GOD OF THE WHOLE FREAKIN' UNIVERSE!!!

Reflecting on John 15: 12-17 as I wrapped up my Bible study this afternoon really drove home a few points about which I had just been thinking. We are called – no, commanded – to love one another, just as Christ loved us. He loved us enough to lay down his life for us – his friends. That’s a pretty great love. But Jesus – GOD OF THE WHOLE FREAKIN’ UNIVERSE – called us His friends. I have a hard enough time understanding how/why my own friends – other humans – love me. Truly. Most of the time I believe that I managed to weasel my way into their lives in such a way that now they’re stuck with me. This isn’t about self-deprecation, though they know how good I am at that. It’s just that I’m not used to really being let into someone else’s life. Granted, I recognize that this is largely my own fault. The point is, however, because I’m not used to it, it pretty much blows my mind when I get to experience it. But that’s nothing compared to the mind-blowing power of friendship with Jesus.

Jesus calls us his friends. Wow. We’re in the club. The inner circle. Maybe you were one of the cool kids in school. I was not. I hated being left out. I hated not being in on the secrets. Okay, that’s probably everyone. But the GOD OF THE WHOLE FREAKIN’ UNIVERSE (this is me reminding myself) has let me in on HIS secrets. You don’t get much cooler than that! And not only does he let us in on what’s going on, but he also wants our help. Needs it, even. Feeling needed might possibly be the most empowering thing in the world. It’s empowering when someone else invites you into their life. It tells you that they feel you have something to offer. It motivates you to step up because they’re counting on you. How much truer is this in our relationship with God?

He’s called us to partner with him in the battle. He chose us. He appointed us. He KNOWS we have something to offer and he’s counting on us to come through [bear fruit]. That sounds like a lot of pressure. But really, all we have to do is remain in him. And remain confident of our position because of him. If David had not been confident of Jonathan’s love for and commitment to him, he would not have been able to go about his normal routine, peacefully playing the harp, while sharing a palace with the man who wanted to kill him. He would have lived in fear. He would have missed out on relationship, he would not have walked out his destiny, and he would not have been able to ask for protection. We can’t act like servants, downtrodden and without rights. Jesus is calling us to a covenant friendship. He has given us his robe, and as long as we keep it on – walking confidently in its power – we can ask for anything in his name. If we don’t walk in that, we’re going to miss out – on the privileges, on the partnership, on being used in someone else’s life. It’s enough to rob ourselves. How much sadder to rob others? There’s so much more on the line than we can ever know. Will we believe? Like, for real?

break me, make me believe ...

God’s Word is truly living and active (Hebrews 4:12). I love how the same scriptures can speak to us in completely different ways at different times. As someone who frequently struggled with depression during my teenage years, I found solace in the words of Job. It's so interesting reading it from a new perspective now ...

As the book begins, God Himself describes Job as “the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.” How’d you like a recommendation like that for your resume?! It seems that Job has everything he could ever want or need. But God knew that there was something missing. After Job endures and repeatedly refutes the so-called advice of his co-called friends, God finally speaks and Job is humbled: “I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me … I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.”

What more could we ask for than that? We can have all that the world values—family, friends, homes, possessions—but if we have not seen God, and been truly humbled by His power, then we have nothing. Satan argues that because God has “always put a wall of protection around [Job] and his home and his property” and “made him prosper in everything he does,” that “Job has good reason to fear God.”

As I’m writing this, I realize that these lyrics from Fireflight’s “All I Need to Be” are playing in the background:
Take me beyond what I can see
Break me, make me believe
That you have made me all I need to be
Knowing all that I can do is be open
When You start to move in my heart
And now, my God, I finally hear Your voice

That’s it exactly. God thought so highly of Job that He was willing to take away everything—to break him so that he would TRULY believe, TRULY see, TRULY hear—so He could take him to the next level. At the beginning of the book, Job’s children spend all their time celebrating with one another, and Job spends all his time interceding on their behalf. By the end of the book, Job is no longer inwardly focused on all that God has given him. He must pray on behalf of his friends—the ones that spoke so judgmentally against him—so that they will not receive the judgment that they deserve from God. It is then, and only then, that “the Lord restored his fortunes.” It is only when Job opens up his home to his brothers, sisters, and former friends that he can be consoled and comforted, and only then that “the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning.”

Taking this one step further, Isaiah 58 tells us that the kind of fast [self-denial] that God desires is to loose the chains of injustice, untie the cords and break every yoke, set the oppressed free, feed the hungry, provide shelter, clothe the naked, and not turn away your own flesh and blood. It is then, and only then, that “Your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.” Oftentimes we feel like we need to get our act together before we are able to serve. But this tells us that it is only through serving that God will bring about the deliverance we have so desperately been seeking. It is only when we act as His ambassadors to others (whatever that might look like for you) that He can be everything that we need Him to be for us.

So, if you feel that your wall of protection has been removed, instead of getting mad and cursing God, start by asking why (it IS okay to ask God that)—not because you deserve it or are being punished, as Job’s friends suggested, but because God desires to be your everything and to take you to deeper levels of intimacy with Him … and all you can do is be open, when He starts to move in your heart.

Oh, and you know how I started out by saying that God’s Word is living and active? Well, I have seen the power of that statement yet again … as God revealed deeper truths about the highlighted passages, this entry became so much more than my original thoughts. How often have I not written because I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to write? Don’t let uncertainty hold you back from your calling. Just start walking in the right direction and God will fill in the gaps!