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Reframing December: 24 Days of Hope

Good morning, Blogging Family! I can’t believe it’s already December. If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you’re aware that December is a pivotal month for Ivan and me. As followers of Jesus, it’s the month we celebrate Christ’s birth and look forward to His second coming. On a positive personal note, it’s also the month that contains Ivan’s birthday and our anniversary. On a less celebratory note, the end of the year also seems to be when we encounter our most significant trials (my original accident, my most serious subsequent hospitalizations, Ivan’s accident, and the delayed publication of Hello, God are a few of the ones we’ve posted online). Because of this trend that’s stayed strikingly consistent over the past decade, this month I feel led to counteract my sense of foreboding by posting each day until Christmas about something we’re grateful for or ways we currently see God working.

This is out of character, as I typically don’t write until I have a clear vision for where the the Lord is leading with a post or project, or until I have a decent amount of time to polish what I’m posting so it’s “most beneficial” to readers. But committing to something like this series removes all the parameters that keep me in control, and also leaves me open to the fearful possibility – what if something else bad does happen? What will I write then? This is a very real possibility. But I believe that should this come to pass, God will provide hope and grace for us in the trial, and committing in advance to give him thanks and praise publicly each day until Christmas has a strong biblical foundation. Some verses God has brought to mind as I’ve prayed about this are 2 Cor. 4:13-15:

“But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, ‘I believed in God, so I spoke.’ We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.”

Also, 2 Cor. 10:4-6:

“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.”

Most likely I’ll return to writing more about these passages in future posts, but the short encouragement I’ll share today is that while my anxiety surrounding December is founded on objective reality (our past), God is not just the God of the past. He is also the God of the present and the future. And through His Word, which is even more trustworthy than my “objective” experience, he has promised us all the hope of a glorious future with Christ and a present day reward – being instruments of thanksgiving and grace – if we hold fast to this promise. He’s also revealed that every argument against who he is, even the temptation to doubt his heart toward us based on past trials, is part of a larger spiritual battle, and how we respond to this is not neutral but is a matter of obedience.

On that note, I’d like to close with another passage I’ve been meditating on recently. When I think of obedience, I can grow discouraged by how short I fall of God’s perfect standard, no matter how hard I try. But that is usually when I forget that I’m obeying out of gratitude for what Jesus has already accomplished for me by his perfect life on my behalf and death in my place, rather than trying to earn God’s favor through my own merit. Discouragement can also creep in when I try to obey in my own strength, instead of humbly asking God to produce His fruit in my life by the power of His Spirit. I hope this reminder of our positional righteousness can encourage you all as we begin this hopeful journey toward Christmas over the next three weeks:

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 

Ephesians 1:3-4
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Global Reflections after Reformation Sunday

This is a statue from Melk Abbey in Austria.

Hello, Blogging Family! I hope you had a blessed Reformation Sunday yesterday. This holiday has impacted me differently after our trip to Central Europe this summer. I’ve always been a voracious student of history, art, and music, and was excited to visit some of the countries that were crucial to classical music, the World Wars, and church history. I realized that Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, and Czechia are either Catholic or secular today, but I also knew that some of them had either been instrumental in the original spread of Christianity across Europe or the Protestant Reformation. They are still home to some of Europe’s oldest and most beautiful cathedrals. But I wasn’t prepared for the spiritual landscape we encountered during our trip.

We were blessed to tour cathedrals in each country, as well as Melk Abbey in Austria. Melk is a Benedictine monastery that was founded in 1089 and is famous for its ancient library as well as the dignitaries that have visited (including Mozart, Napoleon, and Empress Maria Theresa). The art and architecture in all these locations exceeded my expectations, and at Melk I especially loved seeing some medieval manuscripts I’d studied in facsimile during grad school at SCAD! 

