“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”  Matthew 7:13-14

When you think about what it means to live a Christian life, does it seem easy or hard to you?  We see people in church, and in small group settings, where what we see is often only a small glimmer of what is truly going on in those people’s life.  If we compared ourselves to what we see it may be discouraging.  It’s kind of like Facebook, where if you judged people’s lives by what you saw there, you would assume that everyone else were the happiest people, leading the most exciting lives.  It is a lie.  So is the idea that leading a Christian life is easy, or that people “have it together” more than anyone else.

My hope is that each of you belongs to a church and a small group of believers where the facade of perfection is removed.  Living as a Christian day to day is not easy.  If your life is easy, that’s usually a warning sign that you may have drifted from God.  We all struggle, we all have periods of doubts, and we all have brokenness in our lives.  The danger for us as Christians is to relax, and presume upon past belief in Jesus to sustain us.

Living life as a Christian we have one way to enter into God’s Kingdom – Jesus.  He is the narrow gate. Jesus says that He is the “Way”, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him.  (John 4:16).  So Jesus is how we enter into God’s Kingdom, and He is the way we are to walk until God calls us home.  What is the other option?  What is the wide gate and “easy” way?  Proverbs 14:12 – “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”

The reason living a Christian life is hard is because we are called to constantly put to death the sin that is in us.  Our self-will apart from God is the root of sin – pride.  God is calling us to a new way, a new path – He sees our future, He knows what is is good for us, He has demonstrated His love for us by dying for us, and He is simply saying “Trust me”.  We do this by forsaking what seems right to us, and instead we look to Jesus, we go to God in His Word and we submit ourselves to His will, entrusting ourselves to the love of God.  We get knocked around by life, we fall back, but we move forward in the power of God working in us.

My exhortation today is to consider what areas of your life you are not submitting to God.  What desires do you have that you are unwilling to let go of and entrust to God? What fears are keeping you from wanting to trust God there fully?   What has God shown you that would answer those fears, and allow you to trust Him more?  Take all of that to God in prayer, and know that you’re praying to a God to loves you deeply, and takes joy in you coming to Him as much as you want – all the time.  If you have entered by the narrow gate of Jesus into the Kingdom of God, continue following after Him, knowing that He will keep your foot from slipping from the way, even when it is hard.  Our promise is not that life will be easy, much the opposite – we are told it will be difficult.  Our comfort is that we are following a God who is sovereign, knows the beginning from the end, who loves us beyond understanding, and will walk with us, every step of the way.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

There has been a theme among my messages of late.  Love and forgiveness.  Today’s message is written heavily, as a warning for those who fail to root the love of God in their hearts, fail to forgive as they have been forgiven, and instead allow a root of bitterness to grow in their heart.  My hope is that God would pierce all of our hearts to see His love and forgiveness towards us, our sin against Him, and that would push out all anger and bitterness in our hearts.

Let’s begin by acknowledging that every one of us has been wronged by others.  Let’s also quickly move to say that we have also wronged others.  In this world, stained by sin, this will always be so to one degree or another.  Our natural response when someone sins against us is hurt and anger.  Something changes when you become a Christian and follow Jesus though.  We stop looking at people as people, and start recognizing there is a greater spiritual reality at work.

People sin against us, because they’re sinners – that’s what they are apart from Christ.  So for a non-believer to sin against us should come as no surprise to us.  Our heart for the non-believer who sins against us should be rooted in love and forgiveness.  We see their state apart from God, and in compassion we forgive them, asking God to grant them grace and mercy to believe on Him.  Their sin against us may even be the door God uses for the gospel to be preached (by us to them) about why we can forgive them, and may even be what God uses to save that person.  What an amazing story that would be!  I could tell you, there have been times when forgiving others has been difficult for me, but this is exactly what God accomplished.

What do we do with a believer sins against us?  This looks a bit different outwardly, but our heart is the same.  We first make sure that our own heart is rooted in love and forgiveness.  If you cannot confront someone in love, with a desire for their reconciliation to God, you need first to ask for God to move in your own heart to get you to that point.  Then you go to the brother or sister, with a heart rooted in love, patience, and kindness, and confront them with their sin directly.  If the brother or sister acknowledges their sin, then you are called to forgive as you have been forgiven.  Forgiveness is more than just saying “I forgive you”, it is at a heart level truly forgiving the person and releasing them to God, not holding their sin against them, and not gossiping to others about their sin.  Matthew 18:15-19 lays out this process in detail, including what to do if a believer does not acknowledge their sin.  The goal of forgiveness is two-fold, repentance/reconciliation to God for the offending believer, and healing for the offended believer.  Christians can look at their brother or sister in Christ and say in love, your sin is first against God, and because I care about you, I want to see you repent of sin that will bring dishonor to God and impede your relationship with Him.  Second, we can say in love, your sin hurt me, but Jesus died for my sin and your sin on the cross, and so we are not bound by our sin, we are new creations in Christ.  I love you, I forgive you, and my hope is for your renewed walk with Christ.

