Passion and Strength and Firmness

sorry I'm a little behind so I'm going to have to go back a bit, but who doesn't like revisiting passion?! I was really hit by two tuesdays ago devo on passion when it said,"when you visualize and internalize Christ personally anointing you and putting his seal of adoption upon your life, freedom and risk taking become a lifestyle as opposed to an abstract ideal. Fear and condemnation are swallowed up by hope and acceptance". I love that God constantly guarantees His victory, presence, and personal relationship. Accepting His adoption of us means the difference between living in pursuit of others love and acceptance, constantly trying to prove ourselves worthy, or living out of the knowledge of how loved we are by our abba father. One brings adventure, joy, and purpose, the other brings walls, masks, hardened hearts, and ultimately destruction. How different would our day to day lives be if we knew how absolutely adored and delighted in we are as precious children of the king?

Strength and firmness

I loved last wednesday's devo at the end when it says, "Your journey through this world is a journey of hope that you, by Christ's seed of faith in you, would trust your loving, good savior at all moments and in all places. Happy trails!" Oh I was so juiced!! how much does God's love speak of adventure?!?! there is no adventure unless we trust. our strength comes from trusting God and allowing Him to fill us and redeem us. I was struck by how simple it is, just trust God completely, and yet that simple little task we can't even do on our own, we do it by "His seed of faith in us". we are strong and firm because He gives us His strength and firmness. He has given us everything we need, but yet we could not reach up to get it, He had to kneel down to give it.

This strength is so rooted in our true weakness. On Sunday my pastor gave a message on Hosea 11, and the first couple verses give a picture of God caring for Israel in their "infancy". It says that God taught them to walk and and lifted them under their arms. It brings to mind the picture of a caring parent first teaching their wobbly toddler to walk, His love is so supportive, and yet there comes a time when the parents have to let go and let the toddler falter a little until they learn to walk. God lets us falter because we need to learn that we can falter, it allows us to recognize our weakness. when we realize that we are capable of falling, we learn to walk better. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Paul says when he is weak, then he is strong. when we understand our brokenness, our bondage, and our weakness, we understand how great His deliverance and love is. When we are weak then we can humbly allow God's strength to fill us and trust Him alone in this great adventure.