My God, My God…My Hope

Do you ever wonder what about life is real? It’s a crazy thing to ask, but I can’t shake the feeling tonight. Perhaps now that what I have prayed for and dreamed of is actually beginning to take shape, my fears and an awareness of my own inadequacies are rising up. Frankly, I have never yet achieved, or more accurately “realized”, the fullness of what I had hoped for.

Is it possible this side of the world to come? How much does it really matter in what manner we live our life? Is there really that much difference between the “biblical” lifestyle I am striving after and the mediocre existence that I see the majority of “Christians” trying to make the best of?

What if I write books, forge relationships, influence generations, feed the poor, and “repair the world” but lose my daughter? Oh, God, grant me wisdom, overlook my failings, tip the balance, give me my daughter’s soul for You! May she walk faithfully, speak truthfully, love incessantly, and be real all for the sake of Your glorious Name.

Father, grant me the strength, the hope, the faithfulness and the fortitude to overcome, to walk a more closely imitating life in order that there might be hope for my wife and my children in the example they witness in me. Revolutionize my life, Father, so that my family and all those I come in contact with will have hope of life abundant by virtue of seeing Your reflection in me.

Allow me to taste of Your goodness, walk with me in the valleys of the shadow of death, and carry me to the mountain meadows. Be the river that waters the soil of my life, pull my roots deep, never turn Your loving eye from me; give me Your Life, Lord! I give You mine.

I want to know You, God. I want to shake my neighbor’s hand and him feel Your strong right hand. I want to wrap my arms around my children and have them feel Your loving embrace. I want to walk with You, to talk with You, to laugh with You and to cry with You. I want my wife to feel like she has all ready met You, because she has seen You so much in me.

My Maker, I need You. I need You.

I need You, Father. I.. need.. You.

Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord GOD of hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel.
But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness. Psalms 69:6, 13 (ESV)