God continues to show his faithfulness even though I certainly don’t deserve it. He continues to provide, he continues to bless, and he continues to reveal his goodness to me. Yet, fear still works in my thoughts. Though I’m safe in his hands, I still wonder how things will work out. I know that in this fallen world, not everything will work out fine. There will be heartache, there will be loss, and there will be times I struggle to see his goodness.

I began the day with a heavy and stressed heart. I had to lead a meeting that would most likely be confrontational and intense. All morning I prayed for the Lord to take care of it in a way that only he can.
“Lord, I don’t know what to do, and I don’t know how this will turn out. Give me the wisdom and courage to lead well. Give me knowledge and discernment to make the right decisions. Give me boldness when the right decision is difficult. Bless and anoint for your glory.”
The meeting went as smooth as it could. Everyone responded with kindness and the things that needed to be addressed were addressed. I left feeling relieved and thankful. God had come through…again.
The Lord doesn’t always answer our prayers the way we want. He always does what is good and right, but that can look differently in various situations. Sometimes, he makes the meeting we pray for go smoothly. Other times, we may have to face adversity and be faithful in the midst of difficulty. However, whether he answers our prayers that way we want, we know that he promises to be with us, help us, and give us wisdom and strength.
The Whole Story
While reading The Dawn Treader, I couldn’t help but wonder why the characters in the story are often uncertain or afraid. Even when they are unsure of where they are sailing, even when the storms threaten to capsize the ship, and even when they are met with unfriendly islanders, don’t they realize that Aslan is going to help them? Why fear?
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God is in control and he is working all things for my good. Whatever comes my way, whether success or failure, victory or defeat, celebration or mourning, all have passed through the hands of my Father who loves me. Everything in my life is being used by God to sanctify me and bring me closer to himself. Here’s the good news according to Job 42:2: his plan can’t be thwarted. There is no power in this universe that can stop God’s working in my life.

Only the bravest people dare to venture outside in the middle of a Texas summer day. The rest of us are either in an air-conditioned building or near water. I have young children, and being inside all day supplies them with abundant energy that needs to be burned if there’s any hope of a decent bedtime. Thankfully, they love to swim, so we spend many hot summer days at the pool.
After one evening of swimming, as our kids were getting out of the water and drying off, I took the life vest off my three-year-old son and told him to get a towel. I then continued doing all the many tasks that needed to be done to get four wet children to the van. As I was drying another child, I happened to see my son getting back in the water. I knew he didn’t have his life vest on and couldn’t swim without it. In the brief moment between watching him go under and jumping in the pool after him, I saw him completely submerged in the water, unable to come up for air. I could sense his panic, but there was no loud splashing, gasping for air, or any noise we often associate with someone who’s drowning. It was silent, and had I not seen him go in, I might not have known.
That’s a terrifying thought.
It reminded me that there are many details of my life that are beyond my control. It’s easy to forget, isn’t it? It’s easy to tell ourselves that we are in the driver’s seat. Having a sense of control gives me comfort and eliminates fear, but the truth is I can’t guarantee anything. I do my absolute best to watch my kids at the pool, but the worst can happen quickly. I strive to drive carefully and obey traffic laws, but that doesn’t always prevent accidents. Hard work and loyalty at work go a long way, but some company layoffs can’t be prevented. Even with my best efforts, certain outcomes are simply beyond my control. Being reminded of this reality can tempt me to live in fear by avoiding situations in which I feel out of control. However, living in fear is antithetical to a life of faith.
How can believers face this lack of control without giving in to paralyzing fear?
The Sovereignty of God
While going through this uncertain life, the sovereignty of God is one of the most comforting truths for the believer. When fear and doubt leave my soul cold and shivering, being reminded of God’s sovereignty is a steaming cup of soup and a warm blanket.
Scripture teaches us that nothing is outside of God’s control. Consider these verses:

Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. (Ps. 115:3)
The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. (Prov. 16:9)
O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. (2 Chron. 20:6)
I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? (Jer. 32:27 NIV)

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Saying we want to enjoy today is great in theory, but it’s difficult when we see the struggles that ‘today’ brings. That’s when our eyes begin looking toward another day. Continually, we must recognize that even the struggles of today are being used by God to sanctify us and purify our faith through the fiery trials (1 Peter 4:12–13). In his sovereignty, God has placed you in your current circumstances for a reason. While it’s possible tomorrow could be better, today is the day that the Lord has made . . . so let us rejoice!

