Welcome to the World, Johanna Glory Furrow

It is my pleasure to introduce my youngest grandchild, Johanna Glory Furrow, (JoJo) to the world.

Oh beautiful and precious little girl, what a big name

you have! It may be a while before I call you JoJo, because your full name is so wonderful to me. My prayer for you is that you will live up to your name, reflecting all that it means.

Johanna means “God is gracious” and God has proven to be more than gracious in his gift of you. We are filled with gratitude and love. I pray, Johanna, that you will understand and receive the gift of God’s grace in salvation at an early age. That you will grasp the understanding that you cannot earn God’s grace — for if you could, it would no longer be grace — and therefore receive it with surrender and gratitude.

I pray your name will be a continual reminder that God’s grace is sufficient for you and that his power is made perfect in your weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9). That the first place you think to turn whenever you are in times of need will be to approach God’s throne of grace to receive his mercy and grace to help you (Hebrews 4:16).

And, Glory – like your big brother Cal, your mom and dad chose an attribute of God for your middle name. What a sweet way to remind you that the wonderful God we love and serve is glorious.

As you grow in grace, wisdom, and knowledge, I pray that you will cherish God’s glory. God’s glory might be the hardest thing for you to wrap your mind around – it exceeds our understanding – nevertheless, protecting God’s glory is one of our greatest privileges and responsibilities as his children.

God’s glory is his honor. I pray you will desire to honor God in all that you do, striving to live a holy life, and fleeing from choices that dishonor His holy Name. I pray you will always choose to protect God’s reputation, treasuring it far more than your own. That the motivation of your heart will be to make God famous as you live humbly, revealing his works in and through you.

God’s glory is light, the bright light that surrounds his presence. It is the light that will illumine the new heaven and the new earth when God lives with us in the New Jerusalem where the city will not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God will give it light, and the Lamb is its lamp ( Revelation 21:23).

Glory is the light surrounding the angels as they announced the incarnation, the birth of Jesus. It is the light surrounding Jesus at his transfiguration when his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light (Matthew 17:2).

Amazingly, God’s glorious light can shine through you, and I pray that your words, actions, attitudes, and personality will reflect God’s light, and draw many people to him in saving faith. I pray that when hard things happen, and you experience heartaches and pain, scars and suffering, that it is the light of God that shines brilliantly through every crack, revealing God as the power that dwells within you.

God’s glory is the sum of all of his attributes. While God’s glory is his alone, there are other attributes that he shares with us, or communicates to us, such as love, peace, joy, patience, perseverance, kindness, goodness, gentleness, wisdom, mercy, grace, and justice. The Holy Spirit within us produces this fruit, these attributes, in our lives.

I pray that you will embrace God’s gift of his attributes, nurture them, and manifest them, so that your life is a continual reflection of his glory. As these attributes mature, you will look more and more like your Father, God.

Johanna Glory, you are such a beautiful blend of your mom and dad. Already I see glimpses of both of them in your sweet little face. As you get older, you will continue to grow to be like them in their physical attributes as well as their attitudes, their habits, their training, and their love. As you look more and more like them, I know you will look more and more like God because they, too, live for God.

While this blog is mostly my prayer for Johanna Glory Furrow, it is also my prayer for all of us. Have you received God’s gift of salvation by grace, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:9-10)? If not, why not? Why not today?

If you have chosen to receive salvation, do you cherish God’s glory? Are you living in, and reflecting his light? Are you consciously living to bring him honor?

As Christians we have the wonderful privilege of praying for, leading, and training the next generation: our children, our grandchildren, and the children who find themselves in our spheres of influence.

The birth of yet another grandchild causes me to realize more than ever that time marches quickly and we will soon hand off the baton of faith and leadership. Are you purposefully preparing the next generation in your family to receive it?
_________________________________
If you enjoyed this blog post, please consider following by clicking on the “Follow” link in the right-hand column

Marcia’s book is currently available on Amazon, click here