Losing Heart? Read This

SCOTTY SMITH does such a phenomenal job. The following comes off his blog and ministered greatly to me...perhaps you also...

A Prayer of Hope for Those on the Verge of Losing Heart

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Cor. 4:16-18

Heavenly Father, once again we praise you for the relevance, realness and rawness of the Scriptures. For there are times when we feel exactly like Paul felt. We are tempted to lose heart. We know ourselves to be wasting away—emotionally, mentally, physically… not metaphorically, but in reality.

Broken people, complex stories, strained relationships, old hurts bearing current pain… these things are sometimes far more visible to us than anything else. We go through seasons when our troubles neither feel light nor momentary, but “too much” and always.

Father, thank you that we don’t have to pretend otherwise. Thank you that we don’t have to mute our emotions, window-dress our stories, or doing anything to get ready for grace. Grace is for sinners, not for the competent. Mercy is for messes, not for the manicured. Strength comes to the weak, not to the promising. Hope is for the heartless, not the hardy.

So we come… we come to you today, asking you to do what you did for Shepherds long ago. Simply show up, Father. We don’t need an angelic visitation. We don’t need another star. We don’t need another manger scene. We just need to be taken “farther up and farther in” into the once-and-for-all manger.

You promised the Messiah, and you delivered… not only in Bethlehem, but also at Calvary. You have never lied to us, Father, never. We can trust you in the midst of our heartaches and heartbreaks. We can trust you with our angst and anger, our fears and failures, our brokenness and our bitterness. We can trust you for things we can barely see with the eye of faith.

Send your Spirit and open the eyes of our hearts. Today and tomorrow and the next day… throughout this whole Advent season… give us a fresh vision of the hope to which you have called us, the inheritance you have secured for us and the power you have given us in Jesus (Eph. 1:15-23).

When our thinking runs awry, bring us back to gospel sanity. When our emotions run amuck, lasso them in with cords of your love. When we want to run away, run ahead of us, turn around and let us collide into your welcoming embrace. You are so very good, Father, and so very in control. Hallelujah several times over. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ merciful and mighty name.