Gratitude.

There’s a recent popular song by Brandon Lake that our kids love. When I hear them singing it, I am usually reminded how blessed we are in a thousand different ways to be His children.

This morning, however, as I was walking and praying over the discouragement we are currently facing in our Translation work, the opening lyrics to that song rang through my head in a different, despondent way. Perhaps I was even cynical.

“All my words fall short. I’ve got nothing new. How could I express all my gratitude?”

Many of the problems I was praying about have been issues for a long time. They just keep resurfacing. It’s so easy to become cynical or hopeless. “Here we go again.”

We haven’t updated you, our partners, because it is very hard to write with words when we’re in deep challenges. To cross one hurdle, celebrate, then see four or five more coming into view, when we’ve already tripped over the next one, leaves us in a hard place to articulate how or what we’ve been doing. If you know us, you know we avoid the shallows and chit chat. But we cannot possibly write all the challenges God has just pulled us through and the ones we see coming. And we know it’s the same for each of you reading this as well. We still trust Him with you, brothers and sisters, as we pray for you. Please do the same for us, especially when you don’t know how to pray. God keeps weaving our stories together.

As I was walking home and reflecting on the very depth of challenges before us and how despondent my heart had become, my mind turned to the opening passage of Hebrews that I had been reading earlier.

“We also know that the Son did not come to help angels; he came to help the descendants of Abraham. Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭2‬:‭16‬-‭18‬ ‭NLT‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/116/heb.2.16-18.NLT

And so my prayers shifted from despairingly listing out all of my problems and worries to my mind being full of gratitude for one Person (three, actually). In Him, we have one supreme gift of salvation, and an infinite supply of related tangible and intangible gifts. They have already come and they will keep coming as He sees fit. And as I reflected, I felt the gratitude begin to swell and push out discouragement.

Those problems are the same as they were before I started praying. However, I am renewed yet again. Because I am His, and He holds me together in love, I am deeply found. Sisters and brothers, so are you.

It’s easy for any of us to look at the work of our hands and feel a reflection of whatever the results are. Sometimes there are no results, and we ourselves feel empty; we shrink and rethink our whole lives. Sometimes the list looks pretty good, so we feel full; we are pleased and assume our life is on the right track. But we need to ask ourselves some questions, whether results abound or not.

Was God’s help, love, and care any different when I had something to show for my labor than when I had nothing to show for it?

Did I sign up for this particular labor because of the results I hoped to attain?

Is my obedience conditional?

Am I laboring for God or for results?

Just as Jesus looked at some of his first disciples in Matthew and said, “What are you seeking?” He asks the same question of me, “What are you seeking?” If my answer is, “results, understanding, a harvest, a New Testament, or less ambiguity,” then it’s time to realign my heart before it gets utterly beat down, and I wander way off track.

You, God. I am seeking You. I am motivated by You. I am defined by You. In You I have my being, and in You I die and live. I trust You, the God of the Harvest, with the results within me and around me. Help me be still in Your motion. Be at home in me and I in You.

“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬-‭21‬ ‭NLT‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.3.16-21.NLT

May the Holy Spirit grant us the strength and wisdom to be and do, according to the will of our loving Father. May Jesus’ life, sacrifice, and intercession deeply shape us into His very image, as we move and breathe in Him in loving submission to Him and to our sisters and brothers. We cannot fully understand His Love, but we can fully experience it.

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