You Are On Our Side

So there's this Bethany Dillon song called "You Are On Our Side" that's been stuck in my head continuously for like a week now. I've always really liked the song, but it's just been hitting me in fresh new ways recently.

Here's the lyrics to the chorus:

You sit at the table with the wounded and the poor
You laugh and share stories with the thief and the whore
When You could just be silent and leave us here to die
Still you sent Your Son for us
You are on our side. 

So I've already got this song in the back of my mind when I sit down and read Luke 22:32 today, and all of a sudden both the song and the passage hit me in a whole new way.

"Pearl, Pearl. Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Pearl, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your sisters."

Guys, how great is our God?! How great is He that the enemy has to ask permission to get access to us. And he's not really even asking to mess with us or trip us up - just to sift. He's testing to see what's real and what's fake, to pull out the parts of us that aren't as genuine as we might think.

I suppose the fact that Jesus prays implies that permission has been granted. But guys, He prays for me! The Son of Man stands before the Father and intercedes for me! When He could just be silent and leave us here to die, still Jesus came for us, and He is on our side.

I don't know why that's such a hard thing for me to get my head around. Somehow I implicitly believe that Jesus is just kind of waiting around for us to fail again, even if He sort of half-heartedly hopes we won't. Rarely do I imagine Him pulling for us, pleading to the Father for us, strengthening us through His Spirit.

Anyway, all that to say - super encouraging! I haven't even read the other passages yet, but I was stoked on that one enough that I just had to post about it. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5-DjMpuM0M