Category: Good Life Journal

Scripture:

[26] Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. [27] Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
[28] Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
[29] Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

Observation:

Most of these people were searching after Jesus for the wrong reasons.  They wanted provision – the bread; They wanted an earthly king to stand up against the Romans and what better person than the one who was performing miracles.

As they are concerned about earthly provision and things, Jesus tells them they are wasting their time and effort.  Material things will disappear so they should be more concerned with the food that will give them eternal life.  That which can only come from Jesus Himself, the Son of Man.  That is, they should be way more concerned with spiritual things than worldly things.

They still didn’t get it though.  When they ask what work God requires of them to get what Jesus spoke of, He tells them simply that the only work is to believe in Him; that He was sent by God the Father; that He was sent with God the Father’s approval; that he was the Son of Man.  They needed to understand that it had nothing to do with works.

Application:

First comes faith in Jesus, knowing that He is Lord, then comes the process of sanctification – becoming more pure and becoming more like Him.  As our heart become more pure, our outward acts will show it.  Never is it the other way around, where our acts earn our way to eternity closer to Him.

Prayer:

Lord I love you.  Thank You for removing my heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh.  Thank You for my salvation and for knowing that you don’t hold my past sins against me.  Guide me with Your Spirit and help me to become more and more like you every passing day.  In Jesus mighty name I pray, Amen.

Scripture:  

“Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool (in Aramaic called Bethesda) which has five roofed colonnades.  In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.  One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time he said to him “Do you want to be healed?”  The sick man answered him “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up and, while I am going, another steps down before me.”

Jesus said to him “Get up, take your bed, and walk.”  And at once the man was healed and he took up his bed and walked.”  John 5:2-9a.

Observation:  

Sometimes there are things to pay attention to that may not be the stuff that is commonly talked about in Scripture.  “All scripture is profitable…” 

Application:  

If I pay attention the same general circumstances that John writes about Jesus is presented to me.

Not the waiting by the pool, or the supernatural stirring of waters to heal, but the circumstance in which the sick, the invalid, the blind, the lame, etc. come passing in my path.

I would like to say I jump up to meet the challenge of courage and faith to pray publicly for these folks like (in my mind) a disciple should. So, the full of faith guy that I am, what do I do?  Like the old song says: “Walk on by…”

The grocery store is my constant example.  A person in a wheelchair: I stopped to pray for that person once; I passed by three dozen or more wheelchairs or more since that time.  Broken arms/legs?  Silence.  Even sick folks in my house (my HOUSE)—aw, I prayed once; if I pray again is that lack of faith?  All the while the Spirit is saying to my spirit:  PRAY!!  So I toss up a half-hearted prayer and call it a successful obedience.  Oh yeah, like that prayer is holy and effectual…right.  Jesus is in heaven: “I see your lips moving but nothing is coming out, at least nothing I can hear…”

I used to heap condemnation like burning coals all over my head about what I considered failures of opportunity.  Then I started to understand the Doctrine of Sanctification: I am in a process of being changed by the Grace of God into becoming more mature, seasoned if you will.  I cooperate with the Holy Spirit in this transformation.  When I fail (and I will a lot of times) God doesn’t snap His fingers and say “Goodness, I thought he had it that time.  Well, back to the drawing board and let’s start again…”

I diminish God’s Glory and Character when I think like that.  He is omniscient: Of course He knows all of my life; there isn’t a place of my life that He isn’t aware of right now of all my days.  Being Eternal and Omniscient has some advantages that creatures like me do not have.

So what do I do?  Practice.  Practice where?  Practice in the places God has provided to learn in: the Home, instances of Fellowship, the Small Group, the gathering of the Church.  As much as I really don’t like the phrase, these “safe spaces” are Instruments of Grace that God has given to mature in.

Prayer:  

Lord Jesus, you have provided the Grace I need to address and accomplish what I have written above.  Lord, I don’t want to be a half-hearted disciple—I need You to help keep my nose to the grindstone all my days.  AMEN.

