Proverbs 3:5-6

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So you’re trying to figure out what comes next. What path to take, how your life should go. And you’re stressed and you’re asking God for guidance.

I often have conversations with young people trying to figure out their lives, and sometimes they are just paralyzed because what does God want me to do? And we’ll talk about Proverbs 3:5-6.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

And what I’ve found is that often when people talk about Proverbs 3:5-6, that trust in the Lord with all of your heart, we tend to think about that verse like I’m trusting God to help me figure out exactly the right path. I’m trusting God to help me make the perfect choice. And sometimes that sense of being paralyzed comes when we’re waiting and thinking, I don’t know. God hasn’t made it clear to me yet. I’m not sure exactly what I am supposed to do.

So then what ends up happening in our conversation is we start talking more about, okay, let’s look exactly at what this says. When it says trust in the Lord, the idea of trust is that it’s of something or someone you go to as a refuge, as a protection. And so trust in the Lord here, go to him as your protection, not your understanding. You’re not going to trust in or find your security in whether or not you get how this is all going to work out. You’re not going to find security in okay, now I know exactly the right choice. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways, acknowledge him and in the original language it says to know him and he will make your path straight.

It’s not about asking God to help you know the perfect path. It’s about knowing him who makes your paths straight. And if you think about it, that’s how our relationship with God really works. It’s not that God gives you the ability to figure out how to be good enough for him. You and I can’t. It’s about him being good enough for us. It’s about God the Son who became human to live the life you and I were meant to live. It’s about his death for your sins and mine and his resurrection to give us new life. And now, through the faith of the Holy Spirit has given us we do get the partner with God. But God never says, okay, now I need you. I’m going to help you figure out how to fix it all. We just simply get to be part of his plan. We get to receive life from him. Live life with him. Walk with him and know him. It’s not about you or I figuring out or asking God, okay, help me to know all the things. Rather, we get to know the one who does. He will make your path straight.

Matthew 6:7-8, Romans 5:6-8, John 16:13, Ephesians 2:10, Philippians 4:13, 19

So you’ve been praying to God. You’ve talked to him about what’s on your mind, what’s on your heart. You ask him. You ask him again. You pray in the morning. You pray in the middle of the day. You pray in the evening. But you’re still just so stressed. You’re still so worried and you’re still just so anxious.

I’ve been there. And it can happen partly because you’ve prayed and nothing has changed. Or maybe you don’t see how it’s all going to work out, but the sense of still being so stressed and anxious. Actually, there are roots to this that have to do with the way we now naturally relate to God as sinful people in a sinful, broken world.

When you go back to the beginning, to the scene in the garden when you have Adam and Eve and they have the opportunity to trust God to be their source of life, what’s at the core of what breaks everything is this thought that maybe we can’t trust God. Maybe he isn’t actually going to do the good thing for us. Maybe we need to do it our own way. And so, as people born sinful in a broken world, we have this natural sense that maybe God isn’t going to do the good thing. Maybe we can’t trust him. We have to try to do it our own way, which means we got to figure out how this is all going to play out. If we can’t figure it out, then maybe it’s not going to turn out good.

But Jesus says this in Matthew six, verses 7 to 8.

“And when you pray, do not babble like the heathen, since they think that they will be heard because of their many words. However do not be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:7-8)

So God already knows what you need. And in the sense then, as Jesus brings it up, is that he knows what you need and as a good father, he’s going to provide. And he knows this, and he has this provision in mind before you even ask him, before you even say that prayer. So what does God know that you need? What is God looking to provide? And where can we find this out?

Actually, if you look throughout the scriptures, God tells us again and again what we need and what he has done and will do to provide. For instance, look at Romans chapter five, verses 6 to 8.

For at the appointed time, while we were still helpless, Christ died for the ungodly. It is rare indeed that someone will die for a righteous person. Perhaps someone might actually go so far as to die for a person who has been good to him. But God shows his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

See, before you and I were born, God knew that we would need a Savior. And even when we were his enemies, born into this world, naturally not believing him, walking with him, the reality is, long before we were born, Christ, God himself, became human. The Son of God became human, was born. The man Jesus lived the life you and I were meant to live. Lay down that life and died for your sins and mine to take that justice. He rose again to set us right with God, to give us life forever with God. God knows that that’s what we need. And he provided.

