Remind me of Your love, great God. Remind me of how You saved me. You call to me, that I would return to my first Love; And what I’m realizing in this moment, and in this season, is that I need this first Love – this Love that cared so much for me, is always thinking of me.
Yes, won’t You remind me of Christ, who loved me and gave His life for me? Won’t You remind me of the Shepherd who left His glory to find me? Won’t You remind me of the Father who forsook all pride, to openly run to me, in this, my moment of repentance – this, my moment of realization?
For I do realize, in the face of all I’ve experienced this day, the past days, the past weeks – I am loved much. SO much, in fact, that a deep rooted flaw in my being was brought to light; Through love in form of revelation, I see another form of ancient fear; one masked in the insistent prioritization of my own comfort, even at the cost of hurting others. The other side of the coin holds true. Revelation came in form of love. Yes, through this revelation of fear, I’m consequently brought back to love – Christ, my First Love, and in this case, my perfect Love.
Christ is a Love so perfect that it does not settle for renewing what is in the surface, but goes deep into the core of the matter; Yes, Christ, who not only relieved sin, reduced sin; Yes, He didn’t just take it away, but He BECAME sin. Now that I’m looking at it He became more than just the sins so easily tooted, but He also became the origin of all sin – that is, pride. I feel as if it’s this pride, all this sin that contributed (among many other painful factors) for Him to cry out, ‘My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?’ The sin Christ became brought Him to call God, God, not His Father. Perhaps, lashing out at Him, as He was focused on His being forsaken.
But I don’t think I should go on elaborating on that, more than to say this – That there is so much value in our understanding… No, our APPRECIATING (Yet, I suppose it would come naturally for us to appreciate and adore) God’s love for us, as seen through Christ; For it is in our seeing Christ becoming sin that we understand that He was willing to go as deep as death, if only for the deepest of sin and all its flaws to be exposed and separated from us.
In this regard… Yes, I am reminded of Christ. I am reminded of His love, and am brought closer; my entire being, weighed down by the more subtle and dangerous aspects of sin, all of me also being brought to realize, that where sin runs deep, God’s love is deeper still.
Christ said, ‘My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?’ so we could say, ‘Thank You, Father. I am Yours.’
In yesterday’s prayer meeting, in the presence of everyone who’s been going through their own trials, and keeping in mind whatever I’ve been thinking about in this season as well, I decided to read Psalm 26, and Psalm 27 as well. These Scriptures stood out for me and for us to appreciate in fellowship:
For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.
But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me.
My foot stands on level ground; in the great assembly I will bless the LORD.Psalms 26:3, 11-12
In our faithlessness, Christ not only is faithful to us, not only gives us His faithfulness – He IS our faithfulness, and this is seen especially when we question our own Way, Truth, and Life. In light of Pastor Noel’s recent call for our integrity, much can be done, and much will be done if we take matters in our own hands and promote integrity within ourselves and among ourselves; But now that I’m recalling and writing all this, I say that we can only define and demonstrate integrity according to our own limited way of thinking. Perhaps this is why David (or the Psalmist) follows up immediately by saying, ‘redeem me’; as if to say that he was aware of the limitations of his own integrity, calling upon the everlasting integrity of an everlasting God to be gracious to him.
…And indeed, God has been gracious to him, and to us – How? Through Christ. Yes, the Author and Finisher of our Faith is HIMSELF our Faithfulness, and I dare say that He is also our integrity – not just according to our standards, He is our EVERLASTING Integrity. As sure as the level ground we stand on and from this ground that we worship the Lord, so God’s everlasting integrity, proven to us by His Son – it further proves how He is not only level, but our STRONG Rock; Again, the Rock on whom we stand, the Rock from whom we bless the Lord.
Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence.
I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!
Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!
Psalms 27:11-14
And Christ is not only the level ground, the Rock on whom we stand and praise – But through Him we are led. He truly is the Way, One that would not necessarily have us avoid our enemies, but in whom we would not fall into their will. It’s as if to say we will still encounter them, but they shall not fully prevail against us, with their false witness, nor with their violence.
Friends, today and always, if you find yourself craving the Word, thirsting for Him in your troubles, you would do well to heed to the call as soon as you can. It’s helping me right now.
Until the next post, God bless you.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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