The heart torn in two, longing for the familiar and at the same time for adventure, yearning for danger yet fearing change, desiring to seek out new horizons yet loving where you are, seeking purpose but giving up former joys. What is the life that never changes? What is an ever changing and rootless life? How do you find balance between them? What to change, what to do the same, what to keep and what to burn? What should stay and what should go? Young heart you wonder, could I? Do I have what the world will require, the skill, the courage and wisdom for a radical life? Do I accept that it will take the heart out of me? I will bend, I will break and my heart will be torn a thousand times yet on I go because life is too short to merely sit in one place. Though the path is untrodden and full of pain and questions on I go, ever marching towards the sun, on I go to more loss and to more joy. I wait on the mountains yet it is the small things that count, I see stars and sky yet to me no wings have been given, but a Star is in my heart for the Son is brighter than all the lights of heaven and sun combined.
In order to be near the Lord we will be burned by the brightness of His glory, what we loved will perish, old comforts will comfort no more, that which we did will be lost for the old has passed away, it has been burned. For behold the new, the radical back-breaking yet filled beyond the brim with joy and peace has come. Though mountains and oceans will stand between you and your desires, your limbs will give way and your hope will fail, though you may lose yourself sometimes and your heart has many scars, life goes on. For there is One Constant alone in a sea of change under a storm of doubt.
Who are you and why are you here? To run? To sit? To plant? To create? To work or rest? To love? To soak in beauty or bitterness? You decide. What is mankind and what are our lives here? Are we lost, are we found? You decide. What will you chose?
We all seek to do and to be but what will you define yourself by? How will others see you? Love or hate? Joy or bitterness? The easily done or the hard-won? You yourself or something/someone greater? The empty or the thriving? Though my heart wants to be as a king I will chose the King of kings, though I fight a war in my heart everyday I will chose the radical over self. Though my heart faces doubt I will trust the Lord.
But what is trust? Is it halfheartedly seeking Christ? Walking in fear or is it walking as a lion? Your heart and a devil will tell you that you are a gazelle to the worlds lion, but what God has done to make you a lion! Child of God you are exactly who the Lord says you are! Though we be as dust we are Christ, though man is doomed to die and is consumed by his sin your identity is in Christ only. In Christ you were given grace before the world began and chosen by God Himself and there is nothing on earth or in hell that can take that from you!
So is your identity in what you do (your actions and the activities you participate in)? Circumstances? The past? The future? Child of God you are so much more! Your are in Christ and made holy in the sight of God! Alone we perish in the battle for our hearts but our God is a mighty warrior, He fought faithfully for Israel and now for those who are in Christ. This is the One who defeated death, He knows everyday of your life and is behind and before the smallest and biggest things that will happen to you, He is in the change, the pain, the joy, the good and the bad. Nothing on earth, in heaven or hell is allowed to touch your life except that which God allows. Though I'm spent and my heart is destroyed by fear, that fear is a lie of the devil
Oh that you could see! Child of God if you truly knew how He sees you! Oh that you knew of the radical freedom that is in Christ from sin, for there is complete forgiveness at the cross, from fear, for your courage is from God. No matter the obstacle, no matter the sorrow, pain or sin Christ is greater! He sees you as Himself, you have His victory over everything, you're free from anything that ever touches your life. You're free to walk as a lion or fly like an eagle, touch the stars and to more than survive but thrive, that is the kind of freedom offered in Christ. No matter the pain of heart you always have Christ, take your pain to Him, write it down, pray it out and cling to His promises with all your might.
For the christian stands on the strength of God but falls in his own pride, for God alone wields authority over creation.
The christian stands in the trust of the Lord but falls when he trusts his own knowledge, for God shares His knowledge with the humble.
The christian stands by seeking Christ and falls when he sees only his sin, for God alone can change the heart of man.
The christian stands on the promises of God and loses hope on his own, for God alone offers true hope.
Though this world and our sin will bring us to tears those tears are not evil if they bring us closer to Christ. In Christ everything will be overcome if we trust Him, if we are diligent to seek Him and discipline ourselves in the Lord. If we will wait on His timing and keep our eyes on Him in our darkest nights we will find victory, for victory is not in surviving the storm of tribulation but in Christ alone, the victory is having and enjoying Him. It's in knowing how much He loves you and relying on His strength, it's in our new identity we have in Him, we know we are his and if we are His we know we can never fall too far for His grace to save. We know that since we have Christ dwelling inside us (and that alone is our identity) the victory He won over death is ours as well. So neither death, sin or trial can stop us, for we are sons and daughters of the one true God.