This is what should happen, and should happen more often than it does in the lives of believers.  So with that said, I now want to turn to the danger of not pursuing a heart of love and forgiveness towards others, and close with an encouragement to pursue forgiveness for past hurts where possible.

The Bible is very clear on what it means for someone to harbor anger and bitterness.  So my burden here is not to explain a lot of scripture, but to choose which passages to pull in because there are so many.

1 John 2:9 – “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.”

Ephesians 4:26 – “ Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷ and give no opportunity to the devil.”

Hebrews 12:14-15 – “ Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.¹⁵ See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;”

1 John 4:20 – “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

 

Matthew 5:21 – “²¹ “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ ²² But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment;”

God is always looking at our hearts.  Here many will try to play games and tell themselves – I’m not angry with someone, I just never want to talk to them or see them again.  Or others will say, “I forgive”, but yet still exhibit behaviors that betray that statement, by avoiding a person, speaking poorly of them, and not pursuing peace.  We all have done this, so my encouragement here is just to be honest with yourself.  It does you no good to play games with God – He knows your heart.  God loves you, and anger and bitterness will defile your heart, as any other sin.  Wanting to be gentle here, I would say that a heart that is rooted in God’s love and forgiveness for them cannot be at peace with anger and bitterness towards another person.  If you are at peace, God wants you to be pierced by the stark warnings above.

Some of you at this point may be thinking about a specific individual that has wronged you in unimaginable ways.  Your anger and bitterness towards this person may have been brewing for years without your seeking peace and reconciliation.  You may not know what it looks like to pursue forgiveness.  My encouragement for you is two-fold 1) Just talk to a pastor in your church and a group of strong believers you know about what that might look like 2) Pursuing peace and reconciliation does not necessarily mean the restoration of the relationship.  We are called to wisdom.  If a man abuses his children, we may be called to forgive and pursue peace, but we would never recommend immediately that the man be restored fully to a unsupervised relationship with his children.  Each situation is different, and hopefully a pastor and other Christians can offer wisdom in love for the specifics of each situation.

Christian, I know this message was long, and for many – challenging.  My hope is that you believe with me that God will never call us to something that is not good for us.  God is our healer and our comforter.  Confrontation, even rooted in love is seldom easy, but God is for us and with us.  We are called to reject anger and bitterness because of the gospel, and our participation in proclaiming the gospel with Jesus.  We remember that we forgive because we have been forgiven.  We know that at one time we lived apart from Christ, dead in our sins, and so we hope for salvation for the non-believer.  We know that believers are not defined by their sin, but by the righteousness of Christ, so we approach them in love and hope for restoration.  Keep running the race set before you.  Know that you are loved and prayed for.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

 

Following Jesus comes at a cost.  Everyone who has taken seriously the call of Jesus to follow Him; to walk in obedience, to love sacrificially, to leave the world behind and set their hope fully on Him, knows that there is a price to be paid.  It may be paid in comfort, it may be paid in lost friendships, or in a myriad of ways.

Paul was a man who was held in the highest of esteem in Jewish society.  He had risen within society to become a Pharisee, a respected religious leader among the Jewish people.  In most every way outwardly, his life was going well.

After Jesus called Paul, he lost everything.  In 2 Corinthians 11:24-27 Paul says of himself – “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; ²⁶ on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; ²⁷ in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.”

It was with this in mind that Paul tells us – Philippians 3:7-8 – “whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”

Following Christ will lead to suffering.  That may not sound like great news, but I’m going to shoot you straight – life will be hard sometimes – often, because we make the choice to follow God instead of what seems right in our own eyes.  Why do we do it?  Look at the verb tense of Paul’s words – “knowing”.  Often as Christians we consider the gospel as past tense rather than present and future.  For Paul, and for us, each day we are given the opportunity to know more of Christ, were true peace and joy can be found.  We give up everything, because we know God, and believe Him to be the source of a greater joy than what the world can offer.  We eagerly participate in this life in the power of the Spirit of God that indwells us, walking the works He has for us daily, looking forward to the day when our faith becomes sight, the partial becomes full.  The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us.

