To: and From:

Look, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world! This is the One … (John 1:29-30a)

 

Thank You, dear God, for Your Word; for a desire to look at it; and for some level of understanding. And thank You for Jesus paying the price for our sins. Thank You for opening the curtain to a relationship with You, even though we don’t hold it as precious as we ought. Thank You for being steadfast and true … unchanging, despite our response. Thank You for the revelation of Yourself day after day. Forgive us for not acknowledging You as much as we may the blessing You send in love. Forgive us for asking for different blessings than what in Your perfect foresight has sent.

Forgive me for all the selfish whining, the laziness, and the excuses. Forgive me for somehow denying any passion in me and running away in heart from loving service. Forgive me for not loving neighbor – both the familiar and the stranger - as I ought. Forgive me for not going beyond just duty in life to loving, relishing, and delighting in the life of love and service You have planned out for me. I lift this brokenness up to You, trusting in Your guidance and power now that I have brought it to You, ... Lord of me.

I have not loved You with my whole heart. I have been waiting for health and life, comfort and balance to be perfectly aligned. Yet I know, by trusting in Your holy Word that I can love and serve in any condition because it is Christ that lives in me and not myself alone. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Greater than any blessing is the love from the God Who sent us the greatest of all blessings. His only Son, our Lord; that sacrificial Lamb … that was needed to wash all sin away. TO save the world and all its generations. Rejoice in the Gift of Jesus. Rejoice more in the love FROM the Father Who gave Him up for us all.