“It’s amazing to think that God is faithful when we can appreciate it and when we have no idea. He isn’t faithful because we applaud or even value it, He is faithful because it’s in His character to be true. Always.
In my constant pursuit of Him and my chosen focus of prayerfully reflecting Him more and more as I mature, I pray I grow to be faithful to God when it’s applauded and when it’s not. I hope and pray I never receive “the applause of man’s appreciation” in my life as my limited reward. I want a way bigger one. I long to live for “well done good and faithful servant” from the Jesus I want to emulate Himself.
If the adage is true that you become where you aim, I’m setting my sights on home.” ~ Shelley Giglio

“Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭37:3‬ ‭

“If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.”
‭‭II Timothy‬ ‭2:13‬

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭3:13-14‬

Seventeen weeks – 119 days – from today is Election Day for President of the USA, along with the Senate and House of Representatives and others. I have an alarm set on my phone to pray for our country every night at 8:00 central time. I encourage you to do the same! I believe in the power of agreement together in prayer. Here is a prayer that I’m following, in case it would help you to pray for our election.
“Dear Lord, thank you that we live in a country where we are free to choose our governmental leaders. Enable us to see this election and the situation in our country from your perspective. Open our eyes to see that our enemy is not flesh and blood, but unseen forces in the spiritual world. We ask you in the power of the Holy Spirit to give victory to truth and righteousness, and silence and cut off evil and all its influences. May your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. Find us faithful to consistently pray, for if we don’t – who will? Give us strength to “not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Unify us as a country unto your glory. Thank you for having a plan for the ages that will not be sidetracked, no matter what we see or feel. Thank you for being faithful to who you are and to us your children, even as we are so inconsistent and faithless. Give us hearts to seek after you and your truth. We know you listen to and love the prayers of your people and we look forward expectantly to you answering our prayers according to your will. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Sometimes we need a reminder that God is going to come through for us. Many reading this today are facing giants which have never been conquered – mountains which have never been moved. It feels like you are drowning, or that you are being crushed under the heaviness of oppression. Things are happening beyond your control, and there seems no way out.

I have found that when we are confronted with fearful news, we have to respond with something more powerful. I want to commend to you the benefit of pondering the faithfulness of God. Here are just a few scriptures…

“But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.”
(‭‭II Thessalonians‬ ‭3:3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

“Your mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.”
(‭‭Psalms‬ ‭36:5‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

“Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.”
(‭‭Psalms‬ ‭37:3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

“Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides.”
(‭‭Psalms‬ ‭119:90‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

We cannot always trust ourselves, or our emotions in the midst of battle. But we can trust in God’s faithfulness, goodness, and mercy. We can hide in the pavillion of His faithful word, which is unshakeable and unchanging.

DON’T WAIT AROUND FOR FEELING OF FAITH AND HOPE, WE CANNOT DEPEND ON FEELINGS TO CARRY US THROUGH. Rather, stir yourself up, and stir your faith by speaking out the truth of God’s word and His faithfulness. Your faith will catch up, I promise you!
~ Kirk Henderson

The supreme surprise of God’s love is that it has nothing to do with you.

“God is love” the scripture says. God loves you because he is he. You don’t influence God’s love. Your actions don’t alter his devotion. Success signals God’s love no more than struggles indicate the lack of it.

When you feel unloved, take a trip to the cross and look at Jesus, cross-nailed and thorn-crowned. Choose God’s love. For the sake of your heart. The prayer is powerful and simple: “Lord, I receive your love. Nothing can separate me from your love.” Take a breath and descend so deeply into his love that you see nothing else. ~ Max Lucado

“May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.” Ephesians 3:17

“To hear with my heart,
To see with my soul,
To be guided by a hand I cannot hold,
To trust in a way that I cannot see,
That’s what faith must be.

When the universe fell from His fingertips,
He decided He wanted some fellowship.
But the man and the woman would not submit,
So He made a better way –
When the moment was right, He sent His own son,
And He opened the way so that everyone
Could have hope and believe that when time was done,
He’d be able to make us one.