But I was also deeply saddened as I pondered the Jesus portrayed by this art, and imagined how different my life would be if this were the only Jesus I knew. Everywhere we went, the representations of Christ we saw were effeminate and dead. He was typically either nailed to a cross, or being tended by his mother or saints after his death. While it’s essential to spend time remembering how much Jesus suffered for our sins, our hope of eternal life comes from the truth that he is a risen, powerful Savior who conquered death and is alive and working today (1 Cor. 15:12-28).

This focus on death wasn’t just limited to Jesus. At each cathedral, we were greeted by a list of saints’ relics that were either available for regular viewing or on “special occasions.” These ranged from finger bones and scraps of clothing, to a martyr’s tooth and jawbone that had been encased in jewels. When I asked our guides what they thought about the churches and relics they were representing, their answers were insightful. Some responded, “This is the church I was baptized and married in!” although whether they still attended was less forthcoming. Others highlighted that relics do not fare well when subjected to DNA testing. 

But one theme was universal: whatever the guides’ personal feelings about their churches, everyone agreed that the Protestant reformation was an inconvenient blip that had been decisively addressed by the Counter-Reformation hundreds of years ago.

I’ve had several months to reflect on this emphasis on death and the impact it seems to have had on the countries we visited, as well as do more research to compare data with the spiritual climate we sensed. For example, the Austrian embassy reports 3.8% of the population to be Protestant/evangelical, but most missions agencies believe this number is closer to 0.5%. Few Austrians actually attend the Catholic churches into which they were baptized. In recent years, New Age practices have begun gaining popularity with those searching for some form of spirituality. 

I think there are many factors at work here, but one of them could be that we are highly influenced by the images we absorb as children. If we only see Jesus portrayed as dead and powerless, and are taught instead to seek the intercession of dead saints and professional clergy, to whom we also have limited access, what immediate or eternal hope does this offer? Deep down all of us know we will never be good enough to earn God’s favor, and how much confidence can we really put in humans who left this earth centuries before us?

As protestants in the United States, it’s easy to dismiss Reformation Sunday as the anniversary of a German monk nailing a theological treatise to the door of a church on the other side of the world. But visiting these cathedrals in Central Europe and witnessing the functional outworking of the Counter-Reformation has reminded me that Reformation Sunday represents so much more than just that. It represents returning to an understanding that we come to God through faith alone in a living, powerful, resurrected Savior, who made a way for us to speak directly with God in prayer without human intermediaries. It represents the freedom – indeed the responsibility – to read God’s Word for ourselves instead of relying on “professional Christians” like priests to tell us what God says about himself. And through these reformations of speaking to and hearing from God ourselves, Reformation Sunday represents a renewed understanding that God is not only immediately accessible, but he wants to hear from us and speak to us, each and every day.

I hope these reflections will remind you of privileges that, if you’re like me and grew up in a protestant church, we can often take for granted. I also hope that if countries like Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary haven’t been on your prayer radar until now, you will join me in praying that God will pave the way for his gospel to gain more and more traction in these countries. He may even have a role for you or me to play!

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Create and Renew

Last month marked the two year anniversary of Walking with Grace. It’s amazing to reflect on all that God has done in the past two years. We’ve had the privilege of meeting so many people, and sharing how God has worked in our lives. I’ve started playing violin again, and we released our second book, Hello, God, in May. We’re hoping to hold another recital in person this January, so stay tuned!

It’s also crazy that Ivan and I are approaching 10 years of marriage this December. A decade seems like a long time, but given my accident and years of battling seizures, we both commented that we feel more like newlyweds! Much of this year has been focused on slowing down, taking stock of where we’re at in our relationship with the Lord and each other, how much we’ve learned, and more importantly how far we have yet to go.

That’s why I’ve been meditating on this verse from Psalm 51:

“Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me.”

Psalm 51:10

I think it’s an interesting contrast, especially for those of us who’ve been believers for a long time. Whether or not we’re repenting of grievous sin like David was, it’s interesting to consider why he pairs these requests.

