Today is the acceptable time. Today is the day of salvation (cf. 2 Cor. 6:2).
Today, Jesus, is the day you answer us. Your help is not only in fluke in our past history. It is not merely an unrealized hope for a distant future.
Today, Jesus, is the day of your help.
Yes, even today LORD. Even though we are on the way, these promises are for today. We are still moving from prison to freedom and from those in darkness into light. Yet along the ways we find pasture. With you as our shepherd we find rest in these pastures. Even on heights that look barren we find green pastures with you as our shepherd (cf. Psa. 23).
We hunger and thirst along this way LORD. We are plagued by these cravings and desires which we can never fully satisfy. They lead us to assume that the acceptable time and the day of salvation must be remote and distant. But even along the way you guide us "beside springs of water." These are living waters which flow from you and give us life. When we drink from this stream it is still. Living and yet still. This is fullness of life and yet it is quiet and gentle. This is the still small voice with which you speak. Yet in heaven you thunder (cf. Psa. 18:13). We drink of this stream easily, quietly, and in peace. Yet we are not filled with stagnant water. We are filled with the fullness of life.
We don't believe you when you say that today is the day of salvation because we aren't coming to you to quench our thirst and sate our hunger. Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.
Jesus, you see this state we are in when we chase after earthly cravings which cannot satisfy us. You see us actually blame you for this! And yet you do not hold even that against us. Instead, you ensure us of your love.
But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”
Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you.
You are slow to anger and of great kindness, O Jesus. You are good to all! We are falling, LORD. And you lift us up today! You do not wait until we crash and hit the ground. We are bowed down but you invite us to come instead to the yoke that is easy and the burden is light. This invitation is open today!
You want to do these great works so that we will be amazed. The Father gives you these works to amaze us so that we can trust you not just to fulfill our desires here and now but to bring them to ultimate fulfillment. The fulfillment we find in you is not something shallow and transient. It is amazing! It needs to be in order to build our trust to the level you desire.
Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and those who hear will live.
This is the road you cut through the mountain. This is the stone rolled away from the tomb. We taste it even now when we believe your word to us.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.
You continue to prove just how much you love us. We have no cause for fear at the judgment if you believe your word. Your love casts that fear away (cf. 1 Joh. 4:18) If we hunger and thirst for you you give us more than we can ask or imagine (cf. Eph. 3:20).
We taste this today, LORD. And so our praises begin anew today!
Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth,
break forth into song, you mountains.
For the LORD comforts his people
and shows mercy to his afflicted.
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