Garrett Ayers

Follower of Christ

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Emotional Christianity: In Defense of Forsakenness

Praise be to Jesus, who is our salvation

Not of our own efforts, but of His, as it has always been, and always will be.

Too much, far too much it seems, is given to the strength of our emotions to hold a weight so great as eternity. Surely it will fall, and all have felt the crushing burden of having to carry the weight of their faith, walking seven days a week until they can lay it down at the altar for an hour of sweet temporary relief, only to pick it up and carry it all over again. Worship is a refuge then from ourselves, that we could finally put down what we’ve so long held, and feel a minor relief as we unclench our hands and let them float to the ceiling because we are no longer holding onto our faith. We walk into a worship room like a gas-station to receive what it takes to make it through the days to come. Therefore we dare not ration our spiritual emotion poorly, for if we...

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Failure

Praise be to Jesus–ever-redemptive, never failing–that his nature be imparted onto us so that his eternal life would replace our shrinking life. Praise be to Jesus, who brought an end.

The Lord fights for us, but against what? No power of hell, no force of this world can e'er defeat him. True, there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God, but surely sin can separate us in general. That is its very definition, and a key distinction between love and general separation. If we could never be separated from Him, either He would be all too human, or we would terribly be too divine. For neither can sinfulness and holiness exist at their fullest together. And the Lord is of course the fullness of all holiness. Without Him, there is no such holiness at all. Until we are finally remade, the destruction of sin reversed once and for all, we will not enter into the fullness of the same...

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Sovereign

Praise be to Jesus, whose holed hands have never let anything slip through

I have tasted the sweetness of the faith. I have experienced the pulling of the Lord. I have been full of love, with passion insatiable to anything I have ever known here. I have prayed prayers that I never wanted to end and have been convinced of the Lord’s presence where two or more are gathered. I have wanted to run away to the Lord and spend just one hour in His courts. I have laughed audibly and smiled visibly when at once I knew the Lord was near. I have stood so firmly that no weight could move me

But sometimes the ink runs dry. For me, I have felt that this entire semester was an attempt to write with a dead pen. Spiritually drained, I thought that if I just prayed harder, read my Bible for ten more minutes, sang more passionately in worship, then it would get better. I felt that God was disappointed in...

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