28 February 2014 - nothing held back

 28 February 2014 - nothing held back

We need to have perseverance and patience in the midst of trial and temptation.

The prophets are examples of this, as is Job.  They hold fast to the God in whose name they speak.  Job does not abandon God even when all earthly circumstance is set against him.  Even in the hardships Job endures we see at work "the purpose of the Lord".  We can't manage any of this on our own.  Only by keeping the God's purpose in mind, by remembering the good things he has done for his people (including us) in the past, by treasuring them in our heart like Mary (cf. Luk. 2:19), can we hope to persevere.  It is only by grace.

A lot of the basis for our worldview, our expectations for ourselves and others, is based on the hardness of our hearts.  And it is therefore wrong or at least deprecated.  A lot of people are still living without the advantage of grace.  We still live from that place too from time to time.  We set our expectations based on these results rather than what is truly possible. We find ourselves unable to go all in, to commit ourselves.  We want to hold on to the ability to "write a bill of divorce" between ourselves and anything which ultimately seems too difficult for us.

But grace is here.  It changes everything.  It empowers us to persevere so that our "Yes" may be "Yes" and or "No" may be "No," that we "may not incur condemnation."  We now have the power from God to be all in, to give our all, and to hold nothing back, even in spite of the circumstances.  This changes every relationship, most especially marriage.

“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery.”

And the change turns out to be back to God's original plan for us.

But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.

He doesn't design us to have to hold back in fear and selfishness.  When we fail, when we put ourselves first, we take consolation from the knowledge that he is "Merciful and gracious".

He pardons all your iniquities,
he heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
he crowns you with kindness and compassion.

He wants to bring us from broken partiality that says to the wholeness that can bless God with our entire beings:

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.

When our "Yes" means "Yes" we imitate the one who is the yes to all the promises of God (cf. 2 Cor 1:20).  We are able to go all that we are because he first gives all he is for us.