It never fails. After an event as powerful as Unhindered 2012, I began to unpack the car, my heart, and my notes. “Ah” comes the familiar sigh, as my eyes glanced over the post-it notes I used as speaking cues.
“I forgot that verse.”
“Oh I didn’t show that slide.”
“Wow Lord, I didn’t tell them that story of how You came through for us.”
I had coffee with Chuck this afternoon and ran down the list of what “I didn’t say.” I wasn’t sad or disappointed. I didn’t feel shame. I was just stating the facts. And yet…
“What did I talk about?” I asked him laughing, recalling the Spirit’s mighty presence surrounding the women. Chuck’s blue eyes and response burned right through me. “You told them exactly what God wanted them to hear!”
(Lord, thank you for this redeemed co-heir, partner, coach, friend and husband.)
“Well then, I just need to write out the rest of what I left out then.” And he ardently agreed.
It matters because God is telling a powerful story. When you registered for the UE, you weren’t connecting to me. You were responding to the Spirit of the Living God. So for the next several days, let’s see what else He has to pour out.
Today the pressing topic is God’s utter satisfaction in you. I heard from women afterwards, and even on my team, the concern and fear that God is displeased, disappointed, frustrated, or “tired of my sh#@!” When the presence of the Lord is so strong, we often see our shortcomings, deficits, ruts and rebellions all the more clearly. But God.
It is God’s glory that exposes, overshadows, and covers our human-ness. It is His glory that stirs something in us to ache for “farther up and farther in.” And it is our inward groan for “more” that should be our greatest encouragement.
The only reason we long for someone’s total embrace of our true selves, total acceptance of our good and bad sides, total filling of a perfect love, and total forgiveness for the seen and unseen sin, is because deep inside we suspect we are more than we appear. God is not like us, but we are made in His image and our spirits hunger for the reality of Him. Dead people don’t worry about sin. “The love of Christ compels” us to be like Him.
We have an internal hard drive that runs best when we are living out of His embrace, acceptance, fullness and forgiveness. So if our enemy can convince us or distract us by believing less, desiring less, enjoying less, then he has us right where he wants us: Doubting the Love of God.
The best thing you can claim today is God’s perfect, joyful, continuous, unconditional delight in you. Not because of who you are, but because of Whose you are.
The Infinite God of Endless Delight.
