You Have My Attention: 6 Days of Creating Space for God to Move in Your LifeSample

Your Church Is Alive

I remember being a junior high girl and staring into a “Magic Eye” poster trying to decipher the image in the mess of pixels in front of me. At first glance it looked like distorted pixelated dots and spots but when you trained your eye to what was below the surface a giant hand or palm tree or who knows what would emerge from the mess of the Magic Eye page. As odd as this sounds, this is so much like the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is rarely what we think it is, there is always something else happening beneath the mess our physical eyes can see.  What we think is power is not, what we think is winning is not. What we think is success is not. 

During the COVID 19 season it has appeared as though the church at large has had to shrink back, stop meeting and “take a break,” and it's easy to get discouraged and wonder what’s going on. But we can rest assured that God is still moving, He is still working and the church, his beloved bride, is still very much alive. As I was thinking through this the other day I was reminded of a passage of scripture in Luke 8. In this passage, Jesus meets a man whose daughter has fallen ill and is dying. He was desperate for her healing and Jesus begins to go to the young girl but he is pulled into helping another person in need. I’m sure the father of this little girl was so worried, every moment mattered to him, he needed Jesus to hurry up and get to his little girl! But, instead of hurrying, Jesus stops and heals someone else! I can only imagine what that dad was thinking. If it were me, I would’ve been very frustrated by what appeared to be a very inconvenient distraction from what I wanted and needed to get done. As the story progresses, Jesus eventually gets to the little girls home, and here is what he finds. 

Luke 8: 52 - 55: “And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But taking her by the hand he called, saying, “Child, arise.” And her spirit returned, and she got up at once”

Everyone watching thought for sure she was dead but Jesus knew something they didn’t. He believed something they didn’t and saw beyond the physical into the spiritual realm that though she appeared physically dead she was merely sleeping and the miracle was right around the corner. 

I’d like to believe that the people watching that day had a moment where they paused and reflected, “what I see with my eyes, what I believe in my heart, and what I’m currently experiencing isn’t the only thing that's happening, God is at work, even when I can’t see it” 

Mack and I are believing that about the church right now. That even though it appears that the church has taken a step back, we know that it is very much alive and we will see signs and wonders. We will see miracles and breakthroughs happen because the church is very much alive. It was out of this heart that Mack and a few others wrote “Your Church Is Alive” and we will continue declaring this song over this year and the years to come until we see Jesus face to face. 

- Meredith