Hi Friends, My heart has been stirred today with a simple meditation rooted in John 17:12. Jesus prays to the Father, saying: “I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost…” Kept. What are you facing today? Take heart. You’re in the hands of Jesus. He keeps and loses not one. A few hours after this prayer, when He is in the garden of Gethsemane with His disciples, Jesus demonstrates this keeping: The soldiers and Pharisees come with weapons and torches. Shadows are cast everywhere in the dead of night. Confusion abounds. In the mayhem and menace, Jesus asks that his friends be allowed to go. He asks the soldiers for their release “that it might be fulfilled which He spoke, ‘Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none’” (John 18:9). Yes, in His hour of deepest distress, Jesus is keeping. Nothing distracts Him from it. Nothing can snatch us from His hand. No Roman guard, no enemy, no unknown. No confusion or evil plot or dark night. Jesus keeps and loses not one. Maybe you feel a bit crazy. Like the winds are whipping across your face, hair in your eyes, trying to keep your two feet beneath you. The days you could tell up from down are a luxury past. For now, uncertainty is the water you’re swimming in. Perhaps the words of Psalm 121 are for you today: “The Lord is your keeper”. Your keeper. For He keeps and loses not one. Hallelujah. —Anna |
I am a singer, songwriter, wife, mother, Jesus follower. I send out a 2-minute read every Tuesday about Jesus and life in God.
Hi Friends, If you’ve been following along for a while, you know my family has been on what we are calling a “church tour” for the last year. We have been to many different churches representing different denominations and expressions of worship. And with each unique experience, each vastly different expression, one thing was the same in every place we went: We sang. In fact, in the Orthodox Church, minus a ten minute portion of the two-hour service, they sang the whole time. The megachurch...
Hi Friends, Remember the story in 1 Kings when Elijah stood on a mountain before the Lord, and the Lord passed by him? A fire broke out, a strong wind tore through, and an earthquake erupted… But the Lord was not in those things. After the fire, winds and earthquake, there was a still small voice. Him. I don’t want to miss those whispers. The moment He enters your thoughts as you’re chopping vegetables in the kitchen. The worship song that lifts your heart during your morning commute. The...
Dear Friends, When my oldest son was two years old, he used to do this thing. Oftentimes he did this when he was tired, or frustrated, or lonely. He would pull on me and say, “Sing about me?” And so, I’d lift him onto my lap, hold him close, and sing. We sang about the oatmeal he had for breakfast, how he had blueberries and said no to the cream. We sang about the consequence he got an hour ago for refusing to obey. We sang about how he played with the excavator he got for his birthday, and...