Scripture:

John 4:39-42– Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.”  So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word.  They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this indeed is the Savior of the world.”

Observation:

The Samaritan’s woman life was changed forever when she encountered the love of Jesus at the well.  Her response was to go back into her town and tell everyone about Jesus. Jesus takes the time and accepts the invitation of the Samaritans to stay with them.  Through that encounter/time many more believed and heard for themselves that Jesus is the savior of the world.

Application:

The radical love of the gospel is the most powerful thing in the world.  The woman came to the well thirsty, living in sin. She left changed having believed in Jesus as the savior.  My response needs to be that of the Samaritan woman. I must remember the love of the gospel when I first believed and share that with neighbors, colleagues, friends I encounter who are hurting and seeking hope that only Jesus can provide.  After sharing the gospel, then I have to take time to disciple people so they don’t just believe me, but they grow and know for themselves.

Prayer:

Father,

Thank you your love and truth in the gospel.  Let me be forever changed like the Samaritan woman at the well ready to tell others about Jesus.  Help prepare me to lead and disciple others for your glory.

Scripture: 

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already…Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. v17-18a, 36

Observation:

1. Jesus came to save.
2. If we believe in him we aren’t condemned.
3. If we don’t believe in him we are condemned.
4. Believe = Obey

Application:

There is no gray area for us. Sometimes, I think we feel as though there is this gray area with people & God, as though there are 3 types of people.

1. There are people who deny Christ and want nothing to do with him and they are actively choosing to live their own life how they want. These people have made a conscious, out loud, decision to choose their own way.
2. There are people who believe in Jesus, who are walking with him daily and therefore no longer condemned.
3. There are these people in the middle, good, nice people, who haven’t chosen to write God off but just haven’t decided one way or the other but they are pretty good people.

This passage shows us: The 3rd group doesn’t exist.

There are people who have believed in Jesus which means they are no longer condemned and there are those who are still condemned. See, we are are born in sin. Born, dead in sin, far from God, the Scriptures even say an enemy of God. Condemned before God, worthy of wrath.

But Jesus was sent on a rescue mission for his enemies. And those who believe, those who have been given the grace to believe, they are no longer condemned. As John 3 states, they no longer have the wrath remaining on them.

The 2nd part of this that I think is really powerful is the last verse of this chapter: “Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath remains.”

In the line right before Jesus states, “Whoever believes…” then states, “Whoever does not obey…” – What’s my point? Jesus sees believing and obeying as two sides of the same coin.

If we believe, then we obey.
If we obey, then we believe.

Our culture has created this sort of belief in Jesus that doesn’t obey. He is our Savior, but not our Lord. But the Bible is very clear: If your belief is not lived out action, you don’t have saving faith. If Jesus isn’t the King of your life, but simply some ticket into heaven, you have no hope. If he isn’t your treasure, he isn’t your salvation.

Yeah, but what if I pray a prayer?
What if I was baptized?

Saving faith is obedient faith. Saving faith = life change. I am not talking about perfectionism, but I am talking about a true salvation. If Jesus came to save you, what did he save you from? Just the punishment of sin, but not the sin itself?

Jesus comes to save us from sin, the punishment but more importantly, the presence & power of it. Run to Jesus & obey him, but remember, we only do this, we only truly begin to obey him by believing him and believing him when he says, “I will do this. I will create obedience in you.”

So we believe him, we hope in him, we have have faith in him, that he would create in us a new heart, a heart that truly obeys him. This doesn’t happen by raising your hand at the end of a service or walking down an aisle, it happens by daily looking to Jesus as the King of everything, the very reason you breathe.

Prayer:

I pray our body, myself, our family would believe this, would hope in nothing else but Christ & his finished work. I pray we would be a holy people. We would run from sin, hate sin, hope in you alone. Don’t let us settle for “belief” but give us a radical life change, that we would see Christ is all.

Scripture:  

The Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there.