What else has God known that we need? How else has God provided? In John 16:13 Jesus said,

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears he will speak. He will also declare to you what is to come. (John 16:13)

He speaks these words to his disciples, but it lets us know that God would provide the Spirit to not only give us faith, but to teach us and help us grow. He knows that we need the Spirit today, and he has promised that Spirit. Ephesians chapter two in verse ten, he says,

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

He knew that we would need things to do. A calling, a purpose, a significance. He had plans for how he would use us in this world, and he has provided those works, those things for us to do. Or think about Philippians 4:13. This is a verse that often gets quoted kind of in the wrong way. This is the verse that says,

I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)

And this usually gets used by people or often I should say to say, well, I can do anything I set my mind to. That’s not really what it’s about. This verse is in the context of how do I be content? God knows what you and I need to be content, to have enough. And later in that same chapter of Philippians, he says,

And my God will fully supply your every need, according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

Again and again we see Scripture tell us that God knows what we need, and God continually provides.

And so today, bring your needs before him. Ask him for these different things, but don’t stop there. Think about what has God already said he knows that you need. How has God already promised to provide? It may not change things right this moment. You may not see the way he’s going to provide. But how might things change if you shift from just your asking for things to thinking about how has God already answered?

Joshua 5:13-14, Romans 5:8-10, 2 Corinthians 5:18

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Whose side are you on? There’s a scene in Joshua that I always find so fascinating when Joshua is leading God’s people into the Promised Land. And so they’re going, they’re getting ready for battle and for what’s ahead of them. We’re told that when Joshua’s by Jericho,

When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” (Joshua 5:13-14)

Such an intriguing scene, because Joshua is leading the people of God. It would seem like if Joshua is saying, oh, hey, whose side are you on that it would be a pretty clear answer. Well, I’m with you guys, but the answer isn’t that the answer is no. I am the commander of the Army of the Lord. It’s not about being on the people’s side. It’s about being on God’s side. And for us, it’s not about trying to get God onto our side. It’s about being on God’s side. What is God doing? What is God up to? What does God want?

That’s something really worth pondering today in our world where people are so quick to take sides. Are you a Democrat or a Republican? Are you for this or against this? On Facebook, if there’s a post, are you liking it? Are you hating it? Are you commenting this or commenting that? Are you for this thing at church? Or are you anti this thing at church? Or are you a yes vote? Are you a no vote? We’re so quick to take sides, but as a Christian there’s only really one side to take and it’s the Lord’s, the Lord’s side.

When we get off thinking about, okay, my opinion, my side versus their side or what they think versus what what I think, we so quickly go down a wrong path. And perhaps that’s a big part of why there’s just so much hostility and hate in our world today. And social media definitely doesn’t help with that.

So what do we do when we realize we’ve taken the wrong side? Well, first of all, we lay that before the cross and then we remember this in Romans chapter five, verses 8 to 10. It says,

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:8-10)

Let’s think about that. We were enemies of God. We were naturally a sinful people. We didn’t do things God’s way. We did things our own way. And that went against God. And yet God, God is so for us that Jesus came into this world. God the Son became human and then lay down his life and died, absorbing all the justice that your sins and mine deserve. He took the death that we deserve, and he rose again so that God can now see us through him, so that through faith in Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, now we are new people. We are new creations. We are children of God.

We are no longer enemies of God. You are now on God’s side and now, by the Spirit, you are free to live as someone who is on God’s side. How different might we approach things? How different might we look? How much of a light might we be in this world if we approach things and go towards things, not thinking about what side I want to be on. What’s God up to in this? What does God want to do in this? What would the Lord’s army, if you will, what would their mission, God’s mission, be in this situation?

One thing I know that God’s mission would be in second Corinthians 5:18, we’re told that

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; (2 Corinthians 5:18)

So much as we think about the gospel and our role in this world, is to be people who are now sharing the good news, sharing forgiveness and people of reconciliation, where people are brought together around the cross through Christ and united in him. When we were his enemies, he died for us. We are now on the Lord’s side. And what is his side up to today?

