Wednesday, July 10, 2013

what I forever want to remember about "the cup"

God is more concerned about having our heart than anything else.

He wants us to know His love for us so intimately that we want to trust Him. Yet, our trust doesn't come easy.

He knows.

He knows the distractions and the weights of the world around us that tempt us to pine for comfort in other places. The ways we build idols in an attempt to make us feel good.

He knows.

There is no shame in our tendencies.

He will go to the ends of the Earth and back again for our hearts. He already has.

When Jesus asked the Father if there was any other way, I think He was thinking about all the things that He knew God would allow to happen on our journey to surrendering our hearts to Him.

     If she could please not be tempted in that way . . .

     If he could please not choose that way . . .

     If that could please not happen to him . . .

     If their marriage could please not get torn . . .

     If their family could please not be scarred . . .

     If there's any way you'd take this cup, Father . . . yet, not my will, but yours.

God uses all things for purpose.

He chooses this.

He takes scrap and makes it Sacred.

He knows that sometimes it takes an affair, a threat, a temptation, even an act of murder, for us to get to the very bottom of ourselves and see that He is even there.

Our sin never separates us from Him completely. He will use every single situation and experience and sin to draw us to Him and for us to hear, "I still love you."

He knows what it will take for us to know His love for us. And for them.

It's not the thing that happens to us, it's what happens in us through the thing.

It's the process He uses to bring us closer to knowing what Love is about.

It's His ways of bringing us ever nearer to Him in such a deep and personal way that we hear His breath and we feel His cloak brush against us.

He has met me there. In the dark. There was scorning or screaming or shame.

Someday this story you're living will be your Ebenezer -- your stone of remembrance for what He has done in you.



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4 comments:

  1. He has met me there too...in the dark. Thank you!

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  2. Oh, beautiful reminder here.. that He is in the dark and the hard and the "what are you doing right now, Lord?" moments. Yes, I've found Him sometimes to be clearer in the dark than in the light- strange but true. So glad I stopped in from Tell His Story today.

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  3. I'm so grateful to have connected with you, Amy. Loved this..."It's not the thing that happens to us, it's what happens in us through the thing." Your words reach into my soul. Beautiful!

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  4. Oh my! So true and well said! The end of ourselves. The best place to be -whatever it takes. As long as we reach for God there.

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