Need of Grace

O Lord,
You know my great unfitness for service,
my present deadness,
my inability to do anything for Your glory,
my distressing coldness of heart.

I am weak, ignorant, unprofitable,
and loathe and abhor myself.
I am at a loss to know what You would have me do,
for I feel amazingly deserted by thee,
and sense thy presence so little;
You make me possess the sins of my youth,
and the dreadful sin of my nature,
so that I feel all sin,
I cannot think or act but every motion is sin.

Return again with showers of converting grace
to a poor Gospel-abusing sinner.
Help my soul to breathe after holiness, after a constant devotedness to thee, after growth in grace more abundantly every day.

O Lord, I am lost in the pursuit of this blessedness,
and am ready to sink because I fall short of my desire;
Help me to hold out a little longer,
until the happy hour of deliverance comes,
for I cannot lift my soul to thee
if thou of thy goodness bring me not close.

Help me to be diffident, watchful, tender,
lest I offend my blessed friend in thought and behavior;
I confide in You and lean upon You,
and need You at all times to assist and lead me.

O that all my distresses and apprehensions might prove but Christ's school
to make me fit for greater service
by teaching me the great lesson of humility.

- The Valley Of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions.

If this doesn't summarize how I've felt in recent days, I'm not sure what does. It's refreshing to express so genuinely to God how little I'm able to accomplish of my own energy and strength. He is not caught off guard, surprised, nor does He sit back and scoff at my weakness. Christ's power in us is made perfect through weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9), so the weaker we become - the more we admit we can't carry our load alone - the more powerfully God works in and through us. It's obviously backwards from what we've all been taught or experience in this life. You don't "climb the ladder" by admitting you are weak or unable to even climb at all. "Suppress your fears, deny your insecurities, climb on your own strength and don't bother knocking people off the ladder on your way up." - that's more along the lines of how the world deals with weakness. Thankfully God is bigger than this world and loves to overcome weakness through His bold power.

If you are anything like me, very weak and fragile at times, then you'll relate with this Puritan prayer. Pray it with me, and trust that God will renew your strength. Jesus, we need You at every hour, at every turn, during every trial, storm and distress, we need You when we are sailing and when we are drowning. We need You in both good times and bad. Help us not to keep going without You. Help us not to fall behind or get too far ahead of You. Help us to stay steady on the course You've mapped out for us. Give us ears to hear and eyes to see. Give us Love and all the Fruit of Your Spirit. Give us Grace.

Endurance Expedition

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-17), also known as the Endurance Expedition, was the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Conceived by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition sought to achieve the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent. After the conquest of the South Pole by Roald Amundsen in 1911, the crossing remained, in Shackleton's words, the "one great main object of Antarctic journeyings". The expedition failed entirely to accomplish this aim, but it remains memorable as an epic of heroism and survival.

Endurance became beset in the ice of the Weddell Sea before reaching Vahsel Bay, and despite efforts to free the ship, she drifted northward with the pack throughout the Antarctic winter of 1915. Eventually, the ice crushed and sank the ship, stranding her 28-man complement on the ice and subjecting them to a series of harrowing episodes--months spent in makeshift camps on the ice, a journey in lifeboats to Elephant Island, an 800-mile open-boat journey in the James Caird, and the first crossing of South Georgia--that led eventually to their rescue without a single fatality.

Like the Endurance Expedition, we will likely face many obstacles, challenges and seemingly impossible odds to overcome, especially when we step out to follow God and trust Him with all our hearts. We are not promised success in the world's eyes, but there is no greater challenge than to go the farthest distance with God Himself as our guide.

There are a few words that I think most accurately describe the current state of where God has me and what He is doing in my life. A couple of those are prophetic in nature and all are an amazing reminder of how much we are being taught to depend completely on Christ. Those words are: Consecration, Endurance, and Refinement/Sifting. By my definition these words mean something along the lines of:

Consecration = being set apart for the purposes of God.

And the LORD said to him: "I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built to put My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 1 Kings 9:3

Endurance = weathering the storm.

You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 2 Timothy 2:3

Refinement/Sifting = producing Gold from what would otherwise appear to just be sand, rocks and dirt.

I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. Revelation 3:18

I just began reading this incredible book by the pastor Yong-Gi Cho, pastor of the largest church in the world (1 Million members) titled Prayer That Brings Revival - you can pick up at Amazon for 2 bucks. It's a MUST read for anyone serious about following God. In just the first chapter I feel like my world has been rocked and my hunger/desire to seek God diligently through prayer has increased ten-fold.

Know that each one of you who claim Christ as Lord are set apart as children following the heart of the Father, and therefore, are a total and complete threat to Satan and his empire. We will not see the increase, the fruit of our labors, or any good thing coming from our efforts if we are not spending time in the presence of almighty God. He has called us all to be missionaries, regardless of how different that might look from one person to the next, therefore we have no option but to rely fully on God for His total provision in every area of our lives.

I, along with the team God has placed around me, are here to intercede (stand in the gap) for each of you. If you are feeling discouraged or experiencing doubt, unbelief, laziness, or anything else that is not pleasing to the Lord, then we ask right now that God would unleash His spirit afresh on you.

Feel free to email me (chad@comeandlive.com) with any prayer requests/needs/praises/etc, I would love to lift you and your needs up in prayer. I believe 100% that prayer is what will bring about the revival that we seek and pray for. Be reminded that God's plan for your lives is so much bigger than you could ever even dream, even though it may right now seem to be nothing more than a fleeting thought. With man, all of this is impossible (and most men will look upon faith in Christ with skepticism or doubt), but with God - all things are POSSIBLE!

Endure! Endure! Endure!
Love you all very much.

Chad

P.S. I will be posting a Vlog here on this page very shortly that I can't wait to share with you. It's the story of some huge things God did in my life last week and believe it will really encourage your faith.