As God reveals Himself in His word and restores the knowledge of His character and will, it is His intention to lead us back to His immediate presence. “No one ever graduates from Bible study until he meets the author face to face” (E. T. Harris).
Nowhere, except in the very person of His Son, has God shown His glory any more than in His word. But we study the Scriptures drowsily and much of the wonder of God’s word is lost on us. We need to wake up and pay attention.
There is so much more of God than any of us have ever experienced, even in our moments of greatest maturity. His bounty is beyond what any of us have ever sought from Him. Let us have a grander vision of what there is yet to know about our great God.
We must be humbly willing to be used at God’s discretion. Can we not see that this is the only path toward peace for our souls? We can’t have peace without our God, and we can’t have God without His will. “In his will is our peace” (Dante Alighieri).
When we pray, we must seek more than some particular blessing from God; we must seek Him and whatever His will may be. True prayer is about learning to want what we should want. “Let not that happen which I wish, but that which is right.”
Most of our lives would profit from some serious simplification. We are over-committed and strung out. We try to do more than one person can do effectively. And the result ought to alarm us: we are at a disadvantage when it comes to the devil.
We preach the Prince of Peace, and it’s right that we emphasize the peace He wants to give us. But this Prince brought a sword (Matthew 10:34), and this sword must sever us from our self-righteous selves — a most disturbing thing indeed.
When the whole truth comes out, as it surely will eventually, are we absolutely sure that it will show us to be in the right? Self-honesty is not an easy thing for most of us, and it may turn out that we were the ones hiding from the truth.
The glory ahead will be out of all proportion to the often dull and unexciting affliction that will have produced it. We should not underestimate ourselves. The humdrum appearance of our lives often conceals the fact that something great is going on.
When we pillow our heads at night, we need to have things that give us peace. Many such things are available, but one of the best is the simple peace of knowing that we’ve done things that day that were not easy for us to do.
It is not the church building but the members of God’s spiritual family who make up His “house,” as made clear by the translation “household” in the ESV. This marvelous ...