I see you. Standing in
the darkness of your betrayal. Weeping at what you have done. You did what you vowed
never to do. Never did you think you were capable of this. You have failed. You
are at the utter end.
You have denied the
One Thing that drove you, the thing you said you would give your life for.
Turns out your life is more precious to you than you thought. More precious
than that One Thing. So precious that you would turn away from what you love
most.
Look up. Look at me. I
see you. I know you. Remember? I knew you would be sifted and exposed. I prayed
that your faith would not fail.
But your faith was in
yourself. And this faith must always fail in the end. The faith I have prayed
for is the faith that rises from this brokenness.
You have served Me so
fervently, so passionately. And each day you have become more satisfied with
yourself. Zealot. Servant. Disciple. You truly think you have given all.
But who did you do it
for? And why?
Now that you have betrayed
everything you thought you were, do you see? Do you understand that it was all
for you all along?
Look at Me. You have
denied Me. Rejected Me. And now you think that all is lost. But your life is
now beginning, beloved. I am looking at you. And this way that I go? It is for
you. I came for you. I have something for you that is far better than anything
you could do for yourself. And now you can see it.
Walk in the bitterness
of your shame. Step into the fear. Follow your failure straight to the cross
and watch my blood flow down.
For you.
This is where faith
begins, beloved. When you weep the bitter tears of death, the death that I
died. For you. When you run to the tomb and find it empty, when you finger the
burial cloth that could not hold back my love. When you touch my hands and my
feet, when you see the love that is more than enough for your shame. When you
remember how you stretched out your hand and I pulled you from the waves, how I
calmed the storm, fed the hungry, made the blind see, raised the dead. They are
all you, beloved. I came for you.
You could not be
transformed without first being broken. But now, beloved, now you will really
know Me and not just your idea of Me. And now I will strengthen you, and you
will strengthen your brothers and sisters.
Don’t you know that
when you reject Me, I always turn toward you? Do you not see that I am looking
at you, and My look is all love?
Look at Me, and know
My love, and know that you can never lose it. All is grace.