Peace Devotions uses a combination of paid and free stock footage in the creation of our devotions. While we typically avoid the use of AI generated content in our videos, we occasionally may use AI generated illustrations, photos, or videos to help visually convey our message. We will do our best to disclaim the use of AI content when it is used. This video contains one short clip that was generated using AI.

Ephesians 2:8-9

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I need to be loved, but I want to be lovable.

It’s a strange thing that I find in myself, and I want to share it in case it’s something that you can relate to. I find that with people in my life who love me, I want there to be reasons that they love me. Like, I’ve done something to be a really good husband or father or, you know, son or brother and friend and that they can look and say, yeah, because of that, like he’s done this or he will do this, or he’s a stand up guy in this way. That’s why I love him.

I want to be lovable, but I need to be loved. And the thing about love, true love, agape love, that “all in” love of God is that that love isn’t based on being lovable. Actually, if it’s a love that’s based on being lovable, it’s not really true love. “All in” love says that yes, you have faults. You have these different things. It’s not based on you being good enough. It’s the fact that I’m going to love you anyway. It’s the fact that I am for you anyway. It’s the love that we see ultimately from our God, who, when he looked at this world and saw that we had turned away from him. That we’ve been stuck in our sin. That he says, I’m going to love you anyway. I’m going to send my son Jesus into this world to die for your sins and to rise again, anyway. His grace is nothing about anything we do. It’s a free gift. It’s not at all about us being lovable. Ephesians two says this so beautifully,

Indeed, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

God’s love, true love, has nothing to do with how lovable you are.

I think maybe I fall back in wanting to be lovable because since sin came into this world, what, what do we do? We try to do things our own way, gain wisdom, our own way. Even, you know, think about the temptation in the garden of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The temptation was that they would be like God, knowing good and evil. The ironic thing was that when God created humanity, how does scripture describe humanity? That they were created in the image and likeness of God. They already were like God in many ways.

Sin was getting them to try to get what they already had. And do it their own way. And trying to be lovable, being caught up with being lovable is the same thing.

You don’t have to earn love. You can’t. Love, by definition, true love is something freely given. It has nothing to do with you. You don’t have to try to be lovable today. I mean, go be lovable. Be nice to people in your life. Don’t get me wrong, but not to be loved. You already are. It’s a free gift. God’s grace. God’s love for you. You are loved.

Job 42:7

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Are you forcing answers that are too small for the big questions that you have? That happened to me. I’ve had a few seasons of my life, a pretty heavy doubt when it comes to God, and it actually started because I was really good at answering questions about God. But then when I got to where there were questions that I didn’t have the answers to, then I started to struggle. What was happening? I was depending too much on my own ability to answer these questions. But then God worked in my mind, in my heart, and I started to get some pretty good answers to the questions I had. And I started to feel better. But then my later kind of seasons of doubt started to arise. Partly because I started to get this sense that my answers I had come up with were a bit too small. They didn’t fully answer the question. So then I was back to, okay, what do I do now?

But I’ve come to really realize that God doesn’t want us to force answers. There’s something else he would have us do. Where I can see this, now, there’s this interesting part of the story with Job that doesn’t get talked about as much, but it’s really significant. Quick review: Job is a righteous, faithful man. He’s devoted to God. Loves God and he’s blessing these wonderful ways. Then Satan comes before God and God’s like, have you noticed my servant Job? And Satan’s just like, well, it’s because his life is good. And you take these things away, he’s going to curse you and he’s going to turn against you. And so then God allows Satan to inflict him into these different things. Well, actually, it starts with him losing a lot, including his kids, and then allows him to inflict his body and all these terrible things happen, and Job just loses basically everything.

And he has these friends that come and talk to him. And at first they just sit and grieve with him, which is great. But then they start coming up with potential reasons why this happened. And basically the conclusion of most of them is God is just so God wouldn’t allow this to happen if you hadn’t done something wrong, Job. So they basically accused Job of doing bad stuff, and Job maintains his innocence. He’s like, no, I didn’t do anything to deserve this. And there’s this back and forth and back and forth. And some of the time, Job really honors God. But there are other times where he seems to really be questioning God’s justice, too. He’s on this kind of roller coaster of emotions. But then towards the end, we get this really wild picture where God comes to Job and takes Job basically on a virtual tour of the universe and shows Job all these things that are beyond Job’s understanding. Job, do you know how all of this stuff works? No. You don’t. But I do. Job, I a, I’m good at being God. Is basically what God shows Job.

