February 13, the year of our Lord, 2026. And on this Friday the 13th I’ve come to the realization, that the realization ought to be prioritized over the reminder.
That is, I should no longer be content with recovery, and live off the Truth of my complete restoration through Christ. If I’m to project and truly prove that I’ve learned ANYTHING in these past weeks, it’s that I really should be living real Life, and true Life, beyond merely surviving in this existence, and existing in this reality.
And it doesn’t entail that I run the roller coaster of intentionally falling down and stepping right back up again and again and again – that only keeps me in a plateau, with no actual progression, no growth, no improvement; At the best, I’m sustained, but not thriving.
We’ve started this year proclaiming that 2026 would be a year of bearing much fruit, and so far, we’ve collected the following, what, tenets?
- Flow, trust God, thank God.
- Die fully, live forever.
- All together, all for the advancement of His kingdom, and all for the glory of His name.
…and all this (especially the third one) came out of what I’m assuming is our stepping up from recovery to restoration – that is, to take in the Word, to see Christ in the Word, to meditate on the Word, and to inevitably live off of the Word, live the Word of Life, and live real and true Life.
Oh, before I forget, we’ve come to a conclusion as a council at the church that I serve, that we have the following four ‘pillars’ as our condensed Statement of Faith:
- The Holy Scripture is Trustworthy and Reliable.
- Jesus Christ and His Complete Finished Work saved us into eternal, victorious life.
- The Almighty God is our Gracious, Glorious Father.
- The Holy Spirit is our Guide, Faithful and True.
A couple of words have popped up as well, in our navigating through 2026 so far: That is, documentation and consolidation. We put everything down on record, and put everything together to determine and derive quality output.
Input and output, the Word flowing in and out of our beings, animating us.
Praise and thanks to the Lord Almighty, in the reading of His Word.
Psalm 13
Trust in the Salvation of the LORD
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
Though we know for a fact, and actually know it to be absolutely True that God is our Father who will never leave nor forsake us, these couple of verses remind us of our state before we allowed Christ to save us, and to author His faith in us.
At the cross, Christ cried, ‘My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?‘; It was a consolidated reflection of how we used to exist as sinners – focused on separation, grievous because of our being forgotten, and anxious because of God hiding His face from us (contrary to the Aaronic blessing where we proclaim, ‘the Lord make His face shine upon you‘).
When we were sinners, all we had was flawed, failed counsel from our own fallen souls – absolutely leaving us with sorrow in our hearts. So that even if we give it our best to show the rest of the world our resilience and even our thriving in this dark and dreary existence, and even if we’re able to convince one and many of this facade, the truth of the matter is that we were sorrowful down to the core.
3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death;
4 Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”; Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
But we give God the glory, we give thanks to our Father, even if we find ourselves in this way of thinking, even after receiving Christ into our lives – because by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will always have the privilege and opportunity to respond positively to His conviction, by way of calling upon the name of the Lord… and, indeed, all who call upon the name of the Lord are saved.
We cry out to our Father, and through Christ we are assured that He not only hears us but listens to us, and we are in awe of the Truth – that He is willing and able to help us… Shining His light upon us, He awakens us from death and oblivion, saving us; As the Good Shepherd, He prepares a table before us, before those who would call themselves our enemies; He shatters their claims of victory over us, and He causes them to stop in their tracks and in their rejoicing.
Oh, Father, the stakes are high, and I definitely need You!
5 But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.
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