I really like this passage I read this morning:

John 10:28-30
²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”

As someone who has been a Christian for a while, it’s easy to forget some of the most basic truths about my condition. It’s a beautiful reality that I have been given eternal life and that I will never perish. Additionally, I’m secure in the hands of God—He won’t let anything “snatch me out of [his] hand.”

Surely God loves us and surely he has blessed us greatly! Be thankful.

“⁵ Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
⁶ The LORD preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
⁷ Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.”

Let me just say that I love this passage. For me, so much of the time, I find myself really fighting to find joy in the Lord and rest in Him. It is always because I forget who God is, I forget who I am, and I forget, therefore, what my fitting response to these truths should be. This verse concisely points me toward the truth regarding those three areas.

1.) About God: Verse 5 reminds me that God is gracious: He shows me favor when I don’t deserve it; that God is righteous: He’s not going to harm me or try to abuse me somehow; and that God is merciful: He spares me the punishment that I deserve for falling short of his standard (Romans 3:22-24).

2.) About me: Verse 6 reminds me that God has preserved me and that he saved me. I know that I am not right on my own apart from Jesus Christ. This reminder is helpful for when I’m feeling proud or when I think I have it together. God saved me and I am therefore indebted to him–but it’s debt of gratitude. I can’t every begin, even, to pay it back.

3.) Response: The last verse is so beautiful to me because it shows us the fitting response to these truths. By nature I am a person who worries, so that makes this is even more helpful for me. This verse clearly reminds us to stop and rest in the Lord because he has shown us so much favor that we don’t have anything left to be concerned with. He has dealt very bountifully with me! The salvation of my soul, of course, being the most generous gift He could have ever given, but that’s really only the beginning of the blessings He’s shown.

Love the Lord today!

So, this morning in my quiet time I read 1 Thessalonians 1-2. I found this passage and really liked what it communicated about Paul + co.’s hearts as they were reaching out to and sharing with the Thessalonians. It says,

“For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. 5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. 7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.” (1 Thes. 2:3-8, ESV)

The things I thought were really cool are how, first, any appeal made to people for God should always only come out of love for God and a desire to please Him. It’s easy for me to get the focus on myself and end up “serving God” in a really self-serving way. That’s wrong.

Secondly, it is never okay to use any sort of deceit or trickery to convince people of the truth, nor is it okay to have ulterior motives in trying to communicate it. The gospel is powerful enough on it’s own, God’s spirit is powerful enough to communicate it without us twisting it.

Finally, the thing that is going to work in helping people understand God’s love, is simply being motivated by it ourselves. We need to be willing to, as the verse says, share the Gospel and even our entire lives with people so that they can know the love of Christ.