God loves you and is for you – keep running strong towards Him today.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

What are we living for?  This world is broken.  We are surrounded by evil, and even have to battle evil in our own flesh daily.  As Christians, we are united in Christ to God and each other, through faith in the gospel.  We are not living for the next 50 years, but the next 50,000,000 – looking to eternity with Christ, where our hope is found.  With that in mind, I want to revisit a message I wrote about a week ago about forgiveness.  Today is somewhat of a part 2 to that message.

I want to state up front that forgiveness and reconciliation is seldom easy.  Someone has wronged us.  We naturally will feel hurt and angry.  Often trust has been broken in some regard.  So what do we do?  Do we lash out in anger?  Do we cut ties with the person who wronged us?  Why does God call us to forgive and reconcile?  Why is this called out in scripture as particularly glorifying to God?

Ephesians 4:30-5:2 – “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. ³² Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.  Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. ² And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

A few quick observations

1. as Christians, it grieves the Holy Spirit of God in us, when we hold onto anger and bitterness.
2. We’re called to forgive because we’re forgiven by God in Christ
3. In being kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving we’re imitating God
4. We’re called to “walk in love” (ongoing) in forgiveness, as Christ loved us
5. The love of Christ we’re called to is giving up of ourselves (sacrificial)

The foundation of our ability to forgive is Christ.  If the Holy Spirit of God is not in us, it will be impossible to forgive like God calls us to, because it is a type of sacrificial forgiveness that in our flesh we would never seek after.  We forgive not only because we are called to, but that in so doing, we ourselves are seeking the glory of Jesus as imitators of Him.  We seek Christ in our hearts of kindness, tenderness, and forgiveness so that those who we forgive would marvel at our forgiveness and themselves be pointed to the source of forgiveness, Jesus.

This is what we’re here for.  We live not to ourselves, but unto God who ransomed us from death to life through His blood.  Our God sacrificed His honor to be stripped naked, spat upon, tortured, and killed in order that we would be forgiven, and reconciled to God.  When we are wronged (and it will happen often in this broken world), put away the flesh’s desire for anger and bitterness, and instead put on hearts of humility, looking to Christ.  Let the love of God through forgiveness conquer sin both in our own hearts and in the hearts of our brothers and sisters.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

 

 

What does it mean to believe on Christ?  To have Christ in you?  What does that look like outwardly?  The scripture we’re going through today is Ephesians 3:17-4:3, and I believe God will give us understanding towards all of those questions.  This is a good chunk of scripture, but again, Ephesians is so rich and helpful, that I feel its worth our time to go through, and necessary to see the full picture of what God wants us to see here.

Ephesians 3:14-19 – For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶ that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Paul is praying to God that those in the Church of Ephesus would believe on Christ.  Faith to believe on Christ, and sustaining grace for Christ to be strengthened and formed in you, is only accomplished by the grace of God.  We should all be asking for God’s grace and mercy in like manner, for the love of Christ to made known to us and that our hearts would be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ.

Everything God does is from a heart of love.  “God is love”. (1 John 4:16)  “God demonstrates His love to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  (Rom 5:8)  How often do you meditate on God’s love towards you in Christ?  God knows our weaknesses – he knows every sin from our past, present, and future – every bit of our sin is an attack on the glory of our holy Creator God.  “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4-5)  Are you just aware of God’s love – like a fact to be known about someone, or has it truly rooted itself in your heart?  Is your heart grounded in the love of God?  Before I move on – let me just tell you, that the answer for all of us is at best “not fully” and perhaps at times “not at all”, and therefore, we all ought to be seeking God for that daily.  

Consider also that Paul ends by saying that if we are rooted and grounded in love, comprehending the depth of the love of Christ, we will be filled with all the fullness of God.  If you want to know what God’s will for your life is, there it is.  It’s not a job, it’s not where you live, it’s not what church you go to, it’s that Christ be formed in your heart, rooted and grounded in His love.  That is the spirit capable of living a life pleasing to God, overflowing His love to a broken world.

Ephesians 3:20-4:3 – “²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ² with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³ eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

How is Christ’s love formed in our hearts?  Paul gives us the answer by stating he is praying to God for this above, but also here again Paul restates that this is a work of God, His power at work within us.  You don’t grow in a heart for Christ by being a moral person, going to church, reading your bible, avoiding temptation, or any other outward means.  These are all good things, but unless God is at work in you, unless you call upon Him in humility and dependence to see Christ’s love and root that love in you, your heart will never change.  Those other things will be a burden because they are tasks rather than means of joy, participating in the love of God.

