Struggles and Prayer

I just spent an hour replying to Susan about trust and prayer and God's faithfulness and struggles. I am so grateful for our correspondence. Her honesty challenges me. God is so great. He is awesome and breath-taking and beautiful and perfect. He is my all in all...and all I have to give is myself--a living sacrifice. My life is Yours, Lord. I have been bought with a price. I am so valuable to You, and yet I am nothing in myself. Build in us skyscrapers of truth. Make us spiritual beacons. Take these ruins and this destruction and build Your own City of Glory. We confess that we need you and that our one purpose is to proclaim Your name. Your testimony is ours. Your story is on our lips and with our mouth we cry out for more understanding of Your plan. We seek wisdom in You and You alone. You alone are our good and your nearness is our joy. Thank you seems so shallow a phrase to express my deepening gratitude for Your eternal gift of salvation. Your love leaves me breathless, yet tears also have their place in my ever-failing flesh. We are encouraged that even when we are faithless, You remain faithful. This You have done that we might proclaim Your glory and not our possessions, nor talents, nor anything else given us by You. Your glory is all we desire to see. Your righteousness is mighty and unwaivering. Your love is unfailingly sustaining. Your justice, great and steadfast, deepens Your love; and Your love affirms Your justice. We love You. We praise You. It is You. It is You who brings beauty to the darkened corners which would otherwise ever hold ashes. It is You who renews our strength. It is You who fortifies, who rebuilds, who claims, who accepts, who affirms, who calls, who adopts, who sustains. Your nearness is our good. You, O Lord, are our refuge. You, O Lord, are our everlasting Help in trouble. To You, O Lord, be the glory for Your work. Your glory demands our praise, and your sacrifice demands our all. And we give, for we are so in love with You. We yearn for Your kingdom to reign in our hearts and in our friends' hearts and in the nations. We stand in awe of Your greatness. Give us hearts that are pure in a desire for Your will. Give us Your love, Your mercy, Your kindness, Your patience and grace.

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."--Ephesians 3:20-21