Date:  Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Day:  35 of 180

So one of the themes of the morning prayer meetings that I attend almost every morning is God's love for us.  How should His love affect us?  How should we live in light of it?  What happens when we forget?  What happens when we fail? Well here's a journal entry that I wrote that has really been on my mind lately.  I hope it blesses you too as it did me when I wrote it.

Reference text:   Genesis 5:1b ESV

Just when all hope seems lost, and the two present heirs seem to be either lost to death or corrupted by the same evil that persuaded Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, God steps in, as He often does, and works a miracle:  Cain fathers a child named Enoch.  In the greater Biblical narrative, Enoch is known as the only human to not die, prior to the prophets.

Just 

Even as it seems that an heir that might fulfill the redemptive prophecy may not be found, God does the unimaginable:  he redeems Cain's heritage by giving him a remarkable son to continue his family's name. Just when all hope seems lost, don't count God out. Odds are He has a plan, one great and more glorious than what we could ever ask or imagine.

This theme of judgment marked by unbelievable mercy is a character of God that echoes throughout the Biblical narrative.  It happens to the nation of Israel during the reigns of the kings, through to the Exile.  From the time of the early church to the writing of the book of Revelation, and even today.

Though war, disease, famine, moral decadence, and human injustice exist all over the world, God's mercy and grace is never far away.  Sometimes it can be found in the most unlikely of places.  God's love is present and still alive and well; though many times we are not privy to it.  Here is the key:  though pain and suffering may come your way, though sorrow may momentarily plague your life, and death may greet you, rejoice and give thanks for it is through momentary afflictions that your faith is proven and purified.  Wait on the LORD.  Cling to the Cross.  Hold fast to the arms of your Savior. Wait, Hope, and Trust.  God is at work.

end

The most amazing constant is God's willingness to pursue us no matter the cost.  There is such hope and confidence knowing that no matter where life will find us, no matter how dirty we've become, God still loves us, still wants us, and still died for us.  This is the source, the foundation:  the Cross.  It is the Cross that should motivate our very existence-life, work, friendships, hobbies, and passions.  It should give us the confidence to take risks for the cause of Christ.  The steps of faith that we take should get increasingly bigger and bolder as we find the surpassing worth every act.  Whoever said bring a Christian was boring clearly didn't have this Cross-Centered life in perspective.  I pray everyday that God would give me the boldness to act on what I know is true.  I know it's hard, but oh the joys and satisfaction available to him who perseveres to the end.

God sustain us as we pursue this type of Cross-Centered living that You have called us too.  Uphold us and when all hope seems lost when we fail, meet us in our sorrow and weakness.  Astound us by Your grace.  Motivate us through Your love.  And shock us by the revealing of Yourself.  LORD I pray all these things in the powerful and majestic name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord.  Amen