crowd of witnesses

Friday, January 14, 2011 (7:10 a.m.)

Hi God,

How’s that for a roaring great start? You’re the Creator of the Universe and the best I can come up with right now is “Hi”?

Lord, You are awesome. Wonderful. Holy. Perfect.

(9:12 a.m.)

Okay. Let me start again. Lord, I’m feeling scared. I woke up at 2:30 excited by the idea of having my deceased family around me as my own personal ‘crowd of witnesses’ (Hebrews 12:1). The more I look at Your Word, the more I don’t want to misinterpret what I am reading.

There are words of hope and faith, as well as persecution and sacrifice. I confess to You Dearest Lord, my history is one of being long on recovery theories and short on discipline. I can talk a good game, but putting all I believe into practice is sometimes harder than it looks!

Thank You Lord that You are here to comfort and to guide us. As I look to the book of Hebrews this morning seeking YOUR truth and not my own understanding of it, I find myself bouncing around between near giddy joy and deep seeded tears.

Lord! There are so many translations. Each with a different way of saying the same thing. All pointing to You as the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2 KJV). Each using different words to say it.

Reading Hebrews 11 and the list of the great heroes of our faith, I find it reads much like a history lesson. At 2:30 this morning when I found myself instead imagining my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and namesakes watching me from the grandstands (12:1 TLB) yelling, “You go Girl!” I felt so encouraged. Having actual faces to put on this mighty crowd (or cloud, depending on which version is read) of witnesses made it so much easier for me to actually picture such encouragement.

Lord, I love You. I long for You to help me break the longstanding habits of my upbringing. As I continue praying the remainder of verse one, Lord I ask You to enable me to ‘throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let me run with perseverance the race marked out for me.’

You are good. You are to be trusted. I am here asking You to train me up in the way I should go (Proverbs 22:6). I love You so very much Dearest Lord. Thank You for such an honor and a privilege. Amen.

(417 words ~ 10:41 a.m.)