Check this verse out:

1 Peter 1:3-4

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.

First, it’s only by God’s great mercy that he has saved us. Without his mercy, we would all be left to pay for our own sin by ourselves in death. Yet, God so loved us that He gave His only Son, so that when we believe in Him we can have eternal life.

Because Christ died and was raised, as the verse says, we can have great expectation of good to come! Then this line rocks me: “We have a priceless inheritance–an inheritance that is kept in heave for [us], pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay[!]”

I have an inheritance in heaven! I have something great to look forward to there. Furthermore, it’s totally secure, not even I am able to lose it at this point.

To me this is a total power thought. When my circumstances day to day are not good, when I have a huge (and growing) list of things that I wish would change, and when I struggle to find hope in my circumstances I can rest knowing that God has things set for me in heaven. That powerfully gives me the strength to persevere through this life.

Praise the Lord today and be thankful to Him!

Bless.

Here are some reflections:

Psalm 32:1-2

1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

In verse 1, notice this isn’t a prescriptive statement (“things should be such”), but rather a descriptive statement (“this is how it is”). The reality is that anyone whose transgression has been forgiven, if they understand it, they can’t help but be blessed (literal translation could also be “happy”).

It’s good for me to read things like this regularly to remind myself that I have no excuse not to be happy. Regardless of my specific circumstances, if I have been forgiven my God, I ought to be happy. What else is so significant to detract from that? And, by the way, I’m not talking about joy, which some people say is an attitude you choose, I’m talking about pure, unadulterated happiness—like where you get giddy and goofy. We ought to be happy!

See, if we’ve been forgiven by God, we can face eternity with confidence because we know that it’s going to be good (we’ll be in heaven with God). If our eternity is secure, what temporary, earthly circumstance should bring us down? None should.

The second thought I had about this passage, is how in verse 2 it says, blessed are they “in whose spirit there is no deceit.” I was thinking about what this means. I think it refers to how we can now be totally honest with God. We don’t have to hide our sin, our crooked motivations, our wishy-washy hearts, etc from him. He already knows and he’s already forgiven us! What a beautiful reality! We don’t have to have any ingenuineness or any fakeness in our relationship with God. We can give him the real us and he wants the real us.

This is so different from our other relationships. I can’t even be totally real with my closest friends, at times. To know I can be totally real with God is a freeing truth and I love it.

The rest of the chapter is really good, too, but I’ll just share one more section. As I was reading, I was recognizing that this is God speaking to me. I’ve changed some wording to make it more personal in the end. I’ve noted it so you can tell where. I think this is beautiful when I recognize it is coming from my loving Father:

Psalm 32:8-11

8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
9 Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you.

10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in [Me].
11 Be glad [Me], and rejoice, O righteous [my son],
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

God loves us so much. He wants the best for us. He is the best for us, his children! The more we yield to him, follow him, love him, rejoice in him, rest in him, and find our value and identity in him—well, the happier and more fulfilled we become. We were designed for him.

If you know Christ today, you are blessed! Experience it!

Psalm 43:3-5 (NLT)

Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me
Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you live.
⁴ There I will go to the altar of God, to God—the source of all my joy.
I will praise you with my harp, O God, my God!
⁵ Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God!
I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!

I read these verses this morning and think they shed some light on stuff.

Psalm 89:15-17

“Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship, for they will walk in the light of your presence, LORD.
16 They rejoice all day long in your wonderful reputation. They exult in your righteousness.
17 You are their glorious strength. Our power is based on your favor.”

The idea here is that when we respond to the call to worship the LORD–when we WORSHIP Him, there is happiness and strength. In light of my experience, this resounds as true, but I often let my circumstances eclipse this truth.

I heard a message by John Piper a couple months ago that talked about (more or less) worship being the key to true mental health. How true that is. When our focus is set completely on ourselves, it’s hard not to get stressed, overwhelmed, depressed, confused, etc. because all we can see is ourselves: our needs, our problems, our strength (or lack thereof)… you get the idea. When we’re willing to let our focus shift off of ourselves and on to our glorious and merciful God whose loving-kindness never fails, whose power never ends, and whose wisdom is infinite… When we do this, we find freedom. It’s true freedom, though, which is not doing whatever we want, but rather being liberated from our own spiritual or moral to-do lists because we’re trusting God to take care of our needs.

Yeah, so it’s good here I think.

(For a little related goodness check out: Hebrews 1:9)

I read this passage this morning and I was really taken by it. I remember learning John 11:35 as a child and really enjoying how it was the shortest verse in the Bible or something like that. Because of my familiarity with the verse, I haven’t always given it a lot of thought.

Today, though, when I read it things were different. In context, a friend of Jesus’ died, Lazarus. His sisters, before his death, asked Jesus to come heal him. Jesus didn’t come immediately and he died. When Jesus does come, Martha (one of the sisters) comes to Jesus expresses her sorrow that her brother died and that Jesus wasn’t there.

Jesus tells her, though, that her brother will “rise again”. This is all before he arrives at the grave. So, going into this situation, Jesus, Martha, and Mary know that Lazarus is going to come back to life.

And herein lies what really hit me, Jesus, despite his knowledge of what will happen, still weeps with the people who are mourning Lazarus’ death. To me this just seems like such a huge expression of love and compassion. Even though Jesus knows that, in some ways, what they are going through is temporary and maybe not really significant (in light of his knowledge), he still loves them enough to meet them where they are at—in sorrow. Verse 36 indicates that Jesus’ love was very apparent.

After reading this verse this morning I am just really humbled and excited that I serve such a gracious and loving God. He has raised us all up to life, if we’ll accept His gift, then beyond that he loves us enough to simply meet us where we are at. Whether we’re in joy or sorrow, he is there right along with us; even though he knows enough (he knows all things work together for his good! Rom 8:28) to never necessarily need to feel with us, he does because he loves us.

I love Jesus!

This passage has been really cool for me in light of my current situation spiritually. Over the past few months, God has really been teaching me some good, but challenging lessons about relying on Him and not on people. It has been a hard lesson to learn because in order to teach me to go to Him, God really sort of took away or caused there to be distance in some of my most dear relationships. I prayed and asked Him to do this before it happened, yet, when it did, it was still very challenging.

There was some heartache and a lot of tears. But, now, as I am coming down the opposite side of this mountain, I can look back and see the blessings that come from being reliant on God alone. There is a stability in my life that wasn’t there before; there’s confidence, peace, joy, and overwhelming hope. All this, because I know my God wants me and wants to bless me in many ways.

I love this verse because it really puts well what I have been feeling for a while. God has changed my mourning into dancing, and he’s clothed me with gladness. I am so thankful and I desire greatly to give Him praise.

My God is an awesome God who is intimately involved in my life.
My God is a loving God who has given a great price to have me as His son.
My God has blessed me in far greater ways than I’ll ever fully understand. As I understand it some, though, I am in awe.
My God loves all people like He loves me. His arms are open wide for anyone to come to Him. He has, through the death of His Son, broken down the wall that separated humans from Him. Anyone who turns to Him and puts their faith in Him will be saved eternally.

John 3:16 Check it out.

As always, feel free to contact me if you have questions about what I write.

Reality is this: If we know the Lord as our Savior, we never have any reason to fear or to be discouraged. Let us rejoice in Him!