There are all these things in this world you don’t understand how they work, but they work. And you can trust it. I’m working in this too. So that’s kind of the big picture of the story of Job. But here’s the interesting thing is, is in Job 42, after he had spoken to Job, he speaks against Job’s friend Eliphaz, and he says,

“My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” (Job 42:7)

Now Job had said some pretty strong things towards God. And here God says, hey other friends, you didn’t speak right about me like Job did.

So what’s going on there? Well, remember, Job’s friends had reached a conclusion of what they thought must have been happening. They forced answers that were too small. And what Job did instead was Job was brutally honest with God about how he’s feeling, what’s going on? He came to God and he wrestled with God, said some things that are pretty strong, but he didn’t reach the same kind of small conclusions that they did. And it makes me realize that, yes, we have a tendency to try to reach answers that are forced, and it’s probably because we think we should be able to understand God and wrap our heads around these things. Which is really ridiculous when you think about it.

Whenever we realize that we’ve had that tendency to try to wrap our heads around God, we need to lay those sins at the cross, know that we are forgiven. Jesus died for you and rose again. Your guilt is removed. You’re right before God and now you are free to not force too small answers. But to be honest with God about your big questions. He may give you answers, or he may be like he did with Job and say, you know what? This is too big for you. And that’s okay. There may be some things that are beyond you. There may be some answers that he gives you, but don’t force the small stuff. Come and be honest and embrace the forgiveness and new life and the bigness of your big, beautiful, amazing God.

Genesis 1:2

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God has built a training into how life works into every moment of your day. This occurred to me recently, and it occurred while I was studying the Holy Spirit, and that the word that is translated spirit in the Old Testament in the original language is this word ruach. Hebrew is a really fun language. You get to clear your throat all the time. Ruach. You say it with me, Ruach. And it’s a word that literally means spirit or means breath or wind. And so you have this beautiful picture in Genesis one of the Spirit, the ruach of God, the breath of God, hovering, and actually that word too describes like a bird hovers. So here we get this beautiful already an image of the Holy Spirit right there, over the waters. And the breath of God as it’s breathed out is what’s there kind of stirring things up and getting creation started.

So as I was thinking about the breath of God, I realized, what do we have to do each moment of our lives? We have to breathe in.

We won’t live if we don’t breathe in this breath that comes from outside of us. If you hold your breath and try to do it yourself, you don’t get very far. We can’t manufacture breath in and of ourselves. Our very existence is dependent on breathing in something from outside of us. God’s training us every moment that we have to receive life from him. Isn’t it foolish, then, that we have this idea, this tendency to try to do it on our own? But that’s what sin is. Sin is trying to do life to live your own way instead of God’s way, acting like we’re God, not him. That’s what happened with Adam and Eve in the garden. That’s what we do again and again today. I’m going to live life my way. But really, that’s just holding our breath. And while it might work for a bit, it only gets us so far. Doing life for our own way, living like we’re God, it’s a path towards not just sin, but also death and eternity separated from God.

But we have a loving God who has made a way for us to breathe in life again. Jesus came, lived, and died and rose again. He has taken away your sin, your guilt, your shame, everything that separated you from God. He defeated death itself to give you life again. And now the Holy Spirit, the Ruach of God, has breathed new life into you. Spiritual life, the ability to believe in God again, to have life from him again. And he’s even built into our daily life as Christians a new way for us to really practice and exercise this. When you take the Lord’s Supper, the bread and the wine with it, you get the body and blood of Christ. What do you have? The life of God. You are taking it into yourself again.

So today, breathe in. Breathe out.

Think about your breathing. Not too hard, that’s when breathing gets weird. Is when we think too hard about our breathing. But just think about the fact that every moment you have to take in something from outside of yourself. And that’s something, is the life that God has given you. And God today has given you new life through the death and resurrection of His Son, and by the work of the Spirit. So breathe in this life that comes from God, today.

2 Corinthians 1:9-10, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

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I realized it was too big for me and it was incredibly liberating.