He could have simply asked God to cleanse his heart, but asking God to “create” a clean heart sounds more like starting from scratch. However, in the next line, the word “renew” highlights that he’s not coming to God for the first time, or in our modern language “becoming a Christian.” 

Perhaps this paradox can be explained by the parallelisms that occur in Hebrew poetry, but I think it also captures the experience that many of us encounter when we run into a problem or sin that seems so overwhelming it can only be solved by God giving us a heart transplant. Yet that verse’s second half, “renew a steadfast spirit” acknowledges the reality that sometimes this happens even when we’ve been walking with him for a long time.

Ultimately, our hope for continued transformation does not lie in our own willpower. Although David was writing in the Old Testament, he pleads “take not your Holy Spirit from me” in verse 11. His experience of the Holy Spirit was different from ours. However, he knew that his ability to overcome sin was not due to his own strength, but God‘s enabling presence and power. This is even more true for us today after Jesus’ resurrection (John 14:16-24).

While I hope few of us hit lows as deep as David’s, I think the desire for a “new heart” is relatively common, and I love that God in his wisdom prompted David to pair the request to create a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit – two actions we might consider mutually exclusive – in the same verse.

For Ivan and me, we’re extremely grateful for all God has done in our lives, but we can also be tempted to feel like we should be further along relationally or spiritually. Meditating on David’s life and how he was called “the man after God’s own heart” although his trajectory was far from linear, and pondering how this single verse brings so much insight to the complexities of sanctification has been greatly encouraging. I hope it will encourage you as well! 

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Seeing God: Lessons from Matt Redman

One of my favorite names for God is El-roi, or  “the God who sees me.” (Gen. 16:13). This name for God, and the story of God dealing tenderly and patiently with Hagar, a woman who was a foreigner, slave, and surrogate mother, has become increasingly precious to me since my accident. God uses a variety of ways to show us that he sees us, including the compassion of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Last week was a sweet reminder of what it was like to feel seen in the early days of my recovery, and also an opportunity to watch that gift be passed on to the next generation. 

Last Monday, we took some worship team students from Valley Christian down to BIOLA to spend a couple of days observing chapels and audit a songwriting workshop taught by Matt Redman. This trip was especially meaningful because Ivan taught the three Redman boys piano when we lived in Southern California. Most parents keep their relationship with their children’s music teacher strictly professional, so we were really surprised the Redmans took an interest in how we were doing after my accident – especially since I’d never met them when it happened. Once I got a little stronger, they even let me come along to lessons to have a change of scene. This was incredibly thoughtful, since public spaces were still too crowded and noisy for my brain injury to tolerate, which meant I stayed in our apartment most of the time. 

I was incredibly nervous the first time Ivan brought me to a lesson. I was clutching two books and a journal, determined to vanish into a shadowy corner as soon as I got through the door. The Redman’s house was devoid of shadowy corners. Furthermore, I was not the piano teacher’s recovering tagalong, but someone they actually wanted to see. Matt’s wife, Beth, sat  and talked with me quietly in the living room for as long as I could tolerate, while also being sensitive to what Ivan must have mentioned about my struggles with fatigue and overstimulation. On the drive home, both Ivan and I were taken aback by this turn of events. However, after a few days of bewilderment I decided they were just being hospitable and I shouldn’t push my luck. The following Saturday I fortified myself with books and journal – and we repeated the entire ritual. 

After a few weeks I finally embraced that the Redmans weren’t viewing me as a charity project, or even trying to maintain some sort of public image. They were doing what they did because they loved God, and I loved God, and that commonality was far stronger than all our differences. Beth’s choice to give up a large chunk of her Saturday mornings gave me something to look forward to every week and provided a huge source of spiritual encouragement, as well as a rare opportunity to feel seen as a normal human being in spite of all the medical appointments that kept us scrambling Monday-Friday. 

