we will overcome

FRIENDS:
I am praying again this morning. First, through the crust of anger and disappointment with my self and also with my cluttered view of God’s work in me… and now, flayed open before the goodness of God. In my isolation and my needs and my prayers for divine intervention into my own life this morning, I am faced with a God who holds me, and who, even when I resist him, and barrage him with all kinds of problems and questions, continues to hold me. I am humbled by the graciousness of the Lord– in praying for each of you and loving each of you. Funny how getting my eyes off of me, shows me how it’s not about me. So, instead of turning inward, and ruminating into a ball of tension and confusion and intensity, I am going to look up! I am going to choose the attitude of faith. Some of you have prayed specifically for me this week, and you must know that if nothing else, I am not going to give up. Though I am still so imperfect and flawed, I must pray boldly:

Father in Heaven, Refine us, perfect us, cut us. Cut away what is dead, oh God, and call each of us back to the core of your truth- the campfire where it all began, that huddle where everything was new and we first found your truths exploding into our immature minds and hearts… call us back to that kind of seeking- without pretense.

God has said to me that OVERCOMING is not about what one sees with the eyes. OVERCOMING happens in the silent power of the unseen faith that God himself builds through the fire of suffering and weakness and hardship and pain. We can find JOY in OVERCOMING and we must keep going and never give up. OVERCOMING is our calling and our hope. It is here for us now, and it is ever before us, unattainable, out of our reach.

I wonder if I’m off on this, but are there any of you out there, also seeking God through your own crust of anger or disappointment or doubt? Are there any of you swimming around, immersed by the diluted teachings of teachers who have lost their connection with the Head of the Church (who no longer believe in God as anything other than myth), or, are you fighting the temptations that those teachings present- to abandon pure worship, to embrace worldly self-centered philosophies and shun conviction and truth? Well, I invite you to stand with me this morning. Just to stand.

I am not perfect, and in fact I am very weak right now, but I stand with you in the midst of all that you are going through. You may not divulge to me really very much at all, and you may wonder at times what it is that causes me to pray for you or even care so much at all. Well, just know that I have been called to pray and so I do. Just know that you are on my heart and so here I am to stand with you, today, as your sister.

I don’t probably know half of all you go through, though some of you will have told me various requests. But if you are feeling weak, I stand with you. If you are beaten down by your thoughts and repetitive struggles, I stand with you on what Jesus Christ has done for us. He is our Rock. He died for us, so let us stand together, to live with Him, for Him, to Him alone. Let us stand today in the faith that is unseen, that empowers us to soar like eagles, though most times, the world will never see or marvel or acknowledge this. Let us take our stand among the saints of old, who OVERCAME (and who stand with us in heaven, overcoming, cheering us onto redemption… hoping with us for the resurrection from the dead, for that last day, when we will reign with Him). Let’s stand together, though scattered and imperfect.

For this is the glimpse and the echo of what is, and what is also yet to come:
“Now the salvation, and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our bretheren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.” Revelation 11.12,11

We will overcome.