!"

I think about the lights around that have always shone for me.
Leading me to a redeemed life, one step closer to free.

I want to be that light for you - but how? I'm at a loss.
The only answer for both of us lies within the Cross.

Laying down our lives for others, loving deeper than before
Admitting His Almighty hand and reaching out for more.

Examining ourselves to see - are we in the faith?
Acknowledging daily that what we are is only by His grace.

Sin and wrong have consequences - now and on judgment day.
Correction hurts, but I reach for the prize - I'll walk the narrow way.

Come along and join me - life is too short to waste.
But if you just don't want to, I promise I won't hate.

I'll go before my Father in prayer and petition on your behalf.
I'll pray He saves us both from ourselves - from walking the wrong path.

My prayers will still go heavenward, and I know that He will listen.
My hope is in something beyond this life - not a movement, not a position.

Because when I stand before His throne I know that I'll be speechless.
To share God's goodness and my desperate need - I could never fully preach it.

Let my life be a light then, to declare His name
His glory and honor - not my earthly fame.

I'm not enough, I haven't arrived.
But because of His mercy I will claim the prize.

To be faithful to Him above all I desire.
I'm nothing - I'm nothing - I'm nothing, my Savior.

but I have prayed for thee

"And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:31-32)

When I read here this morning, I had just finished praying specifically for Grant and Titus. We're all living on a spiritual battlefield, but I feel like men and boys especially are under so much attack by Satan. In reading these verses today, I felt a powerful reminder of the opportunity and necessity we have to pray against those attacks. "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee..." The "but" implies that if it were not for those prayers, Satan would indeed have him - and being sifted as wheat sounds awful.

Satan does not have good things in mind for us. But he is strong, and in order to be stronger, we need the Lord. It was interesting to me to read on, in the verses following, the conversation between Jesus and Peter. Jesus had just told Peter that any triumph or victory over the Devil was only because of His intercession on Peter's behalf. After that, Peter says, "Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death." To which Christ in his response essentially says, "Peter. In the next 24 hours alone, you are going to deny that you even know me. You are not ready, and you are not strong."

The threads of trust and temptation run deep throughout this chapter. Right after this conversation with Peter, Christ reminds the disciples: "And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing." In verse 40, when Christ prays for his cup to be removed, an angel is sent to strengthen him. The burden is lightened, the prayer answered.

We don't know the end of our prayers - the impact they have, the difference they will make in the life of someone else. But Christ called Peter to "strengthen thy brethren", almost as if to say - "pray for them as I have prayed for you... "that thy faith fail not."

wheat & weights

"And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, and cast out the wheat into the sea. And when it was day, they knew not the land: but they discovered a certain creek with a shore, into the which they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust in the ship." (Acts 27:38-39)

I can just picture this: they're throwing things into the sea to lighten the ship, and they get to the wheat. And they say to each other - "ok, really? It's just wheat. It hardly weighs anything. And besides, we have to have something to eat. It's staying." And they move on to the next thing. But it wasn't until after even the wheat - their sustenance - was cast into the sea that they found "a certain creek with a shore" - the place of refuge for which they had been searching.

That shore - we're all searching for it. We are looking for a place to land, even temporarily, until we reach the heavenly one - but the storms beat hard and a lot of times we feel like we're drowning. For me, the stress of the past few weeks has far surpassed any stress I've ever felt before and I can't even describe how completely and totally done and exhausted I have been.

But I've been carrying a lot of wheat. I've been relying on my own resources and clinging to things that I think are going to help me - longer to-do lists, more spending, going more places. I have gotten a lot accomplished, but it's been at the expense of my attitude and my time with the Lord. I need to "take up my anchors" and "commit myself to the sea" - stop trying to provide myself and start letting Him in again. (vs. 40) He's the only one who can help me get "stuck fast" in this place where my "two seas" are meeting - who can help me "run aground" and "remain unmoveable". (vs. 41)