He Does

A friend of a few friends of mine is blogging. I'm following her blog because of the hope and trust she has in the Lord in spite of personal tragedy. She is an encouragement to me and we've never met. You can read her blog.  It's called "journeying" and you can find the link to that by looking at the list of blogs I follow. Yesterday, or maybe the day before, her blog was very powerful and spoke volumes to me. And a comment by 1 of her followers pointed to Isaiah chapter 61. The 'great exchange' if you will, between the God who loves me so much, and me.  And you. He takes all our yuck and exchanges it for all His goodness. But we need to ask Him to do that.He will. So, as I was thinking of that love, that love that exchanges our bad for His good, and Easter, and the Good News, or the Gospel, of Jesus Christ I wrote a song. I just finished it. You can't hear the music right now, but I will share the lyrics with you.  My prayer and my hope is that the Lord, of Whom I write about and love, will reach out to you and exchange all  the bad in your life for the riches He longs to give you.  All you need to do is ask Him to.  He will. That's why Jesus came. To take all our sin, and shame, and pain - all our "yuck" and exchange it for all His goodness, and mercy and forgiveness and eternal life. But He had to go to the cross to do that. And the Good News is that He conquered death!

Here are the lyrics -

He Does
copyright Heather Arnelien

Tear-stained pillow
sleepless nights
"why's and  "what ifs?"
no hope in sight.
feeling abandoned
not wanting  to live
you've screamed and cried and died inside
you've nothing to give.

Oh, but He does.
Oh, He does.

He gives beauty for ashes
His strength for fear,
gladness for mourning,
peace for despair.
He gives hope for the broken
The Best, for 'what was' -
When you've got nothing to give -  He does.

Tears of mercy,
prayer-filled night,
in that garden-
He was fighting your fight.
Every sorrow, each sin and each loss-
He bore them all upon Him when He hung on the cross.
Oh, and He lives.
And He gives...

He gives beauty for ashes,
His strength for fear,
gladness for mourning,
peace for despair.
He gives hope for the broken,
the Best for "what was"-
when you've got nothing to give - He does.
When you've got nothing to give, He does.