I come to You, my Father, with my heart in my hands. I stretch them toward You, and I hide nothing. I am laid bare before You. Our intimacy is complete and lacking nothing. I never hide. Even when I wrestle with sin, I stand bare before You. I will never hide. I would rather die than hide from You. I want to be known. I want to know. I need Your gaze to continually wash over me and reveal to me my hidden sins. I need Your comforting gaze to pull over me like a blanket and cover me from the world and all my enemies. Sheltered only by Your gaze, I have never felt safer.
I couldn’t know what love was until I found this laid bare place with You. When You invited me to disrobe my heart, my mind, my soul before You it was not scary at all. It felt like there had never been anything more right. How is it that Your gaze feels so intense and holy, but still safe?
I step toward You letting my feet move firmly upon the waters of the sea of forgiveness. I am solid upon the waters. I am free. I am known. I know You.
Trust.
You have established trust within my heart. A trust that weathers the sands of time. It never grows weary or diminishes, only increases in the hourglass of my time on earth.
I am loved.
I know this for sure and for certain. I never wonder. I never fear losing it. I know what it is now. This real love. Even typing the words “real love”, I saw blood pouring over them, just now. That is real love…that Jesus died for me. Oh, my heart, how can I withstand the beauty of that sacrifice?
I will meet that sacrifice with total abandon. Total acceptance of the greatest gift ever given.
I will meet that sacrificial gift with the gift of trust, and I will live life as faithfully as I can. Repenting when I fail. Getting up if I fall. Walking when I can’t run. Crawling when I can’t walk. Praising if I can’t move at all. Nothing can stop my heart toward You. Nothing and no one. Not heaven or hell can stand between me and You. Nothing in all creation can separate us. Nothing.
This is where peace is found. This is my stake in the ground.
I will forever remember the moment You saved me. Thank you is hardly enough, so I will instead give You my life in return for Yours.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39
365 Days in the Presence 