Sunday, February 19, 2017

Gaining through losing

Every time I've read Philippians over the last few weeks as we've been studying it at church this passage has stuck out to me. He invites us to count everything as a loss, to let everything else go, to count all I have treasured as trash so that I can know Him more and, in so doing, become more like Him. 

"Surpassing value." I'm not suffering the loss of all things for no reason. I'm invited to do so because gaining Him is worth so much more than anything I could ever give up.

So today, as our pastor read 2:7-14, I raised my hand in surrender with tears running down my cheeks because I do want to know Him. I do want to be dressed in His righteousness that comes through faith, not based on anything I've done. I do want to know the power of His resurrection. I do, though the idea of it sometimes scares me, want to know the fellowship of His suffering because I know He is a faithful Companion in suffering and walking through suffering draws me closer to Him. I do want to forget what lies behind and reach forward to what lies ahead. I do want to press on toward the goal for the prize of His upward call. 

"Why would you want to spend your life on anything less?"

Why indeed. 

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

"For His lovingkindness is everlasting."

We are walking through all kinds of emotions lately. Through all that we've been through our Father has been so faithful and we know in our heads that He doesn't change but as we look ahead to what He has next for us sometimes I get overwhelmed with the fear of the unknown and the fear of the known and all that must be accomplished in the next 135 days plus and/or minus 2 months. How grateful I am for whoever it was back at TTU that recommended reading through the book of Psalms backwards for the 150 days leading up to our wedding as we read through them again to the end of residency. The Psalms always help to put things in perspective. 

Yesterday we read Psalm 136. I read it again this morning with Glenn with him reading the first part of each verse and me quoting the constant end of each verse, "For His lovingkindness is everlasting." Oh how I love that Psalm. Whenever I read it I want to add so many more verses. Some that came to mind were:

"He provided a generous scholarship to Glenn to go to TTU, For His lovingkindness is everlasting." 
Then farther back:
"He allowed Sandy to come to know Him at camp when she was in high school and Roger when he was 8, For His lovingkindness is everlasting."
And farther back:
"Edwin and Jean to meet in band playing trombone, For His lovingkindness is everlasting."
And much farther back:
"A baby was born, the Son of Man, whose death paid the price for my sins, For His lovingkindness is everlasting."

Oh, and so many thousands of more verses. 

"For His lovingkindness is everlasting."

He works everything for His glory, His lovingkindness is everlasting, and I am so grateful.