My Exceedingly Great Reward

So I came to a new place this week...

It's all about Jesus...  :)

But really... I have always "known" that. But right now.... to be stripped of "lesser loves"... to be put to the test of what I'm REALLY living for... BUT to respond, even in pain, by pressing further in...

Can I just tell you?!

I'm nearing the end of a "40 day focus thingy"...a journey I've been on with an amazing friend of ours named Penny. She and her husband Clint are Marriage Missionaries, and through their own story and journey of a marriage reconciled, are ministering reconciliation to marriages. These 40 days have been set apart to "Wield the Sword of the Spirit"...with  serious intent of - exactly that - wielding the Sword...and WOW....the Word of God is living, active, sharp, dividing, God-breathed...and doesn't return void...

This year has been really hard. Extreme pain and loss...but...

As I'm digging into the Word of God, and keeping my heart soft soil...I'm learning more about the Person of Jesus. This Person...Jesus...is becoming so real to me. I'm profoundly impacted to the core by what He did for me... All that He accomplished in His life, on Calvary, in the grave, and now seated in Heavenly Places... He lived an extraordinary life, He paid a price in His death that conquered death, He is now seated in Heavenly Places... My Great High Priest, My Intercessor, My Redeemer, My Savior... My Bridegroom...!??! OH MY!!!! I just can't get over this...

He IS....MY exceedingly great reward. I can count 'it' all loss in comparison to the riches of HIM...His love beckons me in my pain...to come deeper...to come closer... to set my gaze on Him...and He is so worth it all.