Let 2011 be the year that Love breaks through in you. I’m thinking of an old Keith Green song that goes, “I was lost in a fantasy that blinded me until Your love broke through.” That’s what I hope you want.

Let love break through in your world to show that there is a different and better way to live. That it’s not all about fame or money or sex or thrills or late-night partying. That love (as in the love of Christ poured into your heart and overflowing to the world) can conquer hate, fear, shame, or doubt. Love will convince people that you are for real, not correct doctrine or proper procedures and practices.

Let love break through in your life. Let your life be so radically different from the norm that people are forced to notice. Let your life be a compliment to your profession of faith and not a detriment to it. Love not just people who are like you or who are easy to love. Don’t just love the picture-perfect pretty people. Love the broken, the hopeless, the outcast, and the weak. Love those who can’t love you back. That kind of love always draws attention to Jesus, because who could love like that apart from Him?

Let love break through your heart. May you be captured and captivated by a Love that never gave up and will never quit. May Jesus become everything to you and everything else fall away. Let your heart be broken by what breaks God’s heart. When love breaks through, you change from selfishly fulfilling your own lusts and desires to learning to give your life away.

So, say YES to the love of Jesus every single day (and every single moment the thought comes into your mind). Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. Get rid of anything that distracts or detracts or takes away from the love of God being able to invade you and those around you through you.

Jesus, we will be Your feet to go to the ends of the earth, Your hands to reach out to the poor and needy, Your eyes to see the need and weep over those who suffer, and Your heart to love these people so radically that they don’t see us anymore, but You.

Amen and amen.

My child, where you see failure and disaster, I see a second chance.

Where you see yourself as inept and helpless, I see a chance for My strength to be made perfect in your weakness.

Where you see hopelessness and despair and no way out, I see that just beyond your line of sight, I am preparing something for you that will blow your mind.

Where you see yourself as unloveable, I see the person I made loveable when I set my affection on you. I thought you were worth dying for and I would do it again.

When you feel loneliness and desertion, I am silently in  your corner, on your side, singing softly over you as you sleep. Listen to my songs with ears of faith and you will hear Me.

When you feel worthless and useless and think you are not worth the effort, I show you my nail-scarred hands and feet and my spear-pierced side to declare to you, “YOU WERE TOTALLY WORTH IT!”

Whatever you are feeling or thinking, remember that those feelings and thoughts will often lie to you, but I never will. Trust in what you know. Trust in Who you know. Me.

I love the part in My Big Fat Greek wedding when Ian and Toula are talking and she reminds him that they met when she was working at her family’s Greek restaurant. She says something like, “I was going through my frumpy phase until, well, just now.” He responds, “I don’t remember frumpy, but I remember you.” I love that.

That’s what we strive for as believers. To see each other and remember not the colossal failures and fiascos and screwups, but to remember the good. To see not the messed up past of a person, but to see forward to what they are becoming and will one day be in Christ.

If we’re honest as believers, we have to admit that we are weak, broken messes who don’t have the answers and who lose their way frequently. We’re not as strong or wise as we think we are. Even our best moments are filled with fears and doubts, striving and self-loathing, hiding and excusing.

As we mature, we see not how much less we need grace, but how much more desperately we need it every single moment of every single day. We need each other. We need to forgive and be forgiven constantly, starting with ourselves. We need to be real and open and transparent with each other, carrying each others’ burdens and sharing their joys and sorrows. We constantly need to be restored and revived, to keep each other honest, and each of us need to know that we are worth the effort it takes and that no true believer ever gives up on another true believer.

As a believer, I can say through Christ, “I will be your eyes when you can’t see, your voice when you can’t speak, your light in the dark when you’ve lost your way, your friend when you feel alone and deserted, and your biggest fan when you feel most discouraged and most messed-up. I will be your burden-bearer, your hope-restorer, and your faith-rebuilder. I will do my best to show you what the love of Jesus looks like through my words and my actions to you.”

Let us love each other radically and fully. Let us show the world what true faith looks like, as opposed to those who just carry the name Christian but deny it with their lifestyle. Let us win the world by our own lifestyle of radical love, passionate faith, and unswerving hope in Jesus Christ.

I want to be a friend who never, never, never, never, never, never, never ever gives up on you. And I mean never. No matter what you say or don’t say, you can’t lose my friendship. You may give up on your end, but I will never give up on my end. Why?

