God is powerful...

So powerful that if He wanted to, He could today - right now - completely turn everything around for us.  

Not only is God powerful, He loves me - and is powerful enough to love me exactly the way I am. 

He is able to change everything instantly but doesn't, because I know He loves me, that means right here is exactly where he wants me to be. Which changes my responsibility to the present. 

He has me exactly where I am on purpose, and He loves me and wants more for and from me, my conviction becomes that I not only have to survive this season, I must find a way to thrive in it.
 

And so, imperfectly, I have set out to adjust not my circumstances or my future but my outlook. To approach each day not as one more meaningless box to check off, but as the organic, moving, breathing, essence of my real living. 

God is far too powerful, and all he does is for my good. He loves me and has promised me that. With this gift of God's promise in hand, knowledge of the intention and loving-kindness of God in every situation, what choice do I have but to walk in faith and joy? Releasing my claim to the future, trusting Him, hoping in His sovereign power, believing that He knows what He's doing, and that He loves me. 

And therein lies the change. Not of my circumstances, because that's not really the point. The change is in me. In how I view my God who is in control, and His loving expectations of me. 

Want to know why I'm so convinced they're loving expectations? Because when I wasn't requiring much of myself but was instead just passing through life as though I were sleepwalking - life just passed by. Since I've begun holding myself more closely to His requirements of me, I've been living.  

And it's been beautiful and good and I've been humbled. I have to admit, a big part of that humbling comes from the fact that I can only do it with moderate success. Even though I know exactly how great life is when I keep myself in this holy mindset, I still falter and have to recalibrate and keep coming back to this thought - this belief. Often.

But the change has begun - and that's something very very big...