"You’re not even primarily responsible for the outcome of your obedience. Your heavenly Father has a firm grip on you."
- Steven Furtick
"Hearing from God is exhilarating. His voice resounds with the possibility of progress. His instruction contains the seed of success, of change, of hope."
- Steven Furtick
never base your valuation of God’s goodness, faithfulness, or love for you, on whether or not He answers a certain prayer in the specific way that you want Him to.
He is far too good, far too faithful, far too in love with you, and far too wise, to answer all of your prayers the way you hope He would.
goodnight Abba.
every so often i fall asleep when i’m spending time in Your presence.
i used to feel a sense of shame over this.
and then You gave me the image of a child falling asleep in the arms of a loving Father.
as my eyelids close until the light of day awakens me, You simply smile with each rise & fall of my chest.
it doesn’t matter that i’ve fallen asleep in the middle of our conversation. all that matters to You in that moment, is that i’m resting in Your arms.
that’s when the word Abba came alive to me.
isn’t that the story of grace & redemption You so often speak over us… that which filled us with guilt & shame is simply an opportunity to draw close to the heart of the Father, and for our hearts to be filled with a grace that leaves no room for condemnation.
and so tonight i’ll probably fall asleep on You again. but i can think of no better way to spend the final moments of my day, than spilling my heart to the open ears of my Father as i fall asleep in Your embrace.
goodnight Abba.
"The extraordinary presence & purpose of God will burn brightly in the life of anyone willing to be set on fire."
- Steven Furtick
i am in desperate need of Jesus.
every second, of every day.
with every inhale, He is the oxygen that fills up my lungs.
it is this dire need that either drives me further into His presence,
or, misdirected, aims itself at anything and everything else that leaves me unsatisfied.
"…somehow in the face of all this, you clear a space for the writing voice, hacking away at the others with machetes, and you begin to compose sentences. You begin to string words together like beads to tell a story. You are desperate to communicate, to edify or entertain, to preserve moments of grace or joy or transcendence, to make real or imagined events come alive. But you cannot will this to happen. It is a matter of persistence and faith and hard work. So you might as well just go ahead and get started."
- Anne Lamott
sweet symphony.
the collaboration of the hands of the Creator
strumming the strings of His creation
results in a symphony so sweet
that the lost will be beckoned home.
Lord i pray You would tug on & change hearts where & when it fits within Your plan.
