“Let mine be a merry, all-receiving heart, but make it whole, with light in every part.” ~George MacDonald
True power belongs to those who are for.
For love, for light, for life.
Beauty from ashes, the triumph of truth, goodness turning the tide–this is the plan set in motion from the dawn of human history. The Creator is for his creation.
Are you?
Don’t listen to the lie–that all is lost, that child-like trust in God is for cowards, that brute and crude power will prevail. Boastful hubris is as old as the Fall, the discordant rant of small-hearted fear. Those who choose to be against, choose blindness, choose to create hell right where they are.
Some of us have lingered in the dark doorway for too long, lulled by the bitter, beguiling wailing within. The drumbeat beckons, the dissonance croons, “be against, be angry, trust no one but your own kind. Blame them, hate them, bomb them, fear them, send them all away.”
Repent! The only voice worth heeding has already spoken. “Forgive, forget offenses, forbear the failure and limitations of others, and of yourselves. Forgo self-interest, embrace the forlorn. For I will never forsake you, I am with you.” *
The momentum of history is always forward. God brings us through the frightening present, and never circles back to placate our dim-eyed nostalgia. “Behold I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5) is not wishful thinking, but daily signposts to the future even now unfolding.
The Power of For or the Power of Fear?
The news is forbidding, the odds seem impossible. You are sickened and dismayed by the poison you’ve inhaled. Throw open the windows! Breath in the fresh air of the Real! Be for what God is for.
Reject
- rigid ideology
- political polarity
- religious pretension
- and cynical despair,
before you lose the only thing that, in the end, will matter.
“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell, ” Jesus warns us in Matthew 10:28.
Do you understand what he is saying? The only One with ultimate and complete power over you is the God who sent his Son to die for you. The cross demonstrates God’s unfathomable, unfailing determination to rescue us from the only thing he has set himself against–the already-defeated, hell-bound usurper we mimic when we refuse God’s “compassion on all he has made” (Psalm 145:9).
The redemptive power of Jesus or that ancient anti-everything deceiver–in this fear-mongered, formidable hour, which will you choose to resemble?
Embrace the fearless power of for, before it is too late.
*See, for instance, Matthew 6:14, 16:24-25, 28:20; 1 Corinthians 13, Romans 12, Galatians 5: 19-26
Photograph by Melanie Hunt
10 replies on “The Fearless Power Of For”
Janet, Thank you so much for the great inspirational message. I shared it again with my bible study and hope that they get the evangelical message.
Being positive should be the main message for the next generation. Otherwise they will sink into deep depression about all what is going on around them right now.
The best passage in your piece is: ‘The momentum of history is always forward. God brings us through the frightening present, and never circles back to placate our dim-eyed nostalgia.’
You should publish your notes in a paper or book.
Love, Anja
Thank you, Anja. Your words are filled with hope.
Beautifully written, provocative and profound!!! Thank you Janet for being FOR language that works like this!!!
As you demonstrate well, Jeff, our mightiest weapon for good or evil–words!
Beautiful pre Easter reminder!
Thank you, Susan!
Words wonderfully spoken (especially during this political season when fear and hate prevail).
I hink we all feel battered, Bob. I so appreciate your response.
Needed, wise words! They described for me the difference between depression and joy: someone dejected and someone greatly valued. I remember your words, “No one is dispensable.” May we value our neighbor as ourselves.
“No one is dispensable” is a radical thought right now–thank you for reminding us!