My two-year-old son ran up to me, dripping wet, and said: “Daddy, this is fun!”
Last summer, we spent a week visiting different attractions in the Dallas area. My kids were enjoying the splash pad at Legoland as I watched from a nearby table trying not to melt in the scorching Texas heat. Exhausted from the battles of getting four kids dressed, traveling, and applying mother-approved amounts of sunscreen, I watched them run around wildly and thought: “One day I’m going to miss this.”
One day, I’m going to miss the wild antics of my young children. I’m going to miss my kids thinking daddy is the coolest, or the random things that come out of their mouths. As much as I grumble about the high decibel levels that has become normal at our house, one day I’ll sit in a quiet house and actually miss the noise. One day, I’ll look back and miss these young years.
Ironically, I often find myself wanting to get past these young years. I get frustrated when they are so dependent on me for the most basic functions of life. I can lose patience when my kids won’t stop asking questions when all I want is peace and quiet. I am short-tempered when they fight over a toy (especially one nobody wanted until one kid grabbed it). In these frustrating moments, I find myself wishing they were just a little older and more mature—then life would be perfect.
But, as many of you know, that perfect day never comes. With each phase of life, new challenges and issues arise. That ‘perfect’ time seems just over the horizon. But when we get there, it eludes us. As the proverbial donkey continues to chase the dangling carrot, so we continue to long for that which is out of our reach. There’s nothing wrong with looking forward to what tomorrow might bring; but we must be careful that while we are looking forward to tomorrow, we don’t miss out on today.
For you, it may not be the young years of your children, but perhaps you tend to wish away your high school, college, or single years. Maybe you’re looking forward to marriage or having children. Or, perhaps, you long for a new job or retirement. There are many seasons of life where this might be a temptation. What season of life are you tempted to wish away?
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Believers need not fear death and we’ll receive it willingly when God calls us to it. But until then, we give ourselves for the good of others and the glory of God. We tell those who don’t know about the beauty of our God and the good news of his gospel. We encourage believers not to give up in doing good, for in due time they will reap if they continue. We worship God even though we only see him dimly and not yet face to face. We live this life not for itself, but as a passing voyage to our true home.

I’m ready to go home. I’m tired.
I’m tired of seeing the effects of the curse. I’m tired of seeing people sin against God and against others in harmful ways. I’m tired of my own struggle against sin.
I grow weary hearing the latest news. Wars and rumors of wars fill the headlines and burden my soul. Corruption and greed by so-called leaders serving themselves rather than their people exasperates me. Explicit rebellion against God and his beautiful design is celebrated and those who speak against it are mocked.
I groan with creation and long to be fully restored and made new. My longing deepens with the passing of each loved one, each friend. Death takes another, and another, and another and never seems satisfied.
Paul tells us “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). Whether God gives him another fifty years or just a few more seconds, Paul declares either way a win. To live means to have more opportunity to spread the gospel and minister to others. Death brings the true treasure we all long for: eternity with Christ.
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When frustration calls and bitterness looms, when prayers go unanswered and trust is difficult, look afresh to God’s Word and his creation for glimpses of his beauty, power, and majesty. Basking in the glory of God doesn’t change my circumstances, but it often changes my disposition and the attitude of my heart. Being reminded of the glory and power of God helps me to see that he has a plan and is able to execute it.

My son and I enjoy hunting together, and if we have a successful season we have enough meat to feed our family all year. On one occasion, we were walking back to the truck bundled up in camo on a cold night. He said something to me, and I quickly snapped back at him. Later, I lay in bed and thought about my reaction. I tried to figure out the source of my frustration and realized it was due to some struggles I was facing and what seemed like a barrage of unanswered prayers.
I thought about recent prayers where I had pleaded with God to work. They weren’t selfish prayers, just requests for God to correct prevalent evil or relieve pain in situations where people were suffering. Why wasn’t God working? Why hadn’t he swooped down and righted the wrongs I was praying against? Why hadn’t he delivered?
The most natural answer is that there must be something wrong with me. Perhaps I wasn’t faithful enough, or maybe it was some sin in my life. While these are certainly possibilities to be considered, they are not always the answer. Oftentimes, the Lord works in ways we don’t understand, and he never seems to work on the timetable we’ve established.
Leaning on Him
As we enter the new year, I find Proverbs 3:5–6 on repeat in my mind:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

These verses are so popular that they’ve become cliché, but they are the Word of God so don’t let their familiarity cause you to overlook them. Perhaps they’ve become so popular because they deal with one of the most difficult things we as humans struggle with: trusting God instead of ourselves.
“Lean not on your own understanding.” It can often be true, perhaps more than we realize, that our understanding is opposed to trusting in God. What seems to our finite minds the right way that God should answer our prayer can simply be wrong. Proverbs 14:12 states, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” We can pray for his will to be done then still get upset when he doesn’t do ours. When we can’t understand why God hasn’t worked the way we think he should, we are to trust that the Lord knows better than we do. We are to trust his ways instead of our understanding.
I see this in my relationship with my kids. As much as I love them, I must often withhold something that seems good to them. Their young minds can’t understand why I won’t let them ride their bikes in the street, eat another candy bar, or stay up later.
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May God’s people display the beauty of the church. Keep gathering each week and worship with those who are otherwise different. Use your gifts, talents, presence, and love to equip the saints and make disciples. I can tell people the Mona Lisa is a work of art, but perhaps it’s far more effective to show them. May the beauty of the church continue to shine until Christ returns and calls her home! 

For years I sat a few pews back from Mrs. Maggie every Sunday morning. I would walk into the auditorium, and she’d already be in the front row with a smile on her face and her portable breathing machine next to her. I’d lean over her walker to hug her while she said in her soft, raspy voice, “Hey Pastor.” She would tell me she loved me and that she prayed for me often, and I have no doubt she did.
Mrs. Maggie faced several challenges with her health. But, no matter how much her physical health waned over the years, her spiritual life grew ever more vibrant. When the service began, Mrs. Maggie tuned in, ready to worship. I could see her eyes looking directly toward me when giving the announcements, I heard her heartfelt “amen” as I prayed. When the worship song moved her, even though she was in the front row of an otherