Counting down! Even though the 'days' of Lent are consecutively showing a larger number, we are in the final countdown to the end of Lent. Writing daily for me is a spiritual discipline, even if doing so is a challenge. My heart is heavy with many things, and still I plod on. That's what discipline and faithfulness does. I prefer to portray the bright, sunny side of my personality, but, to be totally transparent, life gets overwhelmingly hard sometimes - and in times of trouble and challenge we have two choices: to run to Jesus and allow him to share our burden or to run away from Jesus because we get mad at him for allowing the challenge we are dealing with. Our choice.
I am choosing to to run to him, and choosing to believe that he has a plan that is bigger than what I can see. I get in my own way! I want resolution in my timing, not his. I am impatient for that to come. And in this acknowledgement of the weight I awaken with each morning in this particular challenge, I come today to John 17:20-26 where, just before Jesus would go through physical and emotional hell for us, he prays for all believers....
Jesus Prays for All Believers (CSB)
“I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation. Righteous Father, the world has not known you. However, I have known you, and they have known that you sent me. I made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them.”
Oh to see through Jesus' eyes! What amazing compassion, what amazing love, what an amazing acknowledgment in honoring God, his Righteous Father, who does all things well. We are in the world, but we are not of the world. And just as he prayed for his first disciples, his prayer for us continues. He intercedes for us. He has good in mind for us - and though he may bless us here far more than we deserve, the most magnificent good he has stored up for us is going to be in heaven. He will be our delight and when we see him face to face, all of the cares of this world will vanish. Oh what a day that will be.
Jesus' prayer also reminds me that we who accept him as Savior are his inheritance. He wants for us to be with him. I imagine he longs for that time even more than I do! What a comforting thought. To tangibly run into his arms! I haven't thought about that before. I usually just think about falling down in worship and awe, but this morning, in this moment, as I run to him in prayer, and visualize being with him, I realize we will see his tenderness on full display, just as much as we will see his majesty. That's exciting.
Lord, open my eyes to see you in every situation. And open eyes and hearts to accept you in this Lenten season, to find you as Savior and make you their Lord. Be Lord of my life!
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