Now I understand that there is a key:
It’s Jesus in me, a reality,
That God is in Christ, and that Christ’s in me,
That with faith I see what is unseen…

To hear with my heart,
To see with my soul,
To be guided by a hand I cannot hold,
To trust in a way that I cannot see,
That’s what faith must be!” ~ Michael Card

We’ve all heard the phrase “just let go and let God.” It’s easy to think that to live as a Christian we should just put our lives “in neutral” and let God work though us as he wants. And while it’s true that “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.”
‭‭(John‬ ‭15:5‬), in order to really live as He wants – and even commands – us we cannot be passive. We have to put our minds and hearts “into gear” to gain traction against the forces of this world and our own sinful nature. We must actively listen, trust and obey Him. Not to gain His approval but to fulfill the life He has for us here on earth. Over and over he tells us:

“Let us therefore MAKE EVERY EFFORT to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭14:19‬

“So then, dear friends… MAKE EVERY EFFORT to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him.” 2 Peter‬ ‭3:14‬ ‭

“MAKE EVERY EFFORT to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews‬ ‭12:14‬

“… MAKE EVERY EFFORT to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
‭‭2 Peter‬ ‭1:5-8‬

Let’s go actively advance the Kingdom today!

God answers the prayers of sinners, not perfect people.

In the version of the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11:2–4, Jesus says, “When you pray, say . . . ” and then in verse 4 he includes this petition, “and forgive us our sins.” So, if you connect the beginning of the prayer with the middle, what he says is, “Whenever you pray, say . . . forgive us our sins.”
I take this to mean that this should be as much a part of all our praying as, “Hallowed be your name.” Which means that Jesus assumes that we need to seek forgiveness virtually every time we pray.

We are simultaneously sinners – doing evil in His sight – and redeemed. We are gradually overcoming our evil by the power of the Holy Spirit. But our native corruption is not obliterated by conversion.

We are sinners… and if we recognize this sin, renounce it, fight it, and cling to the cross of Christ as our hope, then God will hear us and answer our prayers.”
~ John Piper

We’ve all heard the phrase “the truth is out there.” It was a tag line for the TV show “The X Files”. It was the title of an NCIS episode. But it is correct – there indeed is absolute truth. We all spend our lives searching for it in our own way. Which is fine, unless you are wasting your years chasing after it in the wrong places. You don’t want to climb a 1000 ft ladder, only to find it’s leaning against the wrong building! So it’s critical to know WHERE to find absolute truth. It is not found in “hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” Colossians‬ ‭2:8‬. Opinions and philosophies change with every blowing wind. Jesus Christ said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” (John 14:6. ) He does not change “like shifting shadows”. (James 1:17.) “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may KNOW that you have eternal life.”
(‭‭1 John‬ ‭5:13‬). The viability of Christianity stands upon this fundamental concept, that truth does indeed exist and we can know it.

It’s been said that the easiest thing in the world to do is join a church. Why? Because people perceive there’s nothing required of them. Even though joining a church does not make us a Christian, we have made Christianity out to be very similar. We want the blessings, the protection, the comfort – but not the commitment. Jesus told the woman, “Your sins are forgiven. GO AND SIN NO MORE.” He loves us unconditionally just as we are, just where we are in our life’s journey. But He loves us too much to leave us there. Following Jesus is life abundantly; anything else is death. Ravi Zacharias said, “I think the reason we sometimes have the false sense that God is so far away is because that is where we have put him. We have kept him at a distance, and then when we are in need and call on him in prayer, we wonder where he is. He is exactly where we left him.” “Come near to God and he will come near to you…”
‭‭James‬ ‭4:8‬ ‭

Michelangelo famously remarked, “I saw an angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” In other words, the ideal artist begins the painstaking process with the end already in sight and allows the future to exert its peculiar pull on her current efforts. Just like Michelangelo’s angel, our future is here, hidden in the marble of our lives, and awaiting the chisel. Though our purpose may not always be clear, if we nurture the discipline of careful reflection, what Frederick Buechner calls “listening to your life,” we will soon discover abundant clues about the future in the present. “How shall we picture the kingdom of God,” asks Jesus, “or by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade” (Mark 4:30-32). Significantly, Jesus’s parable reveals that there are no plants or trees without seeds, and there are no trees that weren’t once seeds. And according to Michelangelo, there is no angel without the slab of marble. This illustrates that the “newness of life” about which Paul speaks about in 2 Corinthians 5:17 is available to us here and now. By the Spirit’s power, we are now free to walk as members of a “new creation” set against the backdrop of a fallen world that is passing away as we speak. By the Spirit’s power, we are free to live as complete examples of what God is still bringing to completion, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in [us] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).
~ Ravi Zacharias