Leaning or Pulling?

Natalie Grant sings a pretty profound song entitled "Just a Glimpse". The lyrics refer to not having to know how far God's love will go, nor how unending his mercy really is, in order to be deeply in love with and affected by his presence in our lives. We want to know the 'distance' his love will go, but honestly, all we need to know is that his love will reach us no matter where we are. We want to understand if there is anyway to go 'too far' so as to no longer be able to have his mercy when we need it, but the reality is that his mercy is greater than our deepest need. Natalie goes on to remind us that we don't have to fully understand God's holiness to appreciate his holiness embracing us. Chris Tomlin sings of not being able to run from the presence of God in his song, "Jesus Loves Me." The message is clear - no place we go, no "thing" we do, and no "ignorance" we declare can keep us from the love of God and the surrounding safety of his arms.

Great blessings belong to those who fear and respect the Lord and live the way he wants. You will get what you work for. You will enjoy the Lord’s blessings, and all will go well for you. (Psalm 128:1-2 ERV)

Yes, it is better to love 'for' God than to live 'against' him, but the reality is that ALL of us 'live against him'. We all need his embrace, and the definite truth is that we will 'continue' to need his love for all the days we take breath. His love is more than what saves us, it is what sustains us throughout our days. Broken hearts get mended because of his presence. Hurt feelings get righted because of his mercy. Damaged bodies somehow are renewed because of his healing touch. All the things that come out of 'living against' him somehow have a way of being different when we finally begin to pull into his embrace of grace and mercy instead of pushing against it!

At times I think we forget just how miserably hard our heart was toward God. It could have been a long, long time since you reached out to Jesus asking him to be the Lord of your life. If so, you may not remember some of the hardness that was there, the tremendous bondage you experienced apart from his presence setting you free. For others, the deliverance is so close you can still sense the tremendous relief freedom brings when grace touches those things that held you bound for so long. Regardless of where we are in our walk with Jesus, we all need an occasion now and again where we just recount his mercies, remember his grace, and allow ourselves to be renewed by his ever-present love. 

Maybe today will be a day of new beginnings for some of us - we never know when the depth of his love will touch an untouched area of our hurting hearts, damaged emotions, or misery caused by compromise and sin. When that touch comes, let us lean into it rather than resist it. His touch is memorable, but when we lean into it we kind of "cement" the effect of that touch, giving it a permanent part in our memories for all times. Just sayin!