Recently, there was some just heavy things going on in my world and in my life, and I just realized that I don’t have the wisdom for this. I don’t know how to work this all out. I don’t have the strength in and of myself. And yet I was also confident God was calling me to to serve in this way. So if God is calling us to do things that are bigger than us, that must mean God’s going to provide what we need to do those things, right? At least that’s the reasoning I had. And the more I thought about it, the more I thought, I think that, I think that works.

And part of the reason why I thought that, it has to do with what Paul says in Second Corinthians chapter one. He talks about the challenges they had. And he said,

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. (2 Corinthians 1:9-10)

See, God often uses those moments where we realize it’s so clear that we don’t have the strength to show us that we are not the source of the strength. I mean, the whole way this is all set up is that we were created to eat from the tree of life, in the beginning, humanity was. To receive life from God. And where everything went wrong is when Adam and Eve that they did what looked right in their own eyes and they tried to take what was good and seek wisdom and things their own way. God is again and again teaching us that it’s not for us to try to do it ourselves. We were meant to receive from him. And the message of the gospel starts with the law that we cannot set ourselves right with God. We have it in our hearts. We know we were meant for something to live a certain way, and we don’t do it. We can’t by ourselves. And so we need a Savior to do what we can never do for ourselves. Jesus lived the life we were meant to live. The life you were meant to live, died for your sins, and rose again to give you what you can never achieve yourself. It is simply a gift. It’s something given to you that you can’t do yourself.

And so whenever we are reminded that we don’t have the strength for this, good! Because it points us back to his, or like Paul says later in Second Corinthians, the Lord said to him,

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

It’s so liberating to come to the end of our own strength, because then we can be free of trying to be strong enough. We can then really begin to experience and embrace the strength of God. That’s what the gospel does. It frees us from trying to be good enough for God. You can know that Jesus was good enough for you, then every time in this life, whenever we come to the end of ourselves, we get to more fully embrace that we are in his hands, that Jesus has died. He has risen again, that we have life with him for eternity. And it’s all because of what he has done, and he is the one who will provide for us every step of the way today.

Romans 5:8

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Your ‘but’ matters. The word ‘but’ matters.

I can’t tell you how many times I will be talking with fellow Christians who are sharing a challenging time. Things are difficult and so they need encouragement and then I will share encouragement with them. I’ll remind them what Jesus says. Things like, don’t worry about tomorrow, but how you can cast your anxiety on him about how God sees you through Jesus. And they will often say, yes, I know that, but this is still going to be really challenging. But what about this thing? But… I will remind them of God’s truth, and then they sneak this little but in there that immediately turns away from the truth that we just talked about, and goes either right back to the source of anxiety, or right back to their shame, or right back to trying to prove they’re good enough. And that but, that kind of but is a problem.

It’s a problem because it shifts us away from God’s truth, but also because it really positions us or postures us as if our but actually has more weight than God’s Word.

Like what you see with your eyes actually means more than what God says in His Word. What you’re experiencing in your life is more significant than what God says in His Word. And that’s a problem. That’s something we need to lay before God and confess before him what you see, what you feel, what you’re experiencing, as significant as that all is, it is not, it does not have more weight than the words of the God of the universe. So lay that sin before the cross. And when you do, then you can shift to a better but.

I think of when we get to Romans chapter five and verse eight where it says,

BUT God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

But God. That but is the but that changes everything. You realize you’ve sinned. You realize that you’ve put your own experience over God. Okay, but God. But God sent his son Jesus, who died for you. You don’t know how tomorrow is going to work out. You are worrying about what’s ahead, but God has it all in his hands. You are stressed out about the past. You are worrying about your shame and your guilt. But God says that you are washed. You are clothed with Christ and that’s how he sees you. You say, yeah, but I don’t feel that way. But God doesn’t base it on your feelings. He bases it on what his son has done for you.

This but God changes everything, which is why, and I don’t know how well you can see it, actually, my PopSocket on my phone has those two words. But God. Because anytime you find yourself stuck in sin and doubt. Doubting your relationship, your life with God, your fear of the future, these two words, but God can make all the difference when they are followed by something from God’s Word. The good news of the gospel. Hope for the future. What God says about you. Whatever is going on in your life, remember, but God.

