Compelled

Like a jubilant song bursting forth from the lips of one who has just received a second chance, life anew, and freedom, comes these words as the Lord inspires inside of me a heavenly theme to glorify His name.
He tells me, in this life, you will have trials, but to take heart, for He has overcome the world. John 16:33
But also tells me that with the JOY set before Him, He endured the cross and all its sufferings. He did this for me. He had an eternal perspective. He recognized the certainty of death, and the certainty of eternity for those who are sealed, chosen, and received by Christ. Thus, having endured the cross, conquering sin and death, winning the victory through that death, He made a way for us to have a life of fullness, abundant joy, and life without end. He is the conquering King. The ONE. The reason. The source. Our ability. Our anchor.
I have had one of those weeks that begs the question, "Jesus, could you come back soon...this life is very hard." Anyone else having a week like that? I assumed I was not alone.
God is not a God who cannot identify with us in our suffering. He was fully man, and now, as is, fully God. He came in the lowliest state so that He could identify with us. We are a miserable lot at times. Wandering around in the dark, without the lights turned on, bumping into things, and breaking our noses because we don't want to stop long enough and ask the one who can SEE AND GIVES SIGHT for directions. "Jesus!!!" I said..." I give up. I wave my white flag. I surrender RIGHT NOW." You are the one I want, You are the ONE I need. You are my only necessity.
The only thing necessary for living life the way I ought. I open your word. I read your words. I get life...and sustenance for the journey set before me. My feet are set on a solid rock. One that does not shake, move or shift. "You LORD...are SOLID." And I will not question His sovereignty. He sees, what I never will. He holds what I could never bear. He creates what I never would have thought of. He is bigger on all levels, and "Jesus, for that I am thankful." Take my life and let it be, ever only Lord for thee.
No more of this wayward heart "prone to wander..." I asked you Lord, what is my Ebeneezer? The thing that saved me? Truth about who I was and who I wasn't. Before He came and rescued me in my lowly estate, I was desolate, depressed, cold, sad and alone. Obsessed with the things of the world...lost without a map...and hungry with no real way of feeding myself full. Empty for all of eternity, but because He cast His gaze upon me, lifted me up out of the mud and mire...and am now who I am today...a work in progress, saved by grace...perfected by His truth and saved for all eternity. "THANK YOU JESUS, I STAND AMAZED." SO this is why you endured hell, death, and the grave? For my freedom? O Lord, your beautiful! You face is all I see...and all I long to see. With you alone is my soul satisfied, and my soul longs for more and more of you. Take me to the rock who is higher than I. You are the ONE. For you, daily I'm compelled to BE. And thy GOODNESS like a fetter, draws my wandering heart to thee. What is my Ebeneezer? A picture of who I used to be. That is what reminds me. The darkness in my eyes. The pain in my heart. One day lost, the next day alive. One day dead..the next living in the abundance of His grace. Thank you Jesus. Do you know what it is I speak of? Do you relate? Or does this sound like another language you have never heard? If these words are like another dialect to you, say this, "Open the eyes of my heart Lord..." And then ask the Maker of Heaven and earth to speak to YOU! He is the reason you are here. Ask Him. Be compelled by something greater than your own little world. Don't you ever wonder, stop and think that perhaps, just maybe, there is something out there that is greater than your own little world? Well friends, I have news for you. And it's good news. The best news you will ever hear once He translates it to your heart. There is MORE!!!! And for the joy set before us, He endured death on cross so that you could have life now, and for eternity. All He asks is that we come to Him with a broken and contrite Spirit. TO lay down our selfish pride, and admit there has to be something greater than US. He is greater. He made you. He is your MAKER. SAVIOR. CREATOR. REDEEMER. LIFE. SOURCE. AND FATHER. Call on Him and He will answer you, and teach you great and unsearchable things THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW. that is why I call Him the source. Before Christ, we were dead in our sins, so dead we didn't even know how dead we were. Do you feel alive right now? If not, consider the fact, you might be missing something. That something could be Christ. Ask Him friend...COMPELLED I speak. COMPELLED, I live. COMPELLED...I walk this life out in faith knowing that my eternal HOME awaits. And there is not a day that goes by that I DO NOT LONG FOR IT WITH ALL MY HEART. Jesus is there. Better is one day in your courts, then thousands elsewhere. Thank you Holy Father for making a way for a sinner like me.