We were created to desire unity, but there is very little of it to be found in the present world. Here, the norm is enmity, not unity. We don’t have to look any further than the daily news (or in the mirror) to know that many things have gone awry.
When we suffer, we can be thankful not for the pain but for its result: a heart more joyously fixed on God. Slowly but surely, God is conforming us to His character. Sometimes with pleasure and sometimes with pain, He is teaching us what love is.
Defying the devil, let’s keep going. He would like to drown us in despair, but we can refuse that option decisively. When we’re hurting and the hurt seems nearly unbearable, we can take at least one more step. Our God is worth that and much more.
We aren’t told what the future holds. Our life’s journey may take us along any number of different routes, none of which we can predict or be prepared for. So no map is given to us, only a Compass, and we must be content to be guided by God.
Sometimes we are defeated by discouragement. But the great hope of the gospel is that, while life lasts, none of us is a lost cause. Our defeats need not be final. Our failures need not be fatal. Real change for the better is always possible.
Our problem is not a lack of ability but an unwillingness to hear. As an old maxim puts it, “The truth is not always what we want to hear.” And even when the problem is a lack of ability, that lack of ability may be the result of neglect on our part.
Falling backward is a habit we all have. So we need more than an improvement in our moods — we need to get a fresh grip on our commitments every day. Significant spiritual progress comes from the frequent remaking of our promises to God.
We need to pay more attention to the yearnings that tug at us. That nagging feeling that there must be something more to life than we’ve experienced is an important clue to the meaning of life. Without God our desires will always be insatiable.
God never asks us to trust Him without evidence. If there is something spiritually that we need to accept His word for, He never asks for that acceptance without having offered a sufficient guarantee in the physical realm that His word is dependable.
Like the artist whose every brush stroke says something about the artist himself, God has left evidence of Himself in the things He has made. The tokens of God’s glory in this world are beckoning us to another world, one with a far greater glory.