John 6:4-7, Matthew 5:48

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Loaves and fish. I give that phrase, I’ve answered that phrase to people several times recently who have been asking about, how are you going to get through all the things that you have going on this year, or how have you? This last year for me has been crazy. Maybe you can relate, but I’ve just had a number of things, many things that have been very challenging situations, difficult ones personally, but then also very just ones that have a lot of responsibility and are big tasks. And people have said, how do you keep getting through that? What how do you feel about this? And I just keep answering loaves and fish and here’s why.

I think about when we’re told in John chapter six that

The Jewish Passover Festival was near. When Jesus looked up and saw a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?” But Jesus was saying this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii[a] worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to have just a little.” (John 6:4-7)

What I love is that Jesus asks Philip, where are we going to get bread for all these people, knowing full well that what’s going to happen next is what we call the feeding of the 5000. Jesus knows he’s going to multiply just a few loaves of bread and some fish to feed the 5000. When he asks Philip to do this, Jesus is not expecting Philip to be the source. He’s not expecting Philip to come up with this on his own. The whole point was to drive Philip and the rest of his disciples to look to him. Jesus did not ask his disciples to feed these 5000 and then expect them to do it themselves. Jesus said, hey, how are you going to feed them, knowing that they would need to look to him and he would provide.

And that’s why I keep saying loaves and fish, these things that have been in front of me this year and are continuing to be in front of me. How are you going to get through them? Loaves and fish. If God has put this in front of me and called me to do it, I know he’s not saying, now, Nate, you have to figure out how to get it all done. You have to muster up the strength. That’s not how God works. It’s not how the gospel works. These different life experiences like this where we have to depend on Christ, are all little exercises and reminders of how the gospel really works. Well, God, he does say, be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect, (Matthew 5:48) but as sinful people, God knows we are not going to be perfect.

He knows, though, that he had a way and has a way for us to be made perfect before him again. And that way is that Jesus came into this world to be everything you and I were created to be, but aren’t. He was perfect for us. He laid down his life and died for you, and rose again for you, so that through faith in him you could be right with God. When you are baptized into Christ, you are clothed with Jesus. And Jesus is God. Which means then that when God looks at you, he sees you through God. He provides what you need to be right with him. This is how your relationship with God works. And every time that you face a time where you are reminded, ah, I, I don’t have the capacity. I can’t do it. I need to look to him. It’s a little reminder, a little exercise, that yes, this is how our life with God works.

Loaves and fish. God doesn’t look to us to do it for him. We get to look to him and trust in him always. How are we going to get through this? The same way that we’re right with God looking to him, trusting him. Just bring your loaves and fish.

1 John 4:8, John 3:16

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So how do I love this little one? Earlier this year, there was a child who came into my life and I had the opportunity to show love to this little one, and I found myself asking myself, where do I draw from to really love this child? I don’t have any history with this child. I don’t have a biological connection to this child. And sometimes loving this child is going to be challenging. So where do I draw from? And asking that question made me realize that many times when it comes to the people in my life, I draw from good experiences. You know, or natural connection I have, you know, my biological daughter, you know she is my daughter, right? She came from my wife and me and, and I have many wonderful moments with her, my wife, obviously, it gives me many reasons to love her. But what about someone that you don’t have any of that connection or that history with? And I really realized that my source needed to be God, that he is love and that he is the source of love.

The scriptures say it right? God is love. (1 John 4:8) And I realize, first of all, that our God, that our God loves us, that he loves me, and then also that this little one I was looking at is a little one that was created by God. Loved by God, who Jesus died for, and rose again and paid for all of his sins. So that this little one could be right with him too, and made me realize where the source for real love is. It’s not experiences we have with someone, it’s not a prior connection. The real source for love is God, and it also made me realize all the more what grace is. We talk about grace as being God’s undeserved love, right? It’s not based on anything someone does on someone deserving it. It’s completely a free gift.

And that’s what our God gives to us when he loves us. He doesn’t love you because you’ve been good enough. He doesn’t love you because there’s some sort of special thing that earns it for him. It’s not even that Jesus, like, makes God the Father love you. I mean, John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. It started with love, and that’s why he sent Jesus. That’s why Jesus came. God loves because he loves.

