Give me one glorious ambition for my life

I feel better right now than I have in a while. I'm in a mellow, content kind of mood right now, though earlier I was ready to jump and sing for joy. Because, I had been struggling, and instead of turning to God, I tried to reason with myself and get through it on my own.

If there's one thing I should've learned by now, it's that that never works.

I opened my Bible to Philippians 4:8. I read it over and over, drilling it into my mind, willing myself to remember it and to pull it back when things got rough. I opened next to Ephesians 6, the famous Armor of God passage. I can't count how many times I read through those eight verses, starting with "Finally, be strong in the Lord," and ending with, "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."

I was crying as I read over it, again and again, because the struggle was big but the God is bigger. And I've been through things like this before, some much more difficult and longer-lasting than this was. But no matter what the struggle, no matter if we're hurting a little or a lot, God's love will always be there...whatever your hurt is. Anger, sickness, breakups, Satan's lies, and the list goes on. But in each situation there is God. When no one else loves you, there is God. When you're hurting whether emotionally or physically, there is God.

"Sure, Caroline", you may say. "You have no idea what I'm going through. And why should I take your word for it? You're probably younger than I am."

You're absolutely right. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know what kind of fiery darts Satan is directing in your path right now. But I will always know that God will be there. It's like this: I am never sure, and neither are you, about what will happen in life. But I am certain that God will be right there with me, because He always has been, and through faith I trust that He always will be.

Don't take my word for it. Take God's. In Ephesians 6:17 His Word is called, "The Sword of the Spirit". My mom pointed out something once I hadn't noticed: God's Word, the Bible, the sword of the spirit, is our only weapon in the Armor of God. Every other piece of our armor is designed for the defense, to defend ourselves from Satan's flaming arrows. But the Bible is our sword: it's what we fight with: it's what we do battle with.

I have to be honest with you. If I was not a Christian, I really have no idea how I could get through what Satan tries to throw at me. Honestly. God is my everything. My hope. My strength. My love.

Without Christ, I am nothing.

Yesterday at church, the song we sang at the end stood out to me. I loved it when one sang it, and when I pulled out my bulletin a little bit ago to read the lyrics, I loved it even more. This is my favorite hymn now.

Give Me One Pure and Holy Passion

Give me one pure and holy passion
Give me one magnificent obsession
Give me one glorious ambition for my life
To know and follow hard after You
To grow as your disciple in Your Truth
This world is empty, pale, and poor
Compared to knowing you my Lord
Lead me on, and I will run after You.

I want to be a writer. In many ways, that is my ambition, my worldly goal.

But that is no longer my ambition. (don't panic. I'll never stop being a writer.)

I want to go higher. I want to go beyond what the world can do for me and let Jesus be my ambition. I want Him to be my pure and holy passion. He is my glorious ambition. What will yours be?

Follow hard after him.



And I promise you, He will fill your heart with so much joy you might even be able to jump higher than I did in that picture.