And making a whip of cords he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen.  And he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.  And he told those who sold the pigeons “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”

His disciples remembered that it was written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”  John 2:13-17

Observation:  

Is the Gospel found in this passage?  Yes, yes it is found—but not in the practice of making a whip… 

Application:  

I am probably not alone in using this passage, spoken or not, as a justification for what I thought was “righteous anger and/or fury” about church stuff.  Scratch that: I KNOW I am not alone; I have been around various folks I know bitten with the same bug over the years.

Here is what I have found over my years: Zeal is not the same as Anger.  When Zeal is expressed as Anger somehow a line has been crossed where I should retreat from.  Does that mean I change “whip” to “wimp?”  Not at all.

I think the key to this passage is not the Sellers, it isn’t the Whip, it isn’t the violence of overturning tables and such—it is the House.

It is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me” or in other words zeal for the Church, the Body, the Elect, the Bride.  All of these are biblical synonyms of each other.  For sure zeal towards a physical house is wasted zeal.  Here’s why:

It is the Cross where Jesus’ zeal for his Father’s house is fully expressed; not in anger or in self-righteousness (where I would be) but in zealous, fierce, submission to the plan of the Gospel.  “I am so zealous for the Bride that I willingly become the final Sacrifice to atone for Sin—forever.”  Jesus took the full Fury of God’s Wrath meant for me—I don’t think about that enough.  I should–even though if I think only a little bit I can start to feel that crushing realization that the Innocent died for the Guilty…and how much I don’t deserve His Love for me.

Outward stuff is so temporary; it doesn’t have an Eternal footprint.  The Church has an eternal footprint—not the stuff I see and do but the stuff I yearn to become: The Image of the Son; A Royal Priesthood; the Body; the Bride of Christ.

I want the conviction of ‘zeal for His house’ to run through my veins, to occupy my mind.  Goodness, I wish it were as easy as that.  What it takes is a ‘nose to the grindstone’ approach to pursuing the Most High God all my days…

Prayer:  

O Holy Spirit, hear my prayer!!  Change my heart, O God.  Expose waywardness in me and help me to effectively repent.  AMEN.

Scripture:

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. v12,13

Observation:

Being a child of God is a right given to those who receive, & believe in the name of Jesus. These are people who are born by the will of God.

Application:

We miss this sometimes. We have, through faith, through grace, become children of God. Not just a friend of God, not just some person God is saving, but a child of God.

Before receiving him not a child of God.
Before believing in him not a child of God.

After believing in him, given the right to become a child of God. This is something we have become in our faith, which is a gift. God gives us this gift of faith, and by it we become children of God, heirs with Christ.

This is a powerful truth. Rest in it. Rest that you have, by believing in, not just professing, but by truly believing, you have become a child of God, something you weren’t before, and now the God of the universe will keep you and hold you and mold you and care for you.

If good parents know how to love their children, how much more the God of the universe? But, lest, we think that somehow this love of God, this becoming a child of God, gives you the keys to “your best life now”, let’s be reminded that good parents discipline, and love their children by giving them what they need, not want.

Sometimes my son can’t have a popsicle. He wants one, man, he really wants one. But I can’t. It isn’t for his good. I love him too much to give him this popsicle. Sometimes my son thinks I keep good things from him, but I don’t. He doesn’t realize. I want what’s best for him, not just what’s good for him, or what he wants.

Prayer:

I pray that we would see the joy of being your child. Give us eyes to see Lord.

Scripture:

Vs 1 Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
vs 2 Attend to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and I moan,
Vs 6 And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest;
Vs 7 … yes, I would wander far away;
Vs 12 it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him.
Vs 13 But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.
Vs 14 We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng.
Vs 16 But I call to God, and the Lord will save me.
Vs 17 … and he hears my voice.
Vs 18 He redeems my soul in safety from the battle that I wage,
Vs 22 Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you;
Vs 23 But I will trust in you.

Observation:

The Psalmist is deeply despondent over the fractured relationship of a dear loved one.
The Psalmist pleads continuously with God to console him.
The Psalmist shows no confidence in himself … he wants to run away and hide from his trouble.
The Psalmist shows no confidence in his adversary, former friend.

