Not a worthy one
Characters of old
I have read of them since I was young
Abraham, Moses, David and Paul
Peter, Joseph, Job and John
Did great works for God
Their lives as witnesses till the end of time
They had their flaws without doubt
And they also committed sin
For us though they will always be heroes
Interspersed within are the other ones
An evil king, a wicked son
A proud Pharisee, an adulterer, a murderer
Their sins pretty much abound
They die bad deaths or we are warned of what waits for them at the end
Judgement and a lake of fire
It doesn’t go too well for them
Sin always finishes everyone off
Here I am well versed with all of them
The heroes, judges, kings and prophets
Apostles, disciples and servants of God
Brave people, standing up for the truth
Moving forward the kingdom of God
Through their actions and words they lay bare
Their allegiance to the most Holy One
They are blessed, they are loved
They chose to obey and stand as a testament to this very day
Hardships, trials and persecutions
They are no strangers to these
Some are killed for their faith
And some are thrown in jail
Some go through abandonment
Some even fall into sin
They question God, who always helps
His love for them is filled in the pages within
And yet here I am
Not as one who has never heard
Nor as one who has not known or felt
Christ’s love or His grace or
His leading ways
He has held me within His hands
He has had my back countless times
He has forgiven my innumerable sins
Why then round and round do I go back
Sliding down the slippery slope of sin
Feeling wretched within
Even when it makes no sense
When I continue to do things
that pleases for just that moment in time
And when the darkness sinks in
Do I find solace contained from the words within?
I think of those biblical characters then
The good ones that is
And I feel ashamed all over again
Here they were dying, testifying
Conquering and witnessing
Loving God, living an honorable life
And the faintest connection I had to them withers
For I know how their story ends
They then seem so distant
I find no solace from their journeys
All good characters, almost perfect some of them
I look at my life and then look at theirs
It hits me even more of the failure that I am
And then from the very same book He gently reminds me
Of the love, of the mercy He has for me
A small hope arises then, all is not lost as long as there is the mercy of a loving God
The Lord shows me once again
My sin notwithstanding
His grace holds true, His forgiveness always extended and I repent all over again
I gasp with relief at the chance I have been afforded
I am alive, the heroes of the good Bible are not
They have completed their run and I am still on the course
My life is still being written led by the hand of the almighty God
I may never measure up but that’s ok too
I remind myself of one of my favorite verses again
It’s better to be an alive dog than a dead lion
Through the tears and the prayers
I feel the tug of Jesus’s immense grace
The words written of those long gone heroes
Starts making a connection again
Their journeys, their struggles though very different from mine
We all look to the same Savior to define our storylines
-By Sap for almondtreerod.com