Last week, as we were sitting in the songwriting clinic with our wide-eyed high schoolers and a handful of BIOLA undergrads, I was deeply encouraged to hear Matt share that his primary calling was not to help people sing better, but to help people see God better. God is a self-revealing God, he shared, and no matter what our vocation is, our calling is to live in such a way that people can see God’s character in what we do. For Matt, that means writing songs that reflect biblical truths and also give space for congregations to respond to those truths. I happen to be a writer, so my application is similar, although I don’t have to worry about whether my words work with a melody. But for all of us, I think the principle of helping people see God through our lives stems from one of my favorite verses, 1 John 4:19. “We love because he first loved us.” God saw us first and loved us first, and is always forever seeing and loving us through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus.  And if we are saved, it is our gratitude for this supernatural seeing and loving, and our reliance on his Spirit, that empowers us to deeply see and deeply love those around us.

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ICYMI: Erica Kirk’s Speech

Good morning, Blogging Family! You may have seen Charlie Kirk’s funeral yesterday, but I wanted to share his wife Erica’s speech as a follow-up to my last post, in case some of you haven’t gotten a chance yet. I’m tremendously encouraged and convicted by her testimony to God’s faithfulness in this trial, her commitment to Christlike forgiveness, and her exhortation to continue upholding God’s design for marriage and the family.

“The LORD is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him.” ~ Nahum 1:7

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Mourning a Brother and Image-Bearer

Good morning, Blogging Family! I rarely write about politics, but today is a heavy day as we mourn the violent and untimely death of someone who represented free speech and the good news of Jesus Christ. 

It’s easy to look at Charlie Kirk’s death and turn it into a parable about the state of our nation or a platform for reinforcing our own political views. But I want to pause and contemplate what it means for any life to be snuffed out. We are all made in the image of God, whether or not we surrender our lives to Jesus, and therefore it grieves God deeply when that image is violated or destroyed (Gen. 9:6). God also places us all in families, giving us unique roles that only we can play. Our absence, whether physical or emotional, creates a vacuum that cannot be downplayed. So when I consider yesterday’s loss, although it has significant implications for our country, I’m most impressed by how grieved the Lord is over what has transpired. And secondarily, by how much we should be mourning for Charlie’s precious wife and children.

But there is also hope. Charlie Kirk was not just a political figure. He was also a brother in Christ who understood that true transformation is not possible apart from a worldview rooted in the gospel. (If you’re curious about his Christian witness, check out this video on atheism and morality and this video on the gender controversy). I admired him because he could have difficult conversations on politically-charged topics while modeling 1 Peter 3:15:

“Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.”

And it is this Christian testimony that gives hope as we pray for Charlie’s family. While I believe we should grieve him as a human being, father, and brother in Christ first and foremost, I believe that our shared kinship in Christ means that his loss, while irreplaceable, is one illumined by redemption. Charlie ran the race well and is rejoicing before the face of his Father and Redeemer, finally received into that great cloud of witnesses that was cheering for him during his time on earth. And the God he is worshiping this very moment has also revealed Himself to us as “our merciful Father and the source of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3).  He is near to the brokenhearted and carries them in His arms every day (Psalm 34:18; 68:19). While no one will ever be able to replace who Charlie was to his family, we can trust that the Lord will be faithful to keep His promise to comfort, carry, and heal them day by day.

No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, I hope that today can be a day of remembering the shared preciousness of human life and the image of God that we all bear, no matter our background. I hope it will also be a time of remembering the unity that is found in Christ, as well as the hope that this offers when we’re confronted with tragedy. Finally, I hope that Charlie’s example will encourage us to be more bold in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ kindly and unapologetically in the contexts in which God has placed us.

“No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.” ~ Matt. 5:15

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One Year of Driving!

Good afternoon, Blogging Family! Did you know it’s been just over a year since I began learning to drive again? This photo is a throwback from my first time behind the wheel at the end of August 2024. Life moves so quickly that it’s easy to lose sight of how God has been working, so I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge how grateful I am for his restoring this part of my life.