Is that enough for you? Enough to carry you through this long hard life? The truth that a perfect sinless God shares His holiness with sinful man? Is that enough? Though my heart is tired and filled with sorrow it will always be enough for me.
Thanks for reading,
Zachary
P.S. Lions by Skillet
In order to be near the Lord we will be burned by the brightness of His glory, what we loved will perish, old comforts will comfort no more, that which we did will be lost for the old has passed away, it has been burned. For behold the new, the radical back-breaking yet filled beyond the brim with joy and peace has come. Though mountains and oceans will stand between you and your desires, your limbs will give way and your hope will fail, though you may lose yourself sometimes and your heart has many scars, life goes on. For there is One Constant alone in a sea of change under a storm of doubt.
Who are you and why are you here? To run? To sit? To plant? To create? To work or rest? To love? To soak in beauty or bitterness? You decide. What is mankind and what are our lives here? Are we lost, are we found? You decide. What will you chose?
We all seek to do and to be but what will you define yourself by? How will others see you? Love or hate? Joy or bitterness? The easily done or the hard-won? You yourself or something/someone greater? The empty or the thriving? Though my heart wants to be as a king I will chose the King of kings, though I fight a war in my heart everyday I will chose the radical over self. Though my heart faces doubt I will trust the Lord.
But what is trust? Is it halfheartedly seeking Christ? Walking in fear or is it walking as a lion? Your heart and a devil will tell you that you are a gazelle to the worlds lion, but what God has done to make you a lion! Child of God you are exactly who the Lord says you are! Though we be as dust we are Christ, though man is doomed to die and is consumed by his sin your identity is in Christ only. In Christ you were given grace before the world began and chosen by God Himself and there is nothing on earth or in hell that can take that from you!
So is your identity in what you do (your actions and the activities you participate in)? Circumstances? The past? The future? Child of God you are so much more! Your are in Christ and made holy in the sight of God! Alone we perish in the battle for our hearts but our God is a mighty warrior, He fought faithfully for Israel and now for those who are in Christ. This is the One who defeated death, He knows everyday of your life and is behind and before the smallest and biggest things that will happen to you, He is in the change, the pain, the joy, the good and the bad. Nothing on earth, in heaven or hell is allowed to touch your life except that which God allows. Though I'm spent and my heart is destroyed by fear, that fear is a lie of the devil
Oh that you could see! Child of God if you truly knew how He sees you! Oh that you knew of the radical freedom that is in Christ from sin, for there is complete forgiveness at the cross, from fear, for your courage is from God. No matter the obstacle, no matter the sorrow, pain or sin Christ is greater! He sees you as Himself, you have His victory over everything, you're free from anything that ever touches your life. You're free to walk as a lion or fly like an eagle, touch the stars and to more than survive but thrive, that is the kind of freedom offered in Christ. No matter the pain of heart you always have Christ, take your pain to Him, write it down, pray it out and cling to His promises with all your might.
For the christian stands on the strength of God but falls in his own pride, for God alone wields authority over creation.
The christian stands in the trust of the Lord but falls when he trusts his own knowledge, for God shares His knowledge with the humble.
The christian stands by seeking Christ and falls when he sees only his sin, for God alone can change the heart of man.
The christian stands on the promises of God and loses hope on his own, for God alone offers true hope.
Though this world and our sin will bring us to tears those tears are not evil if they bring us closer to Christ. In Christ everything will be overcome if we trust Him, if we are diligent to seek Him and discipline ourselves in the Lord. If we will wait on His timing and keep our eyes on Him in our darkest nights we will find victory, for victory is not in surviving the storm of tribulation but in Christ alone, the victory is having and enjoying Him. It's in knowing how much He loves you and relying on His strength, it's in our new identity we have in Him, we know we are his and if we are His we know we can never fall too far for His grace to save. We know that since we have Christ dwelling inside us (and that alone is our identity) the victory He won over death is ours as well. So neither death, sin or trial can stop us, for we are sons and daughters of the one true God.
Is that enough for you? Enough to carry you through this long hard life? The truth that a perfect sinless God shares His holiness with sinful man? Is that enough? Though my heart is tired and filled with sorrow it will always be enough for me.
Thanks for reading,
Zachary
P.S. Lions by Skillet
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