Our foolishness has worn us out. But God has made possible our return to Him, and it’s only in such a return that the prospect of real joy can spring to life. Here is where our homesick hearts should rest. Here is where we find a perfect Friend.
Real faith has no need to pretend or run away from difficulty. Faith embraces doubt with honesty, recognizing that troubling questions are inevitable in a world where our sins have hidden God’s face from us. Doubts are what make faith, faith.
Our response both to fear and to our ignorance should be simple reverence — reverence that is determined and decisive. Whatever may happen or not happen, whatever we may know or not know, we must always say, “Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.”
If we desire a truthful connection to God and to our surroundings, there will be for us a quite comfortable sense of genuine greatness: the pleasure of filling precisely the role God had in mind for us, within the larger scheme of His great creation.
Nothing will keep us away from God more than failing to forgive those who have wronged us. Jesus said, “If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” It is only the merciful who will receive mercy.
Even when we see the importance of seeking God, we often don’t see the importance of our motives in seeking Him. Yet this must be carefully considered. Why do we seek God? God’s blessings must be seen as furthering His purposes, not our own agenda.
Just as hardship builds character, it is also true that hardship demonstrates character that has already been built. And one of life’s most refreshing experiences is to see someone show unexpected dignity and strength in the face of pain.
Christ did not die to prevent us from being hurt, but to “release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” So we can drink any cup that life sets before us. Life has higher goals that the mere avoidance of pain.
The sorrow of the world is deadly because it indulges in self-justification. It fuels resentment and resistance to God. Like Cain, the self-pitying soul feels no genuine remorse for evil. He merely whines, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!”
The change we need is more radical than we can yet undergo; we must be willing to wait for our perfection in Christ. In the meantime, being a “new creation” in Christ requires that we accept, however painfully to our pride, what grace really means.
As the head, Christ is deeply concerned about the body’s healthy functioning. He died to make the church possible, and having done that, there is nothing He wouldn’t do to ...
Sacrifice is what shows the extent of love. Christ did more than say words of love concerning us; He gave Himself for us. So let’s celebrate Christ’s sacrifice. And let’s ...
In its universal sense, the church consists of those who have been saved by Christ. Sometimes, however, the church forgets that it has been saved — or even that it ...
Christ’s glory is closely related to the glory of His people. These people — broken and fallible, but forgiven and growing in holiness as they learn from their mistakes — ...
If we’re thinking rightly, we will drink in every bit of truth that God has shared with us about Himself, eagerly wanting not only to know it but to act ...
The godly sorrow that leads to repentance is critically important. It requires humility, certainly. But if we’re willing to bow before God in the honest recognition of our sins’ seriousness, ...
Although the apostles are no longer preaching in person, the foundation has been laid and the record stands firm. The gospel, as preached and confirmed by the apostles, is just ...
Here is the truth: we haven’t really been liberated or “saved” if, for all practical purposes, we continue to live in “Egypt.” God requires that we leave our chains behind, ...
Theoretically, a person might change his ways for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with God. Repentance, however, is the reformation of one’s self because of godly ...
When mankind rebelled against Him, God subjected the world to “futility” (Romans 8:20,21), preventing us from controlling everything we want to control. He lets us learn from the humbling experience ...
The fact is, we have to be taught what our greatest needs are. We think we know what these are, but our priorities can become dangerously disordered. We have to ...
Often our words serve the purpose of saying what we WANT to be true. Yet we need to be careful. Surrounded by other religious people, it’s easy to say nice ...