For seven years, seizures made driving completely out of the question. Even after we realized God had healed my seizures, I needed to be “clean” for a year before I could move forward with getting my license back. To say I was nervous about handling a car without being able to feel my left hand, not to mention the visual-spatial deficits and fatigue that remain from my brain injury, was an understatement!

But God has been faithful, and one year later I’m able to drive relatively normally (including freeways), although parallel parking remains above my pay grade. 😉 We don’t have plans to get a second car since, as of my last physical, I’m still not at a place where I could sustain a traditional job. However, I’m grateful to have the option to drop Ivan off at work and run errands during the day.

If you’re new to the blog, or would like a refresher on our journey – I say “our” because it required a lot of help from Ivan to get me driving again – I’ve included a round-up of posts below:

  1. “I Drove a Car!”: My first time behind the wheel, as well as a breakdown of the medical concerns about my driving after two strokes and a head injury.
  2. “Driving Practice is Marriage Practice”: Snapshot of what “re-learning to drive” was like for Ivan and me, plus that time a wasp got stuck in the car while I was driving!
  3. “A Licensed Driver!” The providential – and surprisingly convoluted – story of the day I got my license back.
  4. “On the Road Again: Embracing Reality”: How learning to drive on the freeway has been a humbling process rather than an event.
  5. “Reflections from a Shattered Mirror”: The story of my first driving incident (Ivan was very gracious!)

As always, thank you so much for your prayers and support!

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Jesus, Our Living Water

Dying of thirst is one of the worst deaths I can imagine, both for its duration and for the psychological torment that accompanies it. Although this is a real threat for some parts of the world, very few of us in the United States spend much time thinking about it, unless we work in emergency medicine or forget to pack a water bottle when we’re heading to the gym. 

Sometimes I wonder if this lack of exposure to real thirst has made Jesus’ promise to give us “living water” in John 4:10-14, or David’s cry to God from “a dry and thirsty land where there is no water” in Psalm 63:1, a bit harder to appreciate when we’re doing well, or cling to when we’re struggling.

“But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

~John 4:14

In God’s sovereignty, in the very early days of my accident, I did experience what it was like to believe I was dying of thirst. Although my body was receiving adequate nutrition, first through an NG tube and later through a stomach tube, I was not allowed to eat or drink for several weeks. My family assumed that I would “feel” fine since my nutritional needs were being met, but we quickly discovered that was not the case. Doctors explained that, unless food and water pass through your mouth, your brain believes you are thirsting and starving to death. I became obsessed with begging for food, but especially water. It didn’t matter how often people explained that it wasn’t safe for me to eat or drink, and that my body was receiving everything it needed –  nothing could assuage my overpowering desire for a drink. Even sleep didn’t provide relief. In my dreams, I was either dying of thirst or taking one long, refreshing drink after another. I also became a bold-faced liar, assuring whoever happened to be in the room that I had “just” gotten permission to start eating and drinking again. Somehow, no one ever believed me. 

As torturous as this experience felt, I realize it is still light-years away from the moment-by-moment pain and fear faced by people with truly restricted or zero access to water or food. However, knowing a little of what it’s like to experience serious thirst psychologically has helped me understand better both what David was describing when he cried out to God, and what a rich promise Jesus makes when he offers us “living water.” Recently, it’s also been causing me to reevaluate how I “expect” God to come through for me when I’m in the midst of a trial. Do I have one outcome I’m praying for (in this example, receiving literal food and water)? And in fixing all my hopes on this outcome, am I missing God’s actual provision (the “food” coming through the NG tube)? 

Contrasting my own assurance that I was perishing with the truth that I was actually receiving everything I needed, as well as observing how this attitude plays out in my life today as I still struggle to embrace that what God gives me is sometimes very different from what I want or believe I need, reminds me that translating “head knowledge” about God to “heart knowledge” that transforms my everyday walk is an ongoing journey that will last until Heaven. May we trust God’s faithfulness to complete the good work he is doing in all of us!