Because that’s what Jesus did for me. Jesus, the Friend above all friends, the Friend who sticks closer than a brother and laid down his life for me. He never gave up on me, so I can’t ever give up on you. That’s the deal.

I know what I’m describing isn’t the norm. When someone’s harsh words cut deep, it’s hard to remain in friendship. When someone’s silence cuts deeper still, it requires something beyond myself to remain.

And so my friendship with you is really Jesus loving you through me. I can’t on my own, I will fail you every time. I will let you down, get all OCD, and tragically mess things up. I on my own will run you off.

But Jesus is the Friend who is teaching me to be a better friend. No, better yet. He’s the Friend to me who’s a Friend to you through me. It’s His power that sustains any friendship I have.

I want to be the friend that encourages and cheers for you. The one who laughs with you at times and cries with you in other times. I want to be a friend who will do whatever I can to help you, to see you become all that God in Christ meant for you to be.

I want to be someone who will lay down my life for you in a thousand small ways, to give up my rights for you, give up my own set ways of doing things for you.

That’s the kind of friend I want to be to you, and because of God in me, I am slowly becoming just that.

Thank you, friends, for not giving up on me and for seeing through my fears and false fronts and neuroses to the real me. To the Jesus in me. I will be forever grateful!

I have acted shamefully. I have said and done things I wish I could take back, especially on Facebook. But that’s not who I am.

I  have believed the lies that the devil told me in my moments of weakness. He told me I was worthless with nothing to offer any girl and nothing to contribute to the world and that the world was better off without me in it. But that’s not who I am.

I have royally screwed up everything at certain points in my life. I have lived out of shame and fear and not out of sonship and love. But that’s not who I am.

I have driven friends away. Some who are still friend on facebook won’t talk to me anymore or respond to any of my posts because I was too clingy and needy and scared them off.  But that’s not who I am anymore.

My Savior and God set His affection on me and called me Beloved and gave me worth by loving me. He thought I was to die for and has told me repeatedly how fond He is of me. That is who I am.

My God has called me by a new name. Not one given to be by my failures or shame or guilt or fear, but one bought with precious blood and written on a white stone. That is who I am.

My God has made my brokenness beautiful, turned my mourning into dancing, turned my shame into praise and renown, and called me friend. That is who I am.

My God is transforming me more and more every day into the image of Jesus and His life is growing inside me, taking over, as the old ways that led to defeat are put to death. That is who I am.

Who am I? I am the disciple whom Jesus loves. I am my Beloved’s, and He is mine. I am beautiful and strong and handsome and redeemed and forgiven and made new. That’s who I am from now on!

This is my prayer for you. That you know you are loved more deeply and more passionately than any movie stars could convey or romance novel portray. That love isn’t something you feel or something you can find or lose or fall into, but this love has a name. And that name is Jesus.

My prayer for you is that you know this Jesus. I don’t pray for you to be religious or spiritual, but to know the Jesus who saw you in your bleakest moments of despair and lowest point of depravity and was willing to suffer agony and die for you. Not only to die for you, but to take all that despair and depravity upon Himself.

My prayer is that you know that all those who pointed their fingers at you and told you how God was fed up with you were wrong. God has not given up on you, nor will He ever. He offers you a new life, a second chance, a clean slate. All you have to do is reach out.

My prayer is that you would reach out and say the most beautiful words in the English language– “Jesus, save me.” You would call out for Him, admitting that you have sinned and made a royal mess out of your life. That you are a sinner, that you are fundamentally broken and can’t fix yourself.

My prayer is that you would throw yourself on the grace and mercy of Jesus. Give Him all of your life for the rest of your life. Let Him lead you wherever He wants, because He will lead you into the best places, better than you could ever have dreamed.

My prayer is that you would find that He is faithful in the good and bad, in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health, until death. And even past death. He will walk with you through storms and sunshine. He will sing over you in times when you feel like your world is ending.

My prayer is that you are captivated and enthralled and ravished by this Love, by Jesus Himself. May the God of the universe romance your soul and win your heart.

Say YES to Jesus. Lay down your heavy burdens and take His light yoke. If you want to know more about how to say YES to Jesus, you can reach me at GMendel72@united.net.

That’s my prayer for you.