Knowing what to expect

But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. -Psalm 86:15 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation. -Exodus 34:6,7

God can not be unfaithful to himself. The weight of that is heavy in substance and light to carry. A God in whom we can depend. No inconsistency. We need not fear that he will abandon us to our own demise. We have hope because...

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. -Romans 3:21-25

Because of this we are not guilty. Because of this we have hope. For I am not consistent. Sin abounds. Some days I feel overrun. Days I feel victorious are more like I am going over the falls Raurus,


opposed to raftless in the North Sea.

There is no true hope in my self sustained situation. Even with being sanctified, being made like Jesus, I would still die. I am not good, and definitely not good enough. I know my sin, it is ever before me. And I pray more so daily. Why, that I might feel even more overwhelmed by grace that Christ has poured out.

I think on what my son has to deal with. An earthly father who struggles to realize Hebrews 12 for his son in a way that he knows what to expect. Something for which he, not alone, longs. Yet there is hope for him. The Father who is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

Christ died that I, the non-faithful, the non-consistent might be saved?!

Because of this great hope, I know that I am neither as Boromir over Raurus, nor the Titanic. But instead I am safe, because Christ took my sin upon himself.
Hope waits for me. Hope draws me in. Hope leads me on...