All confidence is in God … “the Lord will save me”!
And not only “save”, but so much more … “hear” and “redeem” and “sustain”.

While people are untrustworthy, the Lord is entirely trustworthy!

Application:

When I am troubled by relationships, particularly close relationships, what is my first response?
Is it to complain to the person directly? … Is it to moan to others around me?

David does, indeed, “complain” and “moan”, but interestingly he takes it directly to God from the beginning.

“Give ear to my prayer, O God! Hide not yourself from my plea!” David takes his complaints and moans to God in the form of prayer.

“How you doing?” is a popular introductory statement. “No complaints!” is a popular response … followed by “Nobody would listen if I had ‘em!”

Listening to David this morning, I think God wants to hear my complaints. I think God wants to know what’s troubling me. I know I always want to know if any of my kids are down about something … I want them to share it with me.

God wants me to share my plea with Him, as well.

God wants everything in my circumstances, particularly troubling circumstances, to draw me closer to Him! Because only He can save and redeem and sustain …. He is the one who provides ultimate mercy!

When I can’t trust others I may be burdened by …
and when I can’t even trust myself because I just want to run a hide from my problems …

I must “cast my burden on the Lord”! In Him I can trust.

Prayer:

Thank you, Father, for your word. Help me to trust You even when I can’t trust myself or others. Help me see to you and hear you. Help me to know you hear me. Help me to make my pleas first to You!

In Jesus name

Amen

Scripture:

v1-2, 10

[1] Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.

[2] Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

[10] Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Observation:

David was broken – he was at rock bottom
David was repenting – repenting of adultery and murder. You can’t get much worse.

He asked for forgiveness and mercy – mercy as great as the Lord’s unfailing love.
He asked the Lord to forget his sins ever happened and not hold them against him – to blot them out.

David asked to be totally cleansed of his sin.

Then, after all of that, he asked expectantly to have a new start – to have his heart replaced with a pure heart and a spirit within him that is unwavering toward the love of God.

Application:

This is Gospel in the OT

We should not label ourselves as sinners, and stop there. We should however recognize our human form and that our flesh is hardwired to sin.  We are hardwired to chase after worldly things like pride, money, power, or possessions.  David felt this and through his prayer we can see an important formula long before God sent His Son to die for us.

In our brokenness, first recognize our sin

Repent of our sin

Ask for forgiveness
Ask for mercy
Ask the Lord to forget our sin – blot it out
Ask to be cleansed of our sin
Ask for a pure heart filled with the Holy Spirit

Ask expectantly for all those things.

All we really need to do is recognize our sin, repent of it, and accept Jesus as our Savior.  Through His death. resurrection and grace the rest is free.

Don’t wait until you are at a rock bottom in your life.  I challenge all of us to recognize on a daily basis, that we are broken and to ask expectantly for forgiveness and mercy, to be cleansed of our sin, and to allow the Holy Spirit to fill us and guide us.

Prayer:

Lord let me recognize that I am a broken messy individual and that while I try not to be, I am victim to my flesh at times and sin against You.  Thank you Jesus for dying for  me; for justification and my salvation.  Thank You for the grace and mercy You pour out on me every day.  Help me keep my eyes and heart fixed on You and my heart filled with Your Spirit, leaving no room for Satan to interfere.  Amen

Scripture:  

“We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.  As your name (reaches to the ends of the earth), O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.

Walk around Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels that you may tell the next generation that THIS IS GOD, our God forever and ever.  He will guide us forever!”  Ps 48:10, 12-14

“These things you have done and I have been silent; you thought I was one like yourself.”  Ps 50:21

 Observation:  

Thinking well or thinking bad—there is a hairsbreadth of distance between these two polar opposites.  What is the difference between a good theologian and a bad theologian?  Not much if effort is not applied to being a disciple…

Application:

Thinking. 

