Dear God,
You are mighty and strong. Nothing can withhold you. You are out of our control, but sovereignly in control of everything. You are holy. You are loving. You are just. Nothing escapes your eye. Nothing escapes your attention. Nothing is left uncovered. Nothing is swept under the rug. I am unholy. Love would not define me. I do not see everything. I do try to sweep things under the rug. Responsibility is only taken when it is to my advantage. I rebel against you. I seek to supplant your position. I do not remember what you have done for me. I am a sinner, and a strong river of eternal wrath would have kept me from passing over to know you. I should have been passed up. But in your steadfast love you have passed over my sins. No different than the Israelites, YOU were the reason we could pass over. It was you who took on the waters until the Israelites had passed over. It was you who took on my sin so that I can pass over. My sin was not swept under the rug, it was taken on. What great lengths you go so that we might know you and fear you and love you and remember you. You laid down your life so that I can pass over and become your son. I am forever grateful.
In turn, help me to lay down all of me to know you more. Teach me to follow you with all of myself: my heart, my mind, my strength, my actions. Teach me to lay down my life for others. Teach me the great lengths of your grace that have caused me to know you. Take me into deeper joy, do not let my capacity of joy decrease. Increase yourself in my life. Nothing can separate us from you. Not sin, not death, because you have made the way for us in Christ. Your son has absorbed the wrath I deserve, so that you would pass over my sin. Thank you for passing over, and not passing up.
You are mighty and strong. Nothing can withhold you. You are out of our control, but sovereignly in control of everything. You are holy. You are loving. You are just. Nothing escapes your eye. Nothing escapes your attention. Nothing is left uncovered. Nothing is swept under the rug. I am unholy. Love would not define me. I do not see everything. I do try to sweep things under the rug. Responsibility is only taken when it is to my advantage. I rebel against you. I seek to supplant your position. I do not remember what you have done for me. I am a sinner, and a strong river of eternal wrath would have kept me from passing over to know you. I should have been passed up. But in your steadfast love you have passed over my sins. No different than the Israelites, YOU were the reason we could pass over. It was you who took on the waters until the Israelites had passed over. It was you who took on my sin so that I can pass over. My sin was not swept under the rug, it was taken on. What great lengths you go so that we might know you and fear you and love you and remember you. You laid down your life so that I can pass over and become your son. I am forever grateful.
In turn, help me to lay down all of me to know you more. Teach me to follow you with all of myself: my heart, my mind, my strength, my actions. Teach me to lay down my life for others. Teach me the great lengths of your grace that have caused me to know you. Take me into deeper joy, do not let my capacity of joy decrease. Increase yourself in my life. Nothing can separate us from you. Not sin, not death, because you have made the way for us in Christ. Your son has absorbed the wrath I deserve, so that you would pass over my sin. Thank you for passing over, and not passing up.
Joshua 4: 21 - 24 “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”
Romans 3:25 “whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins”
Exodus 12:27 “you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.”
Romans 3:25 “whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins”
