…that I was struggling.
Somehow… she knew.
And while the congregation was crying out to our Father to be our everything,
she wrapped her arms tightly around me.
And prayed to our Savior on my behalf
For patience, strength, guidance, wisdom, and perserverance.
It was the sweetest prayer I think I’ve ever heard.
I could feel the tears welling up,
and all I could do was hug her tighter.
Jesus, thank you for my sister. I really love her.
“My heart desires itself not truth,
hate not love, me not you.
god, have my voice and rebuke me not in my sin
but, i pray you’d kill me if you receive glory again.
you are beautiful and glorious and good
i’m a brute beast who praises your name less than i should.”
I’ll take a brother pouring his heart out to the Lord through music over a concert anyday.
This used to be a mirror in my bedroom. And a large one at that. And every time I would look into that mirror, I would see disappointment, disgust, shame, guilt, and sometimes… hate.
Now when I look at that mirror, I see family, love, hope, encouragement, and most importantly… Jesus.
On this mirror are my brothers, sisters, and parents that encourage me, inspire me, love me, push me, and are fighting for me. There are notes and letters written up there that are so beautiful I tear up when I read them. Instead of looking at the mirror and immediately having Satan attack my thoughts, I look at that mirror and am reminded of how blessed I am to have people in my life who will fight for me and with me. And I can’t even tell you what a relief it is to look at that mirror and not see anything but a visual of encouragement that is given to me on a daily basis.
Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy.
Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy.
Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy.
Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy.
Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy.
Breathe in me.
Act in me.
Draw my heart.
Strengthen me.
Guard me.
I’m reposting this because I just found it and realized how much I loved it.
“In the middle of “I”m going to do right and I’m going to avoid doing what’s wrong,” God identifies this area of our heart and He starts to ask about it, “Hey… what is this?” And what happens in that moment is we go, “Oh yeah, I don’t want to talk about that. I don’t want to deal with that. How about I do this, this and this and then You just leave that alone and I’ll give you this instead? How about instead of dealing with that,instead of confessing that, instead of coming clean with that, how about instead I just teach a small group or I’ll memorize Scripture? I’ll memorize Scripture and You leave that alone.” And Jesus goes, “No. I want that.” And so what we do is busy ourselves with religious, right moral action in an attempt to run from God penetrating the heart. And this is why you get a weak, retarded version of Christianity. Because you’ve got people who are all busy doing things but don’t have a heart transformed. So you don’t have worship, you don’t have joy. You just have things to do. And if you do them well, then you get to look at other people who aren’t doing those things well and feel superior. All the while Jesus goes after the heart. Isn’t it funny that you can usereligion to run from Him?”
