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"But as for me, I will look to the Lord and confident in Him I will keep watch; I will wait with hope and expectancy for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me." Micah 7:7, AMP

By way of possibly unnecessary explanation, after 3 months of virtual silence, this blog is getting a reboot.

The lack of writing certainly hasn't been for a lack of things to say and share about what God is saying and doing, merely a lack of time.  Or rather, an intentional refocus of the time I once spent writing into living life more fully in the season my family has been going through.  And it's been a great season : new job, new home, new baby.  My hands have, very literally, been full.

But it's now time to be intentional about ensuring there's a little margin in there to write again.

Last night, at a meeting with a lot of my favourite people - people I get to serve with and do life together with at Exchange - there was much anticipation about the future of our church family.  But at the same time, there's a "holy discontent".  There's more, so much more, to living life to the fullest, and we're not only wanting that, we're expecting that.  It's a subtle mind-shift, from knowing it's possible, to expecting it to happen. So every single day, we're expecting to see God's hand move in extraordinary ways in our own lives and the lives of all those who call this place "home".  And we're going to celebrate every miracle; the big flashy ones, the barely noticeable ones, and all the ones in between - all are gifts from God, and a glimpse of the gloriously abundant life He wants for us.

By being intentional about building and encouraging a culture of expectancy, we're not going to ignore the disappointments that come along either.  The world we live in is a difficult, imperfect place, and there's going to be hurts along the way - but rooted and grounded in God's unfailingly immense love and His free-for-all covering of grace that Jesus bought for us, we can be real with each other about the journey - the good, the bad and the ugly, knowing that the bad and ugly are ultimately refashioned into good by God's love.

So we rest in the knowledge that His love never fails, never gives up, never runs out.  We can't fail to see Him, feel Him, touch Him, hear Him when we are secure in who we've been made to be through Him, and expect Him to be in the midst of our every moment.  It's counter-cultural to this "me, me, me" world - placing God in His rightful position at the centre of our lives - but as one of my very favourite verses reminds me, "the church...is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church".

Let's shake up the culture we live in and create a new one.  One that expects love, expects good, expects miracles : expects God.  The world won't be able to resist.

If you've not already done so, you might like to listen to our podcasts, which form the basis of most of the posts on this blog. You can find links on our website, our Facebook page, or our app, which can be found by searching for "Exchange Church Belfast" in iTunes, the iOS App store or Android app market.

"But me, I'm not giving up. I'm sticking around to see what God will do. I'm waiting for God to make things right. I'm counting on God to listen to me." Micah 7:7, MSG