What kind of love says, "you win again"?

Do you ever get the sense, after a day of little regard for your Lord and Savior, or after a season of forgetting your first love, that what He whispers to you, across a distance of your own making, is this... "you win again".

He does not force our hand. He lets us win.

There is so much that He could have been for you that day, but you had to have it your way.   You win again. Is that what the father of the prodigal said to the wayward son, when the son requested the very means for his departure... "you win again"?

We win again and again, and still He does not let us go. We win until every drop in our own cisterns runs dry, and then He willingly becomes for us a fountain of living waters. He lifts the cover, and looks inside our heart. There is no fight. You can't fight a battle of love with Him. He will simply reply, "you win again", and continue His relentless pursuit. For He knows that no other Life can see you through. And when His love does break through, He's going to break down your defenses one by one. It's a love that doesn't depend on you. Nobody stops His Body from ransoming you. He's going to be there when you fall. It is He that could never let you cast aside the greatest love of all. 

-me

The gospel according to ... The Bee Gees?:




YOU WIN AGAIN

I couldn't figure why
You couldn't give me what everybody needs
I shouldn't let you kick me when I'm down
My baby

I find out everybody knows that
You've been using me
I'm surprised you
Let me stay around you

One day I'm gonna lift the cover
And look inside your heart
We gotta level before we go
And tear this love apart

There's no fight you can't fight this battle of love with me
You win again, so little time, we do nothing but compete
There's no life on earth, no other could see me through
You win again, some never try but if anybody can, we can
And I'll be, I'll be following you
Oh girl

Oh baby, I shake you from now on
I'm gonna break down your defenses, one by one
I'm gonna hit you from all sides, lay your fortress open wide
Nobody stops this body from taking you

You better beware, I swear
I'm gonna be there one day when you fall
I could never let you cast aside
The greatest love of all

There's no fight you can't fight this battle of love with me
You win again, so little time, we do nothing but compete
There's no life on earth, no other could see me through
You win again, some never try but if anybody can, we can
And I'll be, I'll be following you
Oh girl

You win again, so little time, we do nothing but compete
There's no life on earth, no other could see me through
You win again, some never try but if anybody can, we can
And I'll be, I'll be following you
Oh girl

You win again, so little time, we do nothing but compete
There's no life on earth, no other could see me through
You win again, some never try but if anybody can, we can

There's no fight you can't fight this battle of love with me
You win again, so little time, we do nothing but compete
There's no life on earth, no other could see me through
You win again, some never try but if anybody can, we can

There's no fight you can't fight this battle of love with me
You win again ...

This thing called trust

And as I see that I cannot trust much of what is going on around me, I’ve been struck recently by how often I trust myself in all the wrong ways. I am so prone to believe my own terrible advice, and so prone to doubt and despair when things don’t work out the way I think they should.

...When I lose hope and despair, does that not show that I am more confident in the strength of the world than the strength of my God Who created it? I trust my ability to understand the situation I am in instead of trusting the almighty God Who is at work in even the most difficult of circumstances. I am more confident in my own weakness than I am in God’s strength. In the end, it’s a worship issue. I am not worshiping God when I forsake His word for my own advice. I am not worshiping God when I refuse to trust Him with all that is going on.

It’s all backwards. I’m all backwards. And I need the Gospel to rescue me once again from these things. ...God calls me to trust Him, to rely on Him, to worship Him. He calls me to be free of my own self-confidence, self-reliance, self-worship. He calls me to doubt myself and believe in Him. Only in Christ are we able to say that we are both more sinful and weak than we would like to admit, and yet more loved that we could ever dare to dream.

I’m trying to trust myself less, even as I realize that so much around me is like shifting sand and untrustworthy. This world is subject to constant change, and my heart seems to flow right with it. I need a Rock to stand on. Fortunately Jesus has given us that Rock—Himself. And, as I seek to love and know Him, He continually reminds me that He has made me one with Him and His Father, and I really have nothing to fear. I’m so thankful that He does not leave me to die as I trust myself, but rescues me even then.

--David Bibee
from his blog post: here

Ardency for our Savior

I am just beginning to learn it and see it painfully in me:  The modern-day Pharisees focus on sin avoidance and not firstly on Savior ardency.

What all us Pharisees need to experience is this: Ardency for your Savior is the most direct path of sin avoidance.

--Ann Voskamp
from a blog post: here

To come, on the mere encouragment of mercy

"The way to be accepted is to come - not on any such encouragement, that now you have made yourselves better, and more worthy, or not so unworthy, but - on the mere encouragement of Christ's worthiness, and God's mercy."

...

"Men cannot get off from the notion, that it is for some goodness or service of their own, either done or expected to be done, that God accepts persons, and receives them into favor."

...

"Spread all your wickedness before him, and do not plead your goodness; but plead your badness, and your necessity on that account: and say as the psalmist in the text, not 'Pardon mine iniquity, for it is not so great as it was,' but 'Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.'"

-- Jonathan Edwards