Dear Faith Family,
To know that I've been knit together, reverently set apart, exhaustively known, as Psalm 139 proclaims, is undoubtedly a wondrous truth and inspiring praise!
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully set apart,
and wonderfully made.
Wonderous are your works...
I was...intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.(Psalm 139:14-16)
Yet the awe of faith's insight is not merely in the enormity of such knowledge, as vast at it may be. Nor is it only in the grandeur of its completion, as wonderful as it will be. The awe of God's forming is also in the uniqueness of its graces.
I don't know about you, but I tend to associate grace with negatives. Grace, as I am prone to describe it to others, is not receiving the just consequences for our wrong/sinful actions. Or, perhaps grace kept us from the felt realities of evil: tragedy or failure or want. While both statements are true, in truth, grace is simply unmerited favor. Approval and goodwill extended not on the basis of action or inaction (positively or negatively) but received from the heart of another. Grace is a kindness enacted, a goodness bestowed simply from the goodness of the giver.
Now think about grace and Psalm 139 for a moment. If God purposefully and adorningly crafted every molecular element of our potential and did so long before someone could realize (earn or merit) their potential, then it is not a stretch to say that our very being is the product of grace. The uniqueness of our features--both internal and external--are bestowed upon us as kindness, a goodness from the Giver of life. And our hearts, the longings and loves that lead us, graced by Another's heart.
When we realize that what we essentially, fundamentally desire in and out of life is "a spiritual instinct" of God's grace in us, that's when we can wholly commit to God's desires, giving ourselves away to His will and ways. And while we chatted on Sunday about our hearts certainly having maturing to do, knowing that "our heart is after God's own heart" is how we'll begin to answer The Better Question.
So, my friends, I am praying for you and invite you to pray with and for me that we'd experience the blessedness of His strength in and for us, whose hearts are the highways to God's dwelling: His kingdom come and will done on earth as it is in heaven (Ps. 84:5). And, that we’d listen to the One who knows our hearts,
The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father has sent at Jesus’ request, making everything plain to us, reminding us of all the things Jesus has spoken to us that has left us well and whole…and at Peace. (Jn. 14:26-27)
Love you, faith family!