God's Love Is Better Than Life (The Journey I and My Family Had This Last Week.)

Ps 63:3 ESV Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

This last week was an insane and intense week.  My father had a bought with pneumonia in both of his lungs and the doctor looked at me a week ago and told me he was more than likely going to die.   I am not going to sit here and sound all holy and say I was not punched in the gut with that news. Because I was.  It hurt.  It took me a couple of days to get my head wrapped around that idea.  In fact even writing this out still gives me the chills.  But I will tell you that when I began to seek the Lord and I began to really get my mind and heart focused on JESUS even the midst of my heartache things began to shift.  

God began to do a work in my heart that was truly transformational.  I read through several Psalms and a peace that passed all understanding began to truly invade some really dark spaces in my heart.  I got on my face and sought the Lord, first off in repentance.  I was repenting of being arrogant in my mind and in my thoughts.  I repented for looking at God as not truly in charge of all things.  You see we sing songs that describe God's sovereignty and we listen to sermons that teach us about his sovereignty, but when it becomes a reality in our own lives we tend to freak out.  The truth of the matter is that God's got the whole world in His hands and the buck stops with HIM!  This is where faith becomes REAL. (Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Heb 11:1,  And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.  Heb 11: 6)  
We talk, as Christians a big game about our faith, but when trials enter the equation that is when the rubber meets the road.  That's when it moves from talking to actual action.  

One of the texts I was reading a lot was this text: Ps 63:1 ESV O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
What's funny is that I had been teaching several different youth groups about this text, and sometimes it's easier to teach it than it is to live it.  But this is where I began to start putting what I was preaching in to practice, even more.   I got on my face many times and sought the wisdom, counsel, and peace of the LORD.  And he gave me what I needed.

This verse became so real to me as I laid and sat on my bed.
Ps 63:6 ESV when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
And this is when I started feeling and understanding that HIS LOVE FOR ME WAS BETTER THAN LIFE!  

I prayed with an expectation of healing, but I also followed my prayer up with, but even if you don't Father, I will still praise your name and you're still good and still sovereign.

Trails have one purpose!  To mold us and shape us into the image of JESUS CHRIST!  
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.  (Romans 8:15-17)

I want you all to see that, if you want to be an heir with God and be glorified with him you're going to have to walk through some suffering in this life.  It's going to happen.  But this is where we hold fast to the promise of Romans 8:18 ( Rom 8:18 ESV For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.)

God's LOVE is better than life!  God's PROMISES to his children are better than being able to breathe.  

Spoiler alert.  My father is doing better.  His health has improved and we've seen God do amazing miracles in my father's physical body.  He's still in recovery, but needless to say, God has been more than faithful to him and to us!  And on top of that, I have been able to experience Jesus on a personal level that I've never been able to before and it's been amazing!  

GOD IS GOOD!