A Prayer.

I should be sleeping. But like any easily distracted 21 year old girl, I am scouring facebook. So useless. But tonight, God gave me a gift through it. I encountered an old prayer. I wrote this a long time ago, and its truth is still as powerful as the day God gave it to me. And I just thought....maybe there's someone out there who needs te be encouraged by it.

"I'm not really a note writer. But God gave me this prayer. And he put it on my heart to share it. They are just words, but put together they are powerful. I believe this to be the highest truth there is. I want to share it with you, because I love you. I pray that for all of you, it will be encouraging. I pray that it would cause you to give praise to the only One who deserves it. That it would give you a desire to enter into God's presence, just to be with Him. To give Him glory, and let Him love on you. Because He wants you to let Him pour His love all over you. Into your soul and coming out through your pores. Take it for what it is: just a small glimpse into my heart, and hopefully, a huge picture of how enormous and great our God is...and echo this prayer in your heart with me. 

Lord, You are good. Even in the things I don’t understand and don’t know. You are good. You are sovereign over all things. You have the power and the control. You are righteous and You are just. It would be just for you to condemn the whole population of the earth. That is what we, as people deserve, according to Your righteousness and holiness. There was absolutely no reason for You to send your son to save us—nothing in us that was worth saving. 

Except that we are Your creation. We are made in Your wonderful image, God. We are your poetry, your craftsmanship, your art. The only reason You saved us is because of Your love, and now, because of that love, we are restored to what you originally made us to be! You didn’t have to do that, Lord! You could’ve wiped us out and started over. 

But you are a loving God. 

You are a merciful God. 

We are insignificant—worse than insignificant compared to You, yet for some reason, we are significant to You. You are so aware of each one of your creations. Down to the detail—the very hidden, intimate things of the heart. 

The fears, the insecurities, the worries. 

The hateful thoughts, our deepest desires. 

You know them all backwards and forwards, inside and out. 

We are wicked. We are sinful. 

We take credit where there is none; we want bad things for others and good things for ourselves. 

Our very nature goes against everything You are, God. You created this world, and you created it in a certain way. With a certain order, a system for the way everything works. 

We have messed up the order, messed up the system, disgraced what you have made beautiful, trampled on what you made precious, laughed at the sacred. There is nothing good in us. We were born sinful. 

It is a condition of the heart, not merely actions and behaviors of the will, but those actions and behaviors of our will come out of the sinfulness of our hearts. 

But You, O Lord, in your strength, your beauty, your sovereignty, your huge, incredible love, sent your son. 

Jesus, you took each sinful thought, word and action upon yourself. You chose to be punished for the wickedness of our hearts. You took our guilt, and took our punishment and gave us your righteousness.

The Holy Son of the Most High God. 

Jesus, you are everything good, everything lovely. You conquered our sinful natures and in your power, rose from the death that was the punishment for my sin. You conquered it, so I no longer have to endure its consequences. 

Who would willingly do that? The God of love. 

God we are a selfish, blind, stubborn and wicked people! After all that, after you suffered the most gruesome death in history on our behalf, we still spit in your face. In our arrogance, we still don’t accept you as Lord. How tragic. 

Lord, awaken our hearts to Your truth! Open our eyes to your love and glory! Let us see ourselves through Your eyes; let us see our wickedness in contrast to your holiness. God you are gracious to a wicked people. You show mercy to those who only see themselves. You are so good. 

Lord, be the Lord of my every day. Be the Lord over my choices, my actions, my thoughts, and my words. Make this truth known! Rip the blinders off the eyes of those who refuse to see you! In Your mercy, God, convict them of sin and reveal your truth to them, that they will be changed and give the glory to You alone. Not to us, Lord, but to Your name be all the glory forever and ever and ever. 

Do with my life whatever You say is best. Whatever You have for me to do. I want to do it. Reveal it to me, Lord, that I might serve you better and give glory to Your name."