Friday, January 17, 2025

The Deeps Break Open

 

When the LORD restores...

        Psalm 14. 7

(Hope is knowing
what we are going through
is not the end of the story.
We are only in the
  middle of a chapter and
     middle of His redeeming.
Redeeming is woven
          all the way through
   with strong thread
   and imperceptible stitches.
God's restoring
  does not just provide
depreciated replacement value.
Because God multiplies
  in ways we can never imagine
for our hearts
and for the souls around us.
The deeps break open
         --Proverbs 3. 20)  

O LORD,
May we be faithful to You
even through the chaos,
     fallow fields,
      and rocky roads.
You are working deeply,
   and You are redeeming
far beyond our understanding
    or what we can see.
Reveal to us
   not just what to do
but that we would
   be evidence of Your work,
Your hand,
and Your witness and redeeming
  in this situation.
Above all,
to be faithful to You today.


Thursday, January 16, 2025

Stay By Me

 

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Trusting God Goes Both Ways

 

...and Jesus said to them,
"Do you believe that
I am able to do this?"
They said to Him,
          "Yes, Lord."
Then He touched their eyes,
saying, "According to your faith,
    be it done to you."
And their eyes were opened.

          Matthew 9. 28-30

(God is able to heal,
but not always the way
    that we specify,
not always what we expect,
         nor just physically.
His healing miracles
  were never limited
to physical healing,
  but always bore
even more significantly,
     an eternal spiritual element.
Trusting God goes both ways.
Do we believe He is able
        to do this,
or even more with this?
Faith lets God be God in this.
God always comes through,
but not always
     through the front door.
We can trust Him
  and not just for an answer,
but in a far greater redeeming
    than we can know.)

O LORD,
Grow in us a faith
to trust You
        both ways.
We know that You are able
    to do, answer, and redeem,
  far deeper than we ask.
Help us to realize that You
       stretch Your redeeming
  over more than
           a singular outcome.
Open our eyes
   that we may not
          just see Your hand,
but trust You even more.




Tuesday, January 14, 2025

God Knows What He is Doing. Imagine That.

 

Monday, January 13, 2025

What Only God Can Pull Off

 

And he said, "O LORD,
God of my master Abraham,
please grant me success today
and show steadfast love
to my master Abraham.

            Genesis 24. 12

(Acknowledging that
it is God who causes to happen
to us what we seek,
not a particular answer
   of our own choosing
                or timing,
    but His way,
    His completion,
  and His glory in this.
His surprising ways reveal
not just His hand,
     but His Presence.
In Hebrew, it literally means
to make beams and joists
    to meet one another.
It is God who has done this,
not that things come together,
          or work out,
    but are designed that way
    to make Himself known.
Our experiences don't just happen
                     or come about.
What is at stake?
What do we make known?
       His glory or ours?)

O LORD,
Your steadfast love guides us
   through the miry bogs,
   tangles of impossibilities,
   and the great unknown,
not toward an outcome,
     but closer to You.
We ask that You would bless
        our efforts
        and our faithfulness
and amaze us
    not by "what happens"
but how You redeem
           all things.
Liberate us from our
       narrow pursuits.
Invite us into Your purposes.
Astonish us.




Sunday, January 12, 2025

Direct it to Me

 

Saturday, January 11, 2025

What We See and What We Don't