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A Fruitful Abiding

Recently, God impressed a single word on my heart: Abide. I’ve heard the word all my life, but I decided to look it up since I’d never given it much thought. According to Merriam-Webster, “abide” means “ to remain stable or fixed in a state.”

As I’ve been pondering this call to abide, I’ve also been reminded of Old Testament verses like “Be still and know that I am God,” (Psalm 46:10), and “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15). This past season has been anything but quiet for me, with the publication of Hello, God and our recent trip to Central Europe. One event represents the culmination of a year of praying, writing, and seeking the Lord’s will, and the other is a continuation of how God’s healing enables us to travel internationally, something we once considered impossible. But in another sense, both events intensify the temptation to rely on my own strength, look away from the Lord, and measure my success by human metrics rather than God’s.

That’s why I think the Lord’s reminder to abide is so tender and timely, and I hope sharing it will encourage you as well. Summer can be a time for rest, but it can also be a time for running after even more activities than we pursue during the rest of the year. I’m becoming more and more convinced that being still in the Lord’s presence precedes truly knowing He is sovereign over every detail of my life in my heart as well as my head.

I also think that this theme of quiet confidence in God’s power ties in to Jesus’ sermon on abiding.  

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.  If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”

John 15:4-8

Jesus’ words comfort me because the “abiding” he desires is not measured by anything I do on my own, like meeting the standards I set for myself or others set for me. Rather, to borrow the definition of “abide” I shared earlier, he’s looking for how stable I remain in reading his Word and in prayer. And if I am giving him preeminence in these ways, then I can trust that he will help me produce the fruit he desires. 

May we all continue to grow in our desire to be still, know, and abide this summer!

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Hope for Perfectionists: Solomon’s Imperfect Request

As someone who struggles with perfectionism, I often agonize over questions like “Did I say something wrong? Do something wrong?” when people – and sometimes even God – don’t respond the way I hope. While it’s good to take the log out of my own eye, I can easily take this too far and assume there is always a correlation between my social finesse or spiritual growth and how a situation is unfolding.

My unhealthy fixation on personal competence is why, when I was reading the famous story of Solomon asking God for wisdom in 1 Kings 3:1-15 a few days ago, I was struck for the first time by everything God chose to overlook about Solomon, even as he responded to his request with abundant favor.

That night the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!”
 Solomon replied, “You showed great and faithful love to your servant my father, David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you…
 Now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around…  Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”

1 Kings 3:5-8

Each time I’ve read this story before, I’ve thought, “Wow, Solomon was already so wise and humble! If God appeared to me and told me to name my heart’s desire, there’s no way I would have responded that well.”

But as I read this passage again recently, I began noticing other details. While Solomon did make a much wiser request than I would have likely made, he’d already made other choices that directly violated God’s law. He’d married a foreign wife who worshiped false gods (3:1; 11:4). Not only were Israelites worshiping God in places other than those God had specified, but Solomon himself was participating in that worship (3:2). 

However, God doesn’t mention any of this when he appears to Solomon, although he will address both issues later in Solomon’s reign (1 Kings 11:1-13). Instead, he responds to the heart of love that motivated Solomon to offer a staggering 1,000 burnt offerings, as well as the eternal covenant God previously made with Solomon’s father, David.

How does this interaction encourage me? While I don’t think it communicates that we can habitually disregard God’s Word and expect uninterrupted blessing (Paul discusses the relationship between grace and obedience in Romans 6:1-11), for someone like me who struggles with perfectionism, this story brings hope that when God blesses us, he does so out of a conscious choice to overlook our imperfections, not as a reaction to our crossing every “i” and dotting every “t.”

God can shower us with abundance and remain both holy and loving because he’s looking not at us, but rather at Jesus’ sinless life that was lived in our place, and his spotless death that absorbed the full force of divine wrath that we deserve. This is what God was anticipating when he answered Solomon’s prayer so extravagantly, and this is also what he looks back to each time he responds to you and me. 

“So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.  So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” ~Hebrews 4:14 -16