intimacy, sovereignty, and grace

Intimacy, Sovereignty, and grace.

It is hard to truly express with words how God has been developing these things in my life, but He has and it has been monumental!  I mentioned, I think, in my last blog that I am really seeking God in prayer and praying this simple thought with deep sincerity: "God soften my heart and make me sensitive to the leading of your Spirit."  That has been my desire.  That my calloused diamond-hard heart would be softened by God, His word would mold and form it and He would conform me into the image of God.  With that I want to serve God with Spirit-enabled obedience, ALWAYS saying YES to Him.  In this, the big things God has been showing me as he forms me, flips me, drags me, and drowns me in His word are: intimacy, His sovereignty, and His grace.

I want to grow deeper with God.  Ever deeper. Psalm 40:11 has been on my heart, "As for you, O Lord, you will not retrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me."  Nothing will take me from the love of Christ, but I so often turn and rebel.  If you are saved, your intimacy with God is not contingent on God's love to you, but your faithful surrender to Him.  In surrender and repentance I have drawn so close to God and tasted of His goodness and it has been sweeeet!



God is so sovereign.  The best way I can describe it is that God is a poet, or an author.  He knows the end before He writes it, He enjoys plot twists that shock us, the reader (but not Him) and he draws everything together for the good of those who love Him.  But this is the after affect.  God first works for the glory of His name!! Ezekiel 36:32 "It is not for our sake that I will act, declares the Lord; let that be known to you." But for those of us who are in His fold and His arms even if we hit hardships and tribulations the sovereignty of God works for the glory of His name and works together for our good.

God is gracious.  As I am learning and growing and being conformed I am being consistently humbled.  Consistently driven to my knees.  I have seen the degree of my depravity but I have basked in the depth of His grace!!!  Romans 5:20 "Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more." It is unmerited favor.  My sin deserves rightly to be punished.  But because of the grace of God through the cross of Jesus Christ He has alloted to me a measure of faith and

I have been forgiven, He has reconciled me when I was once a former enemy of God, He acts for the glory of His name, SO MUST I!!! Always I wan to seek to praise the name of Christ, less of me but much much more of Him!  And because of the gospel, not because of anything I did, because I have done absolutely nothing to deserve it, I can dwell and abide in the steadfast love of Christ.  Unconditional love.  No matter what!!

This is my God, these are a mere shred of the blessings he has bestowed upon me.  The life I live, is absolutely not mine but a gift from Him.  I want to absolutely and wholly live and glorify my Maker, my Saviour!! (Romans 14:7-9)