Life in Fullness

2014,

Thank you, for the love we received and the hearts we touched. Thank you for the tears that have made us stronger, the laughter that has made us deeper, the people who have made us truer versions of ourselves, and the glimpses of God in the monomental and mundane alike.

Don’t get me wrong: Prayer is vitally important. That said, the reality is that too many times Christians use this phrase as a general blanket statement to let someone know we care, but only in a passing, surface level way. It can become almost routine to throw out the prayer line whenever someone shares a concern. Sometimes we follow through on it, often we don’t.

Perhaps instead of just letting someone know we’ll pray for them, we should offer up other practical ways to serve them in love. Are they sick? Maybe they need a warm meal. Just got laid off? Maybe some extra cash to pay some bills. New mom overwhelmed with a baby? Offer to help do their laundry or clean their house.

If you do tell someone we’ll pray for them, be intentional. Ask them what specifically you can pray for them about. Write it down so you’ll remember. Call or text them to check in. Let’s not brush of the hurts of others with an empty promise to pray that we’ll likely forget.

If we go right back to the earliest book of the Bible, we find that at the conclusion to Job's litany of agonizing experiences, God finally appeared and revealed His power. God rolls back the clouds to unveil an awesome vision that, far from diminishing Job's expectations of His power renders him speechless. 'Where were you," God rumbles, 'when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know ... who laid its cornerstone - while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7).

God's answer to Job's cry of 'Why?' is simply, 'Look at Me' (see Job 38-41). 'My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you,' cries Job in awe, as if his sufferings have simply evaporated (42:5). The book of Job is therefore both the most frustrating and enlightening treatment of unanswered prayer in the Bible, because God's solution to so much misery is merely and ultimately to reveal his greatness. 

This song gets me pumped xD