....While all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care....

This beautiful, powerful hymn came to my mind this morning, as I was reading Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. The hymn is "I sing the mighty power of God." Chills.... I love that feeling... when you can sense God is a whisper away - when words on paper inspire awe and reverance and awareness of His absolute Godness. Hymns do that for me.... so does reading Piper.

"I can't understand with any empathy or appreciation what goes on inside a person who says that when he sees the cross of Christ and experiences God's power, he feels a sense of worthiness. My experience is exactly the opposite: when I catch a glimpse of Calvary-love, my first feeling is not, "My, how worthy I must be that he would die for me!" but rather, "O, how foul must be my sin to require such a sacrifice, and how horribly lukewarm is my love and adoration and trust and obedience to such a worthy Savior!" And it's the same when this mercy, purchased at Calvary, meets my need in some crisis situation: I don't come away feeling worthy or sufficient; I feel broken and abased that in spite of my fears and halfhearted trust, he condescends in free mercy to my need." Piper - July 12th, 1981

I have been praying one of those "scary" prayers this week - you know, the ones you do not want to ask, because you know you are not going to like the answer? The following verse has been reverberating in my head: “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Luke 7:47 I have been praying that God would make me more aware of my sin. Of my sinfulness. I know I have been forgiven Much, but knowing that, and KNOWING that, seem to be two very, very different things. That I might fall and weep at Jesus' feet - broken and abased! That my sins, so very great and grievous, might be more obvious to me - and that in my brokenness, and unworthiness, I might love much - because I have been forgiven much.

All that borrows life from Thee.... my life is in His sovereign hands. In Him we live and move and have our being... (Acts 17:28a) I can do nothing apart from Him. He is gracious, and delightfully condescending. We miss, so often, His magnitude. And our utter dependence on Him. I do not want to be apathetic a moment longer - to His presence, to His mercy, to His goodness, to what He really did in my place on the cross. Soli Deo Gloria!!!