What does it look like to have a heart that is rooted and grounded in the love of Christ?  We have humble hearts, gentle, patient towards others.  We know our sin and failings, and the great love of Christ towards us apart from any merit of our own, and it undoes any form of pride in us.  We root that love in our hearts, so that we can display that love to others.  This isn’t always easy, but we know that the work is not ours to accomplish, but God, so we run to Him and ask for His grace to love as we have been loved.

I’m going to try to land the plane here.  My prayer for you, for me, and all is that we would know that height, the depth of the love of Christ, and have hearts that are rooted and grounded in that love.  Look to Jesus, ask God for grace to accomplish this by His power at work in you, and may it be said of us as Jesus proclaimed “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  (John 13:35)

You are loved and prayed for.

In Christ,

Adam

Ephesians 2:1-8 “you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

I wanted to put all of this passage because it is so rich in right theology and understanding of God’s love and grace, that I can’t help myself.  I need all of this Truth, every day, and I suspect it will likewise be an encouragement to you.

I want to touch on a part of this passage that I glossed over previously.  We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23), but this describes those people apart from Christ as “sons of disobedience”, following the prince of power of the air (Satan), and being controlled by the passions of their flesh and mind.

Three observations:

1. This is an ongoing spirit that is working in someone
2. Their sins are not just fleshly, but of the mind (to choose what is right in their own mind and not submit to God)
3. These people are described as sons of disobedience

In light of the latter part of this passage, and how we were rescued in love by God through Jesus, how should we as Christians understand our relationship with Him

1. We too have an ongoing spirit at work, but it is the Holy Spirit of God – Christ in us
2. We love and obey God not just with our bodies, but also with a humble mind that submits to God’s will (we trust God, even when we don’t understand because we know that God loves us and is for us)
3. We are called the adopted sons and daughters of God, fellow heirs of the Kingdom of God, with our King Jesus.

Brothers and Sisters, my encouragement today is to embrace the call of God in Jesus from a willing and humble spirit.  We are no longer sons of disobedience, but we have a Spirit of obedience, controlled by the love of Christ.  Our King, has secured our inheritance, and is faithful to work in us for our good and His glory until he calls us home.  Keep running the race set before you each day, in the grace God provides.  Know you’re loved and prayed for.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

Ephesians 1:7 – “In him (Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace”

Brothers and Sisters,

Every one of us are sinners.  We have been united with Christ, and the victory has been won, but there is still sin in our fleshly nature that has to be battled daily.  It is because of this truth, that we will need to forgive and be forgiven from others until Jesus calls us home.

How can we as Christians, be marked by the love of God in forgiveness?  As with everything else, it must be not just outward forgiveness, but accomplished at a heart level.  Simply – we forgive because we know we have been forgiven.  God is infinitely holy, and we sin against God to various degrees every moment of every day.  But God demonstrates His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8).  Christ forgave all our sin past, present, and future.  The magnitude of this forgiveness is beyond our comprehension.  It literally cost God His life on the cross to accomplish.

Do you feel the weight of God’s forgiveness towards you?  How often are you thankful towards God for His grace towards you?

If you do feel the weight of the forgiveness of God towards you, that should overflow into a heart of forgiveness towards others.  Is there someone you need to forgive?  Hebrews 12:14-15 gives us a warning – “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.  See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;” 

My exhortation today is this.  Root your heart in Christ’s forgiveness towards you.  Seek God, and seek to be at peace with others, demonstrating the glory of God in Christ.  It will be healing to you, and glorify our Savior.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

Galatians 5:6-7 – “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Christian, there is always a way among us who have been called as adopted sons and daughters of God.  We have the Spirit of God, Christ in us, to remind us of who God is, what He has done for us, and who we are in Him.  We also have flesh, stained by sin, that desires to draw us away from our hope in God, to pursue hope in the world (which always disappoints).

Walking by the Spirit is walking in the same humble, repentant heart of faith that united us to Christ in the beginning of our faith.  As our faith to believe was given by grace, a gift of God, so too must we ask for grace daily from God to sustain us.  As Christians, when we tell God “I’ve got this” or when we stop coming to Him for grace and mercy to believe and follow Him, we will ultimately turn from Him towards the desires of our flesh.  I could give countless personal examples, but my guess is I don’t have you – each of you no doubt can point to times in your life when you stopped coming to God daily, and you were led away by your own desires away from God, and if you are now following Him – God likely intervened in a powerful (probably painful) way to restore you in love.

