Happy New Year!
We’re of course two weeks in, but this is the first time this year - and in a while - that I’ve blogged. I’ve been doing more private reflection and journaling recently. I guess I can call this a "blogging break” of sorts. It’s been refreshing, but now I’m ready to share what God’s been teaching me - and my excitement for 2012!
What I’m most charged about this year is just the chance to get more of Jesus! The last couple months I’ve been meditating on this song, “One Thing Remains,” by this group called Jesus Culture. It’s about God’s unfailing love for us, through every circumstance. Here are a few lines from it:
Higher than the mountains that I face
Stronger than the power of the grave
Constant through the trial and the change
One thing remains...
Your love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me
Your love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me...
Because on and on and on and on it goes
For it overwhelms and satisfies my soul
And I never ever have to be afraid
One thing remains...
Your love never fails, it never gives up, in never runs out on me
Your love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me
I love the line, “Your love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me.” It describes so accurately the way God loves us. At times we get frustrated by circumstance, suffer the consequences of our own sin or are just unsure about what God may be doing. Yet somehow, even in those times, He reveals His love to us. In every challenge, big or small, I always feel it, even in pain.
His love also lets me know that I don't have to understand everything that happens in my life - and can't - but in His love, He always knows what is best for me. I came to understand a truth about God sometime in my teens that has been so freeing as an adult: He is less interested in answering our requests (whether yes, no, wait or otherwise) and most interested in making us more like Him through them.
I can remember a request I had my senior year of high school in particular that seems small now, but wasn't then. I recall trying everything to get God to answer yes - going between what I thought was fervent prayer and whining or throwing a pitty party for myself, hoping God would just feel sorry for me and answer yes aready.
I never got what I wanted, but through that experience I learned how to cry out to God in a way that He honors. As I spoke to Him honestly, He directed me to the Psalms, where in many of them David shared the pain he felt at the moment, but always resolved to hope in God. Through digging into the Psalms in that season I learned how to communicate with God in a way I hadn't before. That answer I didn't even ask for was the best thing about my prayers then. Now whenever those same emotions start to well up when I pray, I know how to give them to God in a way that He hears.
Learning that God's love will always give me the best outcome has also made me less concerned with how God answers my requests. Ephesians 6:18 says that we should pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests - and, especially, that we should pray for all the people of God. James 5:16 also says that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Yet the Holy Spirit's intercession for us in prayer, which our words can't express, is the greatest comfort that the best outcome will be accomplished - the will of God - even if it isn't what we pray for.
I may never get the physical things that I desire - that house I want, the relationship I want, the job I want - but, as His child, God will always work things out for my good. And, even better, as I pray for His will to be accomplished - over the desired outcome of my requests, He changes my desires to fit with His. My prayers become guided by His ways rather than my own.
God's steady love also teaches us how to love others. A pastor provided one of the most profound and concise definitions of love that I've heard. He says, “love is helping someone else obey God. Period.” It shows how dependent on God we are to love someone else - and the fact that, without a relationship with Him, we are incapable of truly loving others. It is also a challenge to rethink how we claim to love others. If we're saying that we love someone else but ask them to do something that is against God's laws or His will for that person, because of our own desires or otherwise - we aren't helping another obey God, and, in turn, we aren't really loving.
I love seeing examples of God's love in people. When we obey God, He gives us that supernatural ability to love others in the unfailing way that He does. Experiencing that kind of love - from God and others - gives us the confidence to obey God, walk in His purpose for us - and love even more people.
I have many prayers and requests for this new year. I am very excited about turning 30 (19 days and counting!) - and all that I know God wants to do this year in my life, my friends, family, church, the collective Body of Christ, in all our nation and our world. Yet I have no idea how this year will turn out. But I can be confident that His love will never fail, and He will work all things out for His good purpose - even if it's not what I expect or desire. That's why I just want to keep hungering and thirsting after His righteousness, because then I will always be filled.
Praise God that His matchless love is redeemable in 2012 - and beyond. Happy New Year!
