jeremiah 2:13

youre the god of this city
youre the king of these people
youre the lord of this nation
youre the light in this darkness
youre the hope to the hopeless
youre the peace to the restless
there is no one like our God
greater things have yet to come
greater things are still to be done
in this city

things have not been going my way lately. its so discouraging. the things that i want most. have worked really hard for. the things i feel are right, have prayed a lot about, have a peace about… are just out of my reach. i’m doing everything i can to strive towards something that i feel i deserve and should be rewarded for. i’m realizing that’s not how god operates. duh. but it gets tricky when youre doing and wanting the things that you feel God would do and want, and what He would do and want for me.

after sunday’s service i went to the top of a parking garage downtown and cried out to God. i had my ipod on shuffle and after i had lamented, i sat and soaked up the beautiful sunset. oh it was glorious, i wish you could have seen it. ‘god of this city’ came on. at first i began applying it to the literal city before my eyes and the impact i could hope to have. i started to make it about the lost people in orlando and was praying for them. then i felt God whispering it to me… ‘greater things have yet to come. greater things are still to be done.

in you.’

i am humbled again to realize i am not god. i have no idea what’s best for me.

i don’t know how people get through things like this without the hope we have in Christ. constantly putting my hope in things that wont hold. and the lack of perspective God provides about suffering- that he is using it to change us and shape us and develop our character. the ways he answers prayer baffles me, his provision of manna- literally meaning ‘what is this’ … what the heck are you doing here God?? what will this lead to?? this would dishearten me to my core without hope. ‘surprised by hope’ says that hope for christians is not wishful thinking or blind optimism- it is the mode of knowing that new things are possible. that i can become new. at the moment of resurrection heaven was brought to earth. God is blind to my past sin. ah. i am new.

my idea of what’s best for me in this moment is going to be shadowed by the better plans God has in store. greater things are yet to come. i have hope for new things. for the continuation of my development as a new person. and placing my hope in the living water. water that doesn’t sit still, always filled with new possibilities. greater things are still to be done.

‘they had been seeing it as the long story of how God would redeem Israel from suffering but it was instead the story of how God would redeem Israel through suffering’