My question for us all today is this – is your heart humble before God?  How often are you coming before God, just to acknowledge that you “can’t do it”?  How often are you asking for God’s grace and mercy on your life to trust Him and follow Him?  If this isn’t a daily practice, what is keeping you from acknowledging your need for God’s grace and mercy?

Be encouraged brothers and sisters, where there is hopelessness (in ourselves), there is great hope (in God).  Pray without ceasing – Your Heavenly Father loves you infinitely.  As you walk by the Spirit to please God, you will not gratify the desires of your flesh.  Light casts out darkness, and our God has already won the victory over sin.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

Galatians 1:10 – “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”  

This verse pierces me, because I see so many of my failings and my sin in it.  A great many of my outward sins have been rooted in a desire to be approved of or affirmed in some way, outside of God.  From times where I neglected relationships because I did not feel affirmed in them, to even desiring affirmation through ministry, this particular sin of the heart has been deceitful and destructive in my own life.

Why is seeking the approval of man a big deal?  Because at its core, it is a denial of the gospel and the goodness/all-sufficiency of God as our treasure.  In the gospel, Jesus takes all of our sin, and gives us His perfect righteousness.  In Christ, we are adopted as sons and daughters of the Living God, who looks down on us with perfect acceptance, affirmation, and love.  So at it’s core, the desire for seeking the approval of man is us telling God that He isn’t enough, and what He has accomplished for us isn’t true – that we need to add to it.  So we look for approval in the world through things and people instead of God.  This never works of course because things go away, and people are just sinners like us, so they will always let us down eventually.

How do we fight against this?  At every opportunity we seek the glory of Christ.  We eagerly acknowledge our weakness and struggles to ourselves and others, to show that in all things, if there is any good in us, it belongs not to us, but to Christ in us.  Lastly, we become forgetful people.  We forget ourselves and set our mind on Jesus, and His glory.  We remind ourselves that in God, through Jesus, we have been affirmed fully, and we proclaim that gospel message to our own heart and to others.

In what ways have you been seeking out the approval of others?  What does God say about How he feels about you in the gospel?  How does the truth of the gospel free you from the need for affirmation from others, and free you to pursue selflessly loving others?

I hope this message finds you well.  Know you are prayed for, and loved perfectly by our Father.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

Friends,

I hate sin.  I hate the lies that sin tells us that happiness is found apart from God.  I hate the brokenness that sin brings into relationships and the world.  I hate that sin does not glorify our Loving Father and Savior Jesus.  I hate sin and look forward to eternity without sin, but in this world, broken by sin, we will have grief.

Every lost opportunity, every broken relationship, every loss, comes with grief.  We have all felt it.  When grief comes, people will pursue healing.  They will do this in one of two ways, they will pursue healing by coming humbly before God, or they will pursue healing apart from God in the world.  For those how have experienced the comfort and healing God brings through times of grief, they know that the pain of grief can be a blessing towards something better.  In my own life, my greatest periods of growth in holiness and my pursuit of God (and therefore joy in my relationship with God) have always come during times of grief.

Ultimately, it comes down to this – God loves us too much to let us run after things that are going to keep us away from Him.  There are times when the most loving thing God can do is wreck our world so that we see that everything we were hoping in is a lie.  Only God can meet the desires of our heart.  We are not meant to walk each day under our own power, we’re meant to walk in the power of God’s Spirit, through the grace he provides to us each day.  God in His love will bring pain and grief from our sin and others to show us that we’re not in control, we have no power to change anything, and we are hopeless in ourselves.  God reminds us that He created all things, and is in control of all things.  God reminds us that we are His, and we can always hope in Him because God already accomplished everything for us that we need in Jesus.  So we run to Him, broken, but repentant and hopeful in Him.  This is the mercy and the love of God.  If you are in a season of grief, don’t allow yourself to be swallowed up by your emotions, and do not allow yourself to try to medicate your pain through the world, but run to your loving Father humbly with a repentant heart.  He is Love, He is Comfort, and He is the only one who can bring true healing and lasting joy.

2 Corinthians 7:8-11 – “if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. 9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.  10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 11 For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.”

Know you are loved and prayed for.

Grace and Peace,

Adam