So today, if you are struggling to feel loved or if you are struggling with your guilt, know this that God loves you simply because he loves you. Jesus came and died for you simply because he loves you. He rose again to set you right with him. What’s his basis for love? Him. That’s who he is. That’s what he does. And that’s how you can know today that you are loved.

Ephesians 3:20-21

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Are you placing limits on what you think God can do in you, through you, and in the world around you?

I asked that question because in Ephesians chapter three, in verses 20 to 21, God through Paul says,

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Did you catch that? For now, to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. God can do more than we ever imagine, but do we live with that kind of boldness or that kind of audacity, if you will, that God can do more through me than I could even imagine? I know for me, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I’m like, okay, I don’t, I don’t dream big, if you will. I don’t have this openness to huh, I wonder what God can do.

But I also wonder sometimes if the limits we place on ourselves come from us having our own idea of what “more” looks like. I mean, maybe we think more has to be, you know, God bringing thousands of people to faith and doing all this really big seeming work. But what if more is simply the fact that God has taken your heart and mind, and Scripture says that previous to believing in Jesus, prior to that, we were hostile to God, enemies of God. And what if the more is the fact that God has taken us who were enemies and he has reconciled us to himself, he has given us new hearts. He’s given us this faith where now we actually believe in him and know that Jesus has died for us and risen again to give us life with him. What if the more is the fact that you are now able to share that same gospel with that child sitting in your lap with those kids on the couch, you’re able to share the hope of eternal life with a grandparent who is aging and maybe leaving this world soon. What if the more is that one conversation with a young adult who is struggling and you’re the the lifeline that God uses to give them the good news that they need? What if the more is the fact that that conversation turned into them, sharing conversations then turned into another conversation that turned into another conversation. And the gospel has spread in ways that you aren’t even aware.

What if the reason why we have limits is because we think the more has to be this big, clear thing, when really the more is more than we even imagine or different than we can imagine? You know, the people in Jesus’s day never thought that the more that God was doing would come through Jesus dying and rising again. And yet that’s how he overcame your sin and mine. That’s how he overcomes the world. That’s how he gives us eternal life. And that same God who worked the more in that surprising way then, and that same God who still gives us that, that hope of more in this surprising way today, is still working more in surprising ways for us now. So let’s take the limits off. Let’s embrace and think about today. I wonder what he’s up to, because he can do more than we could possibly ask or imagine.

1 John 4:10, 1 Corinthians 2:10-12

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What’s the most dangerous letter in the alphabet for a Christian? I think it’s the letter I.

Sometimes in confirmation class, I will ask my students how do you know you’re right with God? How do you know? How can you be confident that you have eternal life with him? And they will say, well, I believe in him. I would say, I believe in Jesus. And then they often go on and say, and I pray, and I try to do all these things. And while saying, I believe in Jesus is in the right direction, the way they say it, and especially how they then go on to say, well, then I pray and I try to do what God wants. I start to realize there’s an issue with that letter, that one letter word I.

So quickly, even when talking about believing in Jesus, we can turn our focus to the fact that I believe. We can start to make it. About what I do. As if faith is some power I have. And so I tell them you’re in the right direction, but you know what? Just cut the “I” out of there. Just take it, take it out. How are you right with God? Jesus died for me. How do you have faith? The Holy Spirit gave it to me. Take the “I” out.

I mean, after all, 1 John 4:10 says this. It says

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

So Jesus is the payment. That word propitiation, I know it’s a fancy word, but it’s Jesus laid down his life to die for your sins and mine. He covers our sins so we could be at one with God, restored, redeemed. Our sins, separated us from God. There’s nothing we could do to set ourselves right with God. Jesus did it all. I had nothing to do with earning that. It’s all about Jesus.

And now even the faith that we have. First Corinthians 2:10-12 talks about these things God has revealed to us.

These are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. (1 Corinthians 2:10-12)

How do you know the things of God? How do you believe? It’s because the Holy Spirit has given you the gift of faith. He has given you a new heart and opened you up to a new mind to really believe the things of God. So now, as a Christian, yes, do I take hold of my faith now that I’m brought to faith? Yes. But why not just take the word I out of it? Because I so often turns back to depending on me and it’s really all about him. God the Father’s love. Jesus’ is death and resurrection, his life for us, the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith. Take “I” out of it.