I Need

I need you this morning

As I sit here

Confronted by my ugliness

My broken nature staring back at me, saying:

"You'll never escape from me,

You will always be in my grip

No matter where you run

I will be there waiting for you."

I need you this morning

As I sit here

Contemplating Your promises

Your holy nature says to me:

"You are safe in Me,

Nothing can snatch you out of my hand

There is no need to run

You have not received a spirit of fear."

I need You this morning

As my heart aches for healing and my soul thirsts for truth

And yet

My heart is satisfied with wholeness and my soul is sated with Your presence

I need you this morning

As my flesh demands its own way and my will struggles against Yours

And yet

My flesh humbles itself and my will surrenders to Yours

Back and forth I amble

Swayed one way and then the next

As my hope rises and falls like the tide

As my faith stands and buckles like the rising and setting sun

As my trust blooms and wilts like the spring and fall flowers

I wonder this morning

Do you see me being torn apart?

Do you see this collision of natures within me?

Do you see these laws at war in my innermost being?

Do you see me in torment?

Do you see?

Yes child, I see.

I see My provision of grace:  forgiveness replacing condemnation

I see you justified by faith:  righteousness replacing sin

I see My Son being formed in you

I see you filled by My Spirit and shaped by My hand

I see.

Yes, You see

And yet, I wonder this morning

How do we walk in a faith that brings both death and life?

How do we both die and live?

How do we trust in a hope of both slavery and freedom?

How are we both submitted and set free?

Child, listen to Me this morning

Your faith makes you dead to sin but alive in Christ

That is how you die and yet live

By My Spirit you are a slave to all that is right and good, set free to bear My image

That is how you are both submitted and set free

Submitted to my Spirit and set free from the letter

Crucified to your flesh and raised to life in the Spirit

I am here this morning

As you sit here

Bending your knee to grace, and bowing your head to blood

As your heart both aches and is healed

As your soul both thirsts and is filled

You will always be in My grip

No matter where you run

I will be there waiting for you

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit Who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Sn in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Rom 8:1-4)

...count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus...offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace...you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness...But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 6:11-23)