Passionate Grace

Life feels sometimes like I’m wandering in a vast desert with no place to rest.

Sometimes it feels like my life is ebbing way in a hopeless search for satisfaction.

Sometimes all seems dark and it seems I will never find the light. I keep on trying to find my own way out of the darkness because I feel there is no one else I can really trust.

But then I realize I can’t even trust myself because I pursue my own selfish and sinful ends. And though I know my sin harms me I follow it to the gates of death.

To add insult to injury life is so hard. Friends die. Sickness hits. Finances are always a struggle. Parenting. Marriage. I feel often at my wit’s end.

Father what can I do? I cannot deliver myself. I have tried. You alone can deliver. You alone are mighty to save. So I cry out to you. Would you deliver me oh my Father?

Four times the Psalm responds with “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from all their distress.”

Do you need hope? Do you need light in the darkness? Do you need to be delivered from sin? Do you need comfort in your sorrow?

Cry to the Lord.

Grace is not just God accepting you as you are, though He does and will, grace delivers you and frees you so that you are no longer the same.

So

Let us give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind

for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.
for he breaks down gates of bronze
and cuts through bars of iron.
He sent out his word and healed them;
he rescued them from the grave.
He stilled the storm to a whisper;
the waves of the sea were hushed.
They were glad when it grew calm,
and he guided them to their desired haven.

Let the one who is wise heed these things
and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord!