He Gives Grace to the Humble: Fresh Insights from James 4

 

This morning a well known verse hit my heart in a fresh way. You know those moments with the Lord when everything just clicks and you understand a core truth He has been working out in you for a season? 

This morning I found myself flipping to James 4. Let me be honest by saying this is a passage I have flipped to often in the past two to three years, and sometimes to my own frustration. I would feel convicted, yet frustrated at times as I worked through the passage, knowing I was the one quarrelling and bitter because of the desires that waged war in my soul yet pridefully and stubbornly not wanting to grasp the solution to such a predicament (verse 1-2). 

You see, James 4 describes our human nature and how we lust after things... How we grumble and complain because we want something/someone other than God. We don't receive such things because we aren't going to God and asking. And often times when we ask it is with wrong motives... just so we can be satisfied apart from Him (verse 3-5). That's a fleshly desire He is never going to fulfill. 

But that is not my only problem... wanting things apart from God. My problem is I want my heart to be pure apart from Him. I want to keep the desires under control on my own terms. I want to perform and perfect my righteousness so that God is pleased with me. 

But that isn't the gospel. And that certainly is not the truth of James 4. I can't fix my predicament. On my own I am a hopeless, lusting quarreler, far from God and His heart. 

What does James say we should do when these pleasures and desires are ruling our hearts in a way that leaves the Holy Spirit jealous (verse 5)? 

We should know in those moments that God gives a greater grace (verse 6). He gives more grace in those moments so that we can learn to desire Him above our own comfort and wants. He gives more grace so that we can rest in Him and wait upon Him to meet all of our needs in His own time and way. 

                    He gives more grace so we can truly submit to His provision and care and not seek to meet                     our needs in a way that gives into Satan and his schemes (verse 7). 

Why does God give such grace? To whom does He give it? He gives it to those who are humble enough to recognize such a condition in their own soul. For He opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (verse 6). 

Man, what a truth. The point is to submit and recognize we need His grace to walk through life with pure, worshipful hearts. To realize we cannot perform or be righteous apart from Him. We cannot form and perfect our own little worlds and hearts. 

We must instead come humbly, recognizing all the ways we lust after things and distort desires, and trust Him to make us desire Him first and then meet all of those longings in His time and way. 

Friend, you cannot live apart from Him. It's only in confessing your weakness and brokenness, your inability to properly thirst after Him, that He can make you pure and whole and godly. 

What do we do with this truth? James tells us: 

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:7-10

He surely will. 

Also, this instrumental version of He Will Hold Me Fast has been an encouragement.

Nothing in My Hands I Bring

 

I can do nothing apart from Jesus. 

Go ahead and read that again, dear friend. 

It is the refrain in my mind this morning as I sit in a study room and process some reading for class as well as just current life circumstances. The Lord is continuing to draw out areas of my heart that I seek to control and keep from Him. Things I want to control, ways I want to perform. All so that I feel secure and safe. 

But I can do nothing apart from Jesus. 

That is what we are told in John 15 when Jesus instructs His followers to abide in Him. We abide because He is our source, our very life. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. 

Can I get painfully honest for a moment? 

I try to create my own vine. I go to my own sources and strength in order to try to build a life that is safe and secure and pleasing to the Lord. I try to earn His favor and do things the right way. I strive for perfect obedience (all in my own strength) in order to feel good and strong. 

But that is so not the gospel. 

And it is the complete opposite of what we are called to in John 15. 

Jesus calls us to rest in His all-sufficiency. Nothing in our hands can we bring. No efforts of righteousness. No deeds or strivings in our own strength. Just cling to Him, the true Vine. 

Now let's pause for a moment and be clear– this clinging will result in righteousness and good deeds. It will lead to loving our brothers and sisters out of true godly, self-sacrificial love and servitude. But may we so importantly remember it will be utterly fueled and strengthened by Jesus alone. Not any efforts of our own. We just can't. And it is idolatrous to think we can in our own strength. 

Okay, rewind. Back to only clinging to the vine. 

You know what happens when you cling to something? 

You can't hold on to anything else. 

To cling to the Vine means we must let go of anything else we are clinging to. We must forsake those things we look to for security and strength apart from Jesus. 

That's hard. But also so so good. 

            What are you clinging to today apart from the all-sufficient, loving presence of Christ? 

Your job? Your family? Your location? Your identity in your schoolwork? Friends? Physical possessions? 

We are called to a life of abiding, a life of clinging to Christ. And our hands can only truly cling to one thing. We just don't have room to fit anything else in our small, finite hands. 

May we choose Christ. May He faithfully and lovingly strip our hands of any and all that keeps us from truly resting in Him as our source of life and righteousness. 

For Him to do otherwise would actually be the most unloving thing– keeping us from true abundance and freedom that is found in Him alone. 

May we be people that truly sing "Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling."

Grace Abounds All the More

Lately, I find myself going back to Genesis 3 every now and again during my devotional time. It is a well-known passage by many of us. It is sobering. Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord and humanity is deeply changed by their actions. Sin enters the world along with death and grief and distance from the Lord. It isn't a pretty scene... yet it is. 

Let me explain. 

In Genesis 3, Satan tempts Eve and Adam and is successful in prompting them to choose sin over trust and fear in the Lord. Consequences come when God approaches the couple, asking where they are and why they are hiding (Gen. 3:8-11). They begin blameshifting and stuttering about. They are embarrassed and shameful... and more than anything... guilty. They know they have messed up. They sense their nakedness before Him (Gen. 3:11). 

They deserve death. They deserve to be utterly punished right then and there. But that is not what the Lord gives them. 

Instead, He first addresses the serpent, cursing him and declaring his ultimate death by the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:14-15). Seed of the woman... wait a moment that can only come about if Eve is alive and not dead... her punishment isn't death for her sin? The Lord is going to allow her and Adam to continue living and multiplying despite their disobedience? Yes. Yes, He will because in this chapter of Scripture, we see sin and judgment, but we also see the first "installment" so to speak of another thing– grace. 

God doesn't annihilate Adam and Eve. He does give consequences. The sin is judged and punished. But there is another theme here of God's mercy and grace in that they still live and God pronounces ultimate judgment on the serpent and his ultimate death, declaring his imminent defeat that will come through Eve. 

Sin has entered the picture. It will now be present in the whole story of Scripture. But God's grace will also be present and even more so. 

The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5:20-21

God's grace is always deeper and greater than our sin. It is just a matter of whether or not we receive and stand in that grace through faith in Jesus or we reject it and suffer the consequences of eternity separated from God. 

So here is my main point and the reason I often come back to this passage and maybe even surprisingly find deep comfort in a passage that many typically find sobering and depressing...

We live in a world that rests upon God's grace. 

We live in the midst of an unfolding of salvation that literally stands upon God's graciousness. 

We live in a sinful world. We battle sin in ourselves. We mess up. We don't trust the Lord as we should. We become conflicted about decisions and choices and wonder how to best please the Lord. We get caught in our heads thinking we must perform perfectly for the Lord or else our lives will be destroyed. 

We often don't understand grace. Or rest in it.

Yet for my heart specifically, those are the moments that God nudges me to flip back to Genesis 3 and I find comfort there instead of only sorrow over the reality of Adam and Eve's disobedience. Instead, He reminds me of the context I am living in– a world marked by sinful natures and the fall and conflicting desires and pressures– yet reminds me that it is His grace that still upholds all things as it did there in the garden that day when He didn't grant Adam and Eve what they deserved. 

And I am reminded His grace really does uphold the world, not my perfection. 

This by no measure means I feel the freedom to or want to walk in disobedience to the Lord. Far be it from me, Lord (Rom. 6:1-2)! 

But rather, on the days when I get overwhelmed and am so fearful of messing up and displeasing my Lord (and further am actually acting out of pride in thinking I can be perfect apart from Jesus and His grace), I am reminded to simply come rest at His feet and be in awe of the grace that He has already extended to me and that He has given me to stand in all of my days here on a sin-wrecked earth in a sin-wrecked body (Rom. 5:1-2). 

He will continue to pour out His grace when I misunderstand or disobey. 

Because He has been doing it from the beginning. 

And one day the ultimate realization of Satan's head crushing will be realized (Gen. 3:15). 

Praise the Lord His grace abounds... as it has from the beginning of time. 

January 2023 // Semester 4 // A Deeper Wisdom

 

We all want the easy. The predictable. The understandable. The expected. 

We long for and expect our expectations to be met. 

We love our own way. 

It is the beginning of another year, another semester, and also the beginning of another depth in my relationship with the Lord (it seems). 

This webpage knows that seminary has not been what I expected, but three semesters in and with the grace that comes with time before the Lord I can say it has been sweeter. 

The pain of pruning before the Lord does yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness. I keep seeing it in more depth as I just keep walking through this season... and the Lord is kind to at times give me glimpses of the beauty He is working out within me as I cry out to Him in times of doubt. 

The Lord has been settling His truth in my heart the last day or so... reminding me of His faithfulness and bringing His Word back to mind. 

I am seeing where He has grown me in confidence before Him in so many new ways... learning to trust His sovereignty and care as new pressures and lessons come into play. 

I find my mind going back to the book of Job... how he wrestled with feeling misunderstood, alone, confused, and doubtful. His expectations were crushed and his world seemed to fall apart for no reason. Things weren't supposed to work out that way, he thought. He couldn't pinpoint any sin or disobedience that would result in such consequences. He was in anguish. Things aren't supposed to be this way... Lord, where are You? Where did You go? What happened? 

I didn't ask for this... 

I also think of Psalm 37... a psalm that commands us to wait upon the Lord, to delight in Him, and to trust His faithful care. Even when it seems like the wicked are winning, like the way of the world would bring more answers and delight than following and waiting upon Jesus... even then we are called to trust that the Lord will not forsake His godly ones. 

Sometimes we are put in a place where all we can do is just trust and wait. 

A had a dear friend share with me my second semester here (almost exactly a year ago) as she watched the Lord begin to shatter my black and white boxes... stripping me of my expectations and comforts... that though He took them away now, she believed that He would give them back– but better– in the future. I can't help but think of that comment now as I begin a new year and the Lord continues to settle my heart before Him... sometimes the pruning has to take place, but in time the Lord does bring back the fruit... but so much better. 

Our expectations are not bad oftentimes. Our dreams are not sinful. The things that make up our lives can truly be according to God's design and goodness. For Job we don't see anything contrary to that... yet even so the Lord stripped him bare in order to build a deeper trust in the Lord's sovereignty. Yet after the lesson... after the lament... after the surrender of recognizing that no matter what, the Lord was the Lord and Job had no business complaining against Him or instructing Him in how to act... the Lord gave back to Job the gifts... the expectations... the hopes... but twofold (Job 42). 

Yet at that point, that was not Job's primary concern. It wasn't about living a comfortable, expectation-filled life. It was about dependence on the Lord (Job 42:2). And because a dependence and trust in the Lord had been grown in Job's heart through the trials He faced, I'm sure the gifts of family and livestock and so forth were that much more sweeter. 

Because ultimately the gift isn't the thing or things... it isn't life going our way... but rather the gift is the growth in knowing more and more that the Lord keeps His godly ones and delights in their way (Psalm 37:23). It is the promise that the waves and waters will not overwhelm or the fire will not cause me to be scorched (Isaiah 43:1-2). It is knowing that His way is often through the sea and sometimes His footprints are not known or clear to us (Psalm 77:19). 

Yet even so He is good. 

And that is it. That is enough. That is the sweetest gift. It is the deeper wisdom He desires to sow in us. 

Knowing His goodness and faithfulness in greater depths– because all true wisdom is rooted in His character, not in our understanding or expectations. 

Abba, keep growing in me the peaceful fruit of righteousness... no matter the discipline or scourging it takes (Hebrews 12). 

Transparency in the Process

It was about an hour ago…about 8pm on an otherwise calm Sunday afternoon and evening. I had just finished spending some time reading my Bible and was walking across the house to my mother's room. 

I was seething on the inside, though I wasn’t quite ready to admit it. 

SOMEBODY. JUST. FIX. IT. 

When all is still and I am honest with myself. Up above is what my soul is crying out. I just want the situations to stop. I want out of the pressure. I want to understand. And by all of that I just want someone to fix “it”. Whatever “it” might be on a given day or in a given season. 

And on this given evening, the Lord was leading me to passages in His Word that relate to current situations, but ones that make no sense to me or that don't seem quite clear. In short, He isn't "fixing" it like I want Him to. Instead, He is giving me wisdom as I have to walk straight through the situations, learning lessons from Him that only He knows the purpose of. 

I just want to put this out as a reminder that rarely do people see the honest, seething moments of our sanctification. 

We can do a good job at hiding it– even from ourselves. 

But the Lord is too sovereign and too faithful to His mission in saving and redeeming a people to leave us the way we are. He will place us in whatever circumstances it takes to mold us to His image... and He will patiently bear with us as long as it takes for us to stop fighting Him in the purification process. 

You see, I am a fixer. I like things to be in order and tidy. I hate messy. I hate emotions. I hate the gray. I thrive off of a clean, black and white situation. But do you know what I’m learning in this painful, yet fruitful season? 

The world is not black and white. 

Sure, there are many truths that are obvious in God’s Word that we can cling to in all situations. There are clear moral commands. I am not talking about those. 

I am talking about the day to day situations that we find ourselves in. Hardly any of them are black and white because if they were then we would have all the details and understanding to organize them as such... and we just don’t. Why? 

 Because we are not God. 

Only He holds all the pieces in that way. 

And for this 23 year old who easily makes an idol out of control and understanding in order to gain a false sense of security, that is a truth that if I am being utterly transparent is rocking my world. It hurts. 

However... 

It hurts because it is my natural, fleshly tendency. The sinful tendency to want to be God and rule my own little kingdom in which I have all the answers and everything stays just “so”. And that is a kingdom that must die. I make an awful god. 

So it hurts, but it is the type of hurt that will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness in time (Hebrews 12). And that is why I make a post that is so public… as a reminder that let’s all remember that for any peaceful fruit of righteousness we see in one another, there was most likely an ugly crying, grieving, angry, lamenting, crucifying of self behind closed doors that you did not see… and that is where this false sense of reality in thinking that the Christian life is one of peaceful rainbows and butterflies takes root rather than remembering it is a painful long pilgrim journey… 

Yet it is a journey I want to be found trekking along until the bitter end. No matter the cost. No matter the hardship or pain. 

Just whatever it takes to make me look more like Jesus and hear the words “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” 

Hebrews 12:7-11

7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had [e]earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of [f]spirits, and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

The Mercy in Excitement

 

It is August and another school semester is about to begin. I find myself just as giddy as I was as a thirteen year old in my mom's children's clothing store unwrapping ABeka books for our homeschool curriculum. I love school. I love the promises of fresh books to be delved into, notes to be taken, and papers to be written. Part of me is surprised that as a 23 year old I still get to be in school. I still get to feel the excitement of ordering books and unboxing them as I get ready for the first day of class. 

But this excitement is both nostalgic and also incredibly gracious of the Lord to provide right now. The fact that there is even room for excitement is a great mercy after the first year I have experienced at seminary. 

I find myself excited about many things lately– the start of new courses, time spent with beloved friends, the chance to serve precious professors and church family. 

And it is a gift. A mercy. 

Because a year ago, I was simply surviving. I was simply stepping one foot in front of the other, weary before I even began here on Southern's campus. 

I remember moving into my sweet, little apartment around this time last year. I was terrified. And that feeling surprised me. I hadn't quite felt it in the way I was experiencing it at the time. I remember sitting across from the girl who I met down the hall from me, who quickly became a trusted sister, sharing through tears as I watched everyone else filled with such expectation and excitement that I was scared– I was weak– I was coming into this already weary after the summer the Lord had led me through. You see, the Lord began to show me before I even arrived in Louisville that this season would be hard. Like really hard. It would be humbling. And not the sort of academic hard or just away from home hard, but the type of hard where the Lord of the universe is exposing and sifting your heart of idols and things you had unknowingly clung to for security and identity... and doing so in the midst of the unknown and new school work and away from everyone who is familiar. 

I cannot tell you the tears, the lament, the looking up at my roommate or church members with a face of "Am I going to make it?" 

I felt utterly bruised at moments. 

But oh to be on this side. 

The joy that comes in the morning. 

He has bruised me. He has humbled me. He has scourged me. And I know it will continue, but there are glimpses of sweet trust and excitement left in the places of those bruises as they heal– as I am slowly learning more and more to trust the Father's molding hand, to not tense up as a hardened lump of clay, but to remain soft and moldable as I cry out, "Whatever it takes, Lord. Keep changing and molding me however You wish...in whatever way it takes." 

As you learn to lean into instead of fight the waves the Lord is sending, you begin to dance and sing in the midst of those tossing waves. You begin to splash around as there is water all around and you still don't know what all of this is leading to as you say, "Keep going, Abba, keep going! I'll wait and sing right here in the midst of it." 

"I trust You." 

And one of the small fruits of all of this is the room to actually be joyful, excited, and expectant about my fall classes, to be excited and grateful for the afternoon that I grab the spike ball net and enjoy some exercise with friends in the quad. 

Oh, all discipline for the moment does not seem to be joyful, but sorrowful. Yet for those who are trained by it, it will lead the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11). 

Abba, thank You so much for Your fruit. Even just glimpses of it. 

I ask for the grace to be able to keep bearing it– now matter how slow. No matter how painful. 

Because I see just a little bit more that Your hand truly is always working for my good. 

Truly and always. 

May you see the same in your life, brother or sister. And if not yet, trust the process. Trust the One who promises to never let you go (John 11:28-29; Deuteronomy 31:6). The season of harvest will come. It always does as you keep walking with Him. He is too sovereign to let you go or finish the work He has begun in you (Philippians 1:6). 

And here is a picture from a video of friends surprising me with birthday cake earlier this summer. Sheer joy and thankfulness. Yet the picture seems fitting now as I am learning to smile and grin even with my eyes closed so to speak, with hands open to receive any and all that the Lord is doing in and around me. 

He is calling and He has shown Himself: Reflections on Frozen II

 

This past weekend I had the chance to watch Frozen II and I was struck in many ways by how I saw the truth of the gospel reflected, and even more importantly caught glimpses of how the movie shows that our society is desperate and reaching for its goodness and truth. 

To be completely transparent, I remember trying to watch Frozen II right when it was released on Disney + years ago but was turned off by the nature-y, New Age-y "into the unknown" vibes I was getting so within fifteen minutes I switched to watching something else. My thought then was a bit of disgust at how New Age-y our world was getting in listening to strange sounds and feelings and wanting to follow them. Yet a year or two later as I watched, I saw something completely different. 

The movie centers on Elsa, who is being drawn "into the unknown." She is being drawn away from what is comfortable and normal to her to pursue a call that she senses is true, right, and good. On the surface, there can be many interpretations for this. "Comfortable and normal" can be viewed as traditional and objective which our society sees as bad and something to run away from. And many could read that meaning into this storyline. However, there is a gospel parallel here when you look at the narrative from a different angle, and although it is easy to gloss over the story and quickly frame it as society's anthem to run into false, unprecedented unknowns, I think our society is grappling with something deeper and by creators making this story, such is being exposed whether they realize it or not. 

All of us were made in God's image. Whether you submit to the God of the Bible or not, it does not change the fact that He created you and formed your being and that you were made for Him and His purposes, which are for your good. I would propose that a major theme that can be seen in Frozen II is God's call on our lives to come to Him, lay down our lives, and find our true identity and purpose in Him as our Creator. And I think it is a call that our society is majorly grappling with as they continue to try to run away from Him in their post-modern thinking that seeks to find truth in anyone or anything but Him. 

Let's look at some of the lyrics from the movie so I can explain. 

I can hear you, but I won't
Some look for trouble
While others don't
There are a thousand reasons
I should go about my day
And ignore your whispers
Which I wish would go away

The first verse starts off with Elsa admitting that she hears a voice, but she doesn't want to. She doesn't want to admit that she hears the voice because she fears what it will bring. She senses it will turn her world upside down and demand things of her. Yet nevertheless "the whispers" keep coming though she so desperately wishes they would stop. 

In light of God's call, this can be seen as the conviction people begin to experience as God begins opening their eyes to His truth in that they were made to be in a relationship with Him. He starts drawing us in and wooing us to Himself by calling after us, showing us that life is only found in Him. Yet we fight it so often in the beginning. We don't want Him. We want ourselves. We want life to revolve around us and our schedules, our idols. We don't want a new life. We want what feels "normal" and "natural" to us which is our sin and rebellion against God. 

The second part of verse one is very similar, but expands this idea a bit more, leading to the main point. 

You're not a voice
You're just ringing in my ear
And if I heard you, which I don't
I'm spoken for, I fear
Everyone I've ever loved is here within these walls
I'm sorry, secret siren, but I'm blocking out your calls
I've had my adventure, I don't need something new
I'm afraid of what I'm risking if I follow you

Here, Elsa is still denying she hears the call yet she reveals a bit more about why she seeks to deny it. It is because everyone (or everything) "she has ever loved is here within these walls." I can't help, but specifically think of the LGBTQ/LGBTQIA movement when I hear this line, though I know the writers were not thinking (or realized they were thinking) of the meaning I hear in it. Our society is spiraling into unbelief and immorality. Everyone defines their own truth and meaning, and anything goes as being good for someone as long as it "feels right" to them. We incase ourselves with people who will affirm our feelings and desires, and destroy or cancel anyone who does not line up with our view. For those in the LGBTQ community specifically, I know it is incredibly hard to consider leaving that lifestyle because of the community they sense around them. It feels incredibly uncomfortable to leave a community that has done nothing but made them feel affirmed and seen. And I do want to point out that this goes for any other lifestyle in our society, we are a people that don't want to be challenged. We want to rule and govern ourselves and decide what is right and then surround ourselves with people that will affirm us in our thinking. We hate objectiveness, we will only affirm subjectivity. Yet we are dying. We are grappling. Such subjectivity and affirmation aren't working to fill the holes in our hearts and chests. It isn't working. 

And it is because it is leading us away from the very One who came to die for our sins so that hole in our hearts can be filled. Yet this God, the One true God of the Bible, is faithful to call rebellious, lost sinners to Himself. People want to remain safe inside their walls of self-deception and idolatry, they don't want a new life, they fear what will happen if they admit that they sense God's conviction and call on their life, yet the Lord keeps calling and wooing them... into the unknown so that they can be KNOWN. 

Here, I want to jump down to a part of the second verse because by this point you can probably see the parallels within the rest of the lyrics. 

Or are you someone out there
Who's a little bit like me?
Who knows deep down
I'm not where I'm meant to be?

Every day's a little harder
As I feel my power grow
Don't you know there's part of me
That longs to go

In the song, Elsa keeps wrestling through the call as she begins to cry out "Are you someone out there who's a little bit like me?" Now again, the first time I heard this I thought, "Here we go again. This is getting to society's lie that you just need to go "be you" and define life and meaning for yourself. 'Go off and see that there are more people like you. You're not bad. Go be different. Going against tradition is good no matter what people say.'" However, I think there is a deeper meaning here that society is wrestling with. Believers can read this lyric as society crying out after spending years of sowing seeds of immorality and false ideologies and realize, "Is there someone out there who's a little bit like me?" Or even more clearly, "Is there Someone out there who made me... and is telling me deep down I am not where He created me to be?" 

The lyric continues, "Every day's a little harder as I feel my power grow, don't you know there's part of me that longs to go..." God's conviction never eases. He loves us too much to leave us as we are. And deep down, for all of those who are being called by God into a relationship with Himself, who are called to forsake their sin and trust in Jesus, we long to do so because we sense His all-powerful, true, life-giving love... and we know that we were made for it and it is the one thing that will fill our hearts like nothing else will or could.

There are a few more parallels I want to draw out before wrapping up, but this requires looking at Elsa's second song, "Show Yourself."

At this part in the movie, Elsa has committed to following the voice to learn what the voice is calling her to do. As she approaches where she believes the voice is, she begins singing "Show Yourself," proclaiming she is ready to learn whatever it is the voice has to show her. 

I would encourage you to go listen to the song because I am not going to unpack it line by line here, but ultimately the song shows Elsa's trembling fear yet also anticipation and excitement at discovering this voice. She longs to know why the voice is calling and is ready to submit to its authority in whatever the voice reveals. The song has beautiful, climatic music behind it that captures this tone well. 

Yet, I think it is a climax that society is at. We as humans do not demand God to show Himself. No, He willingly did that when He became a man and dwelt among us, living a sinless life that resulted in a sacrificial death on a cross which was done on our behalf. Yet for anyone hearing His call, as they step towards Him both in fear of His holiness yet expectation and excitement for His promised love, forgiveness, and acceptance, He is there. He is near. He is eager to receive those who repent and believe. 

In this scene in the movie, as Elsa finds and sees what the voice has to reveal, she is overcome by absolute emotion. Tears fill her eyes and an expression of complete known-ness is depicted. She feels found. She knows she is known. 

I would beg society, proclaim to them– this is the story of Scripture. God calls us. We cannot deny that call when it is Him wooing our hearts. May it be said that He is worth risking everything for, He is worth surrendering and forsaking all idols and sin for. And when we do we find our true identity in the Lord's love and grace and mercy. His love and forgiveness change our identity. He fills us up. He never leaves us or forsakes us. 

He has shown Himself, world. His call feels as if it is into the unknown, but it is the only way we can be known and find true peace and rest. 

I urge you, recognize where this world's lies and ideologies, where your own idols and rebellion are leading you. They will not fill up or satisfy. You will never be able to rectify your choices or make them right on your own. Turn to Jesus, turn to the One in whose image you were made. Seek Him while He may be found. Trust His lovingkindess and be found. Turn from your own sinful ways, and see that the Lord is there willing and already showing Himself to you. 

And be found. 

Be truly free indeed. 

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 

John 8:36