It is tough to train my noggin to think.  Usually what constitutes thinking is acknowledging that my mind wanders….a lot.  “What are you staring off into space about, honey?”  “I don’t know, just letting my mind wander…” or, “Not thinking about anything special, dear…”

Make no mistake; thinking is an exercise to train myself to do especially if I want to think about God.  There are so many things that oozes through my gray matter on my shoulders that has me think about anything else BUT God. 

But if I don’t think about God, if I don’t meditate (think a lot and think hard) about His Word (precepts, principles, doctrine, law), how do I get to a place where His steadfast love overwhelms me and the praise He is due is found in my mouth?  If I don’t THINK hard about God, am I only underwhelmed or less?

There are three things that are directly related to thinking: 1) Praise and affection to and of God; 2) Effectual storytelling about the magnificence and majesty of God to the next generation; 3) A lowering of respect towards God (“…you thought I was one like yourself…”

At the risk of coining another inadequate phrase I neglect the “Power of Godly Pondering” quite a bit.  But I shouldn’t.

Storing up the Word in my heart is not limited to memorization; it is thinking about, turning over in my mind, and imagining “what does He mean” here and there?  It is chatting about it with friends, not shifting into Christian or Church gear, but making such thinking a reflex of my mind all the time.  It is the ability and conviction to apply that profound theological statement “I don’t know” and ask God to reveal the substance in His time and be patient for Him to answer.

Being a disciple in name only is not enough.  Like asking for the directions of “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?  Answer? Practice, practice, practice.

Prayer:  

Lord God, I am amazed at what you are doing in me.  You give an Instrument of Grace to understand and reinforce your Ways: “I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned, unclean…How marvelous!  How wonderful! And my song shall ever be; How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior’s love for me…” (CH Gabriel/arr. Tomlin).  This is what I want the result of my pondering You to be.  AMEN

Scripture:

Psalm 46:10-11 – “Be still and know that I am God.  I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”  The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Observation:

Here the Psalmist is telling us we must be patient and recognize who God is and be fearful of God. This is a promise that God will be exalted among the nations and the earth.  The Lord is with us and He is our strength and refuge.

Application:

In our busy world jammed with technology I must take time to be apart from all the noise and seek God.  I need to be still, be in God’s word reach out to Him and prayer. Then I must make time to let the Spirit guide me to listen for His response.  God is in control and His name will be exalted among all the nations! My role is to share His love and gospel, disciple others knowing He is with me every step wherever I am lead.  Jesus is my source and my strength.

Prayer:

Father,

Thank you for sending Jesus to be our savior and our strength.  Help me to be still, seek and trust you. May I go without fear to disciple others to exalt you.

Scripture:

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. 42:5-6

Observation:

David has to wrestle, question, and push his heart back to God. He has a conversation with himself.

Application:

It is OK, good even, expected, that we feel sad, beat up, broken hearted, far from God. David actually had very good reason to be sad, but he constantly grabbed his heart in his hand and said, “Listen up, look at your God, He has you. He won’t let this end us.”

We do the same.

Wrestle your heart, point it, peel the eyelids of your heart back and make it look at King Jesus and see that we have a really good, strong, mighty and for us sort of King. We have every reason to be filled with complete Joy, as we look to the one who is Joy himself.

Rejoice believer. Christ is King. Christ will always be King. He welcomes you into his presence.

Prayer:

Give us the words to wrestle with our heart, that we would see you as you are meant to be seen, that our joy would be complete and our lives full because of who you are. Be with us. Be our peace. Be real to us Lord!

Scripture:

I said: “I will guard my ways that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle so long as the wicked are in my presence.”

I was mute and silent, I held my peace to no avail and my distress grew worse.  My heart became hot within me.  As I mused, the fire burned…then I spoke with my tongue…

Observation:  

Mouth.  Tongue.  Untamed.  A restless evil: So says James.  So did David way before him…and it is still the same today.

Application:

Matt 12:34 “You brood of vipers! How can you speak good when you are evil?  For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

Many moons ago I was taught this invaluable fact: Whatever comes out of my mouth is directly related (correlates or is equal) to what is in my heart; that is, if my mouth speaks a curse word it is because cursing flows through my heart like an undammed river.

I have tried to side step the enormity of this implication.  “Oh, It only slips out every once in a while.”  “Sometimes I just can’t help it.” And the worse of all: “It’s a habit and doesn’t really hurt anyone.  It has become a societal norm (Everyone does it…).”

Jesus told us that if I think sin it is the SAME as doing it…not as bad as; it is the same.  As above: If I say sinful stuff guess where it came out of?  Yep: my heart.

David writes of trying to plug up that hole under his nose.  He tried and tried.  And eventually the guard fell, the barriers broke loose, the dam broke.

I have done that.  “Keep your trap shut!” I say often to myself.  But what I didn’t (and don’t) do was to tamp the fire down, thrown water on the burning embers of my heart.  “Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble” boils in the caldron of my inner being.

I have two choices: 1) Throw off the chains of righteousness that bind me and give full vent to the roaring of my heart.  This will make me “feel better”, “get it off my chest” so that I can start over.  Uh, huh…yep that is a holy response…Not!

Or: 2) Do like David did and review the doctrine of Man through the lens of the Gospel: “O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!…And now O Lord, for what do I wait?  My hope is in you.  Deliver me from my transgressions…” Ps 39:7-8a.

I am temporary on this earth.  I take my next breath by the Grace of God alone.

The first part of Ps 39 I think is a guy just like me who thinks that his thoughts are important thoughts and need to be spoken—spoken with all the fire and burning in my belly.  I think this reads like a description of self-righteousness.  Could be wrong I suppose…(shrug of my shoulders) I don’t think so though. 

Prayer:  

Lord Jesus, what can I do with my mouth?  I want apples of gold in settings of silver coming out of it but too often other stuff comes out.  Help me remember the benefits of the Gospel, the doctrines of Grace that remind me of my lowly estate that has been Redeemed.  I do not want to think too highly of myself.  Humble my tongue, O God.  AMEN

Scripture:

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. v4

The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand. v23-24

Observation:

When your delight (desire) is the Lord, he will give you your desires (delight). v4

When we delight in (desire) the Lord, he will establish our steps, and even when he establishes our steps, that doesn’t mean he will protect us from falling, or suffering, or hardship. He upholds us in the midst of it, but doesn’t keep us from it.

Application:

This passage in v4 has been misunderstood and poorly explained by many! Let’s take a closer look at what it actually means.

See, we usually take this to mean, that if we make God #1 in our lives, he will give us all the things we want. If I pay attention to God, and focus on him, then I will get that promotion. That bonus. That healing. That ___________.

But if you look closer what it is really meaning is when we delight in the Lord, when our deepest soul, our heart desires and delights and wants nothing but the Lord, Jesus, then and only then can we be confident that we will truly get what our soul desires: Jesus.

If we delight in Jesus, and Jesus fully, and Jesus only, and all other delights, our family, our whatever, are wrapped in our delight for Jesus, then and only then, will Jesus give us our desires, which is him. It doesn’t mean that if we tip our hat to him once a week that he will be like a really good vending machine of blessings.

So, go, delight in Jesus. Look at him, meditate on him and his gospel, set your eyes on him, wrestle your heart to see him as he truly is, delight in him, and he will show you himself. You will get him.

And when we do this, he will order our lives and our steps and carry us, but as he carries us, suffering, hardship, falling will happen, but take hope: he is still ordering your steps. Even in suffering and hardship, our God is Sovereign and good and working ALL THINGS, even hardship to his glory and our good, our best possible lives.

Your best life now feels like it should be easy and smooth sailing, but that isn’t true. Your best life is a life that in the midst of hardship and what not, that Jesus is with you and carrying you, and shaping you. That is your best life, even though some people (and pastors) would like to tell you otherwise.

Prayer:

Give us eyes to see what it means to delight in you, to hope in you, to run to you and want and desire only you.