Saturday night Adoration – easily considered by many to be the “culminating” event of each Steubenville conference. The time when Christ speaks directly into our hearts; all of our wounds, our fears, our struggles, along with our joys, celebrations and hopes. God is good. He moves in big ways and does big things. But what if you don’t feel Him moving? What if you don’t feel Him doing big things? Is He still there? Do I still belong to Him?
Fr. Martin processed in with Jesus and knelt before Him on the altar. He led us in praying the Litany of Trust and one line stood out to me, “From the lie that I don’t belong, deliver me Jesus.” As I sat and adored our Lord, I found myself repeating this line over and over and offering up all of you as I did. “From the lie that I don’t belong…from the lie that I don’t belong… Lord, help your children know they are loved. Help them to know they belong!”
As Adoration began tonight, Fr. Chris Martin led us in a beautiful prayer and the Lord wants us to share it with you.
From the belief that I have to earn Your love
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear that I am unlovable
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the false security that I have what it takes
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear that trusting You will leave me more destitute
Deliver me, Jesus.
From all suspicion of Your words and promises
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the rebellion against childlike dependency on You
Deliver me, Jesus.
Brian asked all of our attendees tonight to get out of their comfort zone. That being said, it’s hard to ‘jump’ to God when you’ve been dropped a lot. It can be hard to believe that God cares about you. When you’ve been broken enough, the enemy likes to try to convince you of three things:
If you live within these lies the enemy can control your actions.
For a lot of us, it’s much easier to remember the things people have said negatively about us or the times we’ve feel like we’ve been dropped. In those moments, we don’t want to jump or be open. We can sit here tonight and pretend our lives are perfect, but let’s be real with ourselves.