Awaken, My Love

Let Him AWAKEN your heart.

He has so much beauty to bring, to unveil.

Truly, His Love is stronger than death.

Let Him call to you, beckon your heart.

Allow Him to breathe LIFE into you once more.

No longer stale. No longer stagnant.

Dry bones, no more.

A true, deep, fervent LOVE for Him.

Your heart's very echo to the deep, fervent, powerful, redemptive, STRONG LOVE He has for you.

He says to you: "Awaken, my Love."

He romanced you first, and that is the way it has always been.

Ashes and All

I remember this summer...after last Christmas was so brutal and filled with loss...and how the months that followed were so heart-wrenching and grief-filled.

That longing for authenticity.

And by authenticity, I mean a deep, deep longing to know Him more. To know His Heart for me. To know His Heart for this world. For the sorrow. For the heartache. For the suffering.

His Whispers. His Whisper to my heart. Calling me deeper, closer, nearer.

I suppose, I am weary of speaking and writing of grief. But when you lose, and lose, and lose some more...

...it consumes your thoughts and makes your heart very heavy. And you have to express it. You have to just let it out. I think God wants to use it, too. To bring Healing. To bring Redemption. To mend the broken. To show His Love in and through the painful circumstances.

Because beyond the great, terrible, aching, all-consuming pain and heart-cry and agony...

There is His LOVE. And truly, TRULY it is GREATER. He is GREATER. He is STRONGER.

Because He cares. He carries us and longs for us. He sees our hurt, our anger, our helplessness, our weariness, our bitterness, our confusion, our longing...longing for wholeness once more.

And He has COMPASSION. And UNDERSTANDING. He is not far off. He is NEAR. He cradles us. He runs His Hand through our hair like the dear FATHER He is, and He cradles us, comforts us.

We need to know Him. That's what we were created for. And He's waiting for, longing after, desiring our hearts. He longs to fill all that is empty. All that is void. He longs to mend all that is broken.

And when the storm rages. And rages. And rages. RELENTLESSLY. seemingly, relentlessly.

He is cradling us in His Arms. We may not see it. We may not feel it through the deep, deep pain. But He will meet us there. We have to let Him in. He's knocking. Bidding us, "COME HOME".

Come deeper. Let Him draw you in. Let His Sweetness draw you in. He sent His only Son, and the volume that this speaks of His Love is SO GREAT. You are welcome to come just as you are. Ashes, and all.

Until The Day Breaks

 I am frail. Shattered. Broken. Aching. Longing. Desperate. 

Afraid.

Stepping into a very new place...terrified beyond all measure.

That's me.

But then, there is my Savior.

He is Tender, Kind, Gentle, Compassionate.

A Hero. A Warrior. A Victor.

The Lion and the Lamb.

Does it not just stir your heart?

How I want my heart to just know it and beat for it. For His Presence. He sees me. He knows me. He cares for me. He beckons me. He draws me in. He delights in me. He rejoices over me. He intercedes for me. He calls me His Lily, His Flower. My Heart, a Garden.

Every time. Every time tragedy strikes. Every moment in which sorrow overwhelms my heart...

I have the choice to turn away from Him, or turn to Him.

And the Enemy will attack and assail with lies and lies and lies and fear and the temptation to despair.

Letting go of the pretenses now. This is something deeper than it appears. This is a soul battle. 

Suffering...the design of the Enemy to destroy your Faith. The design of God to build your Faith and prove it genuine and true and pure and real before yourself and others.  

Born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, ⁹obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
-1 Peter 1 

So here is my proclamation through the storm, out of the depths of desperation, sorrow, longing, anguish, fear, agony, aching, heartache:

My God is greater. I will trust Him. I am frail and broken, but He is STRONG. And He will sustain me. His Grace covers me.

My soul my falter and fail, but my God never will.

I will BELIEVE.

Our Vision...and His

“Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering. The love of God is of a different nature altogether. It does not hate tragedy. It never denies reality. It stands in the very teeth of suffering. The love of God did not protect His own Son. This was the proof of His love – that He gave that Son, that He let Him go to Calvary’s cross, though “legions of angels” might have rescued Him. He will not necessarily protect us- not from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process.” 
― Elisabeth Elliot