I praise you, my Heavenly Father, for your steadfast, unwavering love and goodness. I am so much the opposite: my emotions are up and down. My sense of achievement and worth waver. My happiness with myself fluctuates with what I perceive to be success or failure. My feelings change with how people interact with me, with how well I sleep and even with my dreams.
But you, Lord God, have made yourself my Rock, my Protector, my Fortress, my Forgiver, my Cleanser and my Father. I praise you for the whole-hearted, deep and full acceptance you have given me in Christ. I thank you for the gracious correction, the loving help, the continual support from your glorious riches, from your constant presence, your protection and provision.
In you I am forgiven; in you I am being transformed; in you I am on the upward journey to heaven; in you I have worth and meaning and unfailing love.
Lord Jesus, my wonder at you grows as I consider what I am in myself: selfish, proud, weak, unstable, lustful, lazy, impatient, unbelieving and rebellious, to name a few of my sinful tendencies. And then my wonder grows more as I consider what I, as a sinner, deserve: condemnation, rejection, punishment, suffering, failure, death and eternal separation from you.
In the light of this, I am more and more amazed at your unending, rich, powerful and enthusiastic love, poured out over me every day. You are too good to be true–but you are! Too wonderful to be real, but you are! Too great to be grasped–you are beyond human conception, but you have revealed enough of yourself for us to trust you.
Yet, this is what you are! Your love is real, demonstrated at the culmination of history at the Cross and Resurrection–and then repeatedly affirmed in my life each day by your forgiveness, patience, kindness and grace.
What a privilege to bask in your love, exult in your goodness, revel in your acceptance, and rejoice in your forgiveness. May I never take any of this for granted, may my wonder at your great goodness ever increase and spill over into ongoing revival, which results in worship through obedience, praise through faith, and rejoicing through surrender.
