My prayer for you

I haven't had much to say lately, at least not here in the blogosphere. And that's a-ok! Just thought I'd let you know that no matter who or where you are, and no matter how well I do or don't know you, this was Paul's prayer for the Ephesians and it's my prayer for you as well.

15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Eph 1:15-23

I'm so thankful for His grace

I was just sitting here thinking about the many, many conversations I've had with people over the years that have revolved around God and our relationship with Him. I was thinking about all the ways in which I've been taught by others and the ways in which I've taught. I was thinking of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James and all the other writers in the Bible. All the words that have been shared by them and me and others.

I was thinking about how I've got a lot of doctrine about God. So much of it is really great! I'm very thankful that I have a doctrinal understanding of God and His grace, and that I'm still learning and growing. I was thinking about this, and I was overwhelmed for a few seconds with the wonderful sensation that even with all that I know about God, and even with the way that I've come to know Him personally and relationally, I DON'T HAVE HIM PEGGED, not even for a minute! I don't have Him figured out at all! And that's a good thing.

The truth is that we've been made new creations, and we have a brand new identity in Him, and we are one Spirit with Him. We have a communicative relationship with Him, in which He speaks to us, and us to Him, and He interacts with us, and we can know Him intimately... and it's ALL good!

But yet with all that I know, and with all that you know, and with all that all of humanity knows about God, and with the ways in which people know God intimately... and with all our doctrinal understanding, no matter how true or accurate it is... there is soooo much about God that we either think we know that isn't really so, or that we just plain don't know at all, and we hypothesize and we extrapolate and we articulate and we dialog and we share and we proclaim and we lecture and we listen and we infer and we establish doctrines and so on and so on - you get the point. And all the while, even in the midst of all our God-knowledge and all our God-ignorance, He loves us unconditionally and is full of grace toward us, every single second of our lives!

By all means let's keep up the dialog! Let's keep on sharing and learning and extrapolating and all that good stuff! We can most certainly be bold with what we believe, even with the understanding that we really hardly know a thing about God! He's revealed Himself to us in many ways, and I believe He wants us to communicate all of that with one another. I think what I'm saying is simply that I'm humbled that this wonderful God, who has a billion true and false things said about Him every single day, even from the likes of you and me, continues to love and adore us, and keep us in His limitless grace!

This also gives me humility in sharing truth with others. Holy cow... anything that I know that is true isn't a result of my wonderful thinking powers! He's GRACIOUSLY revealed it to me, and I want to be very gracious and loving in my sharing with others. I want to speak with clarity and boldness, and with great patience, kindness and love... and always with my heart and mind open to what God has to say to me through others, even if that means it penetrates and cracks open my own preconceived ways of seeing and understanding things.

Trust His Heart

God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don't understand
When you don't see His plan
When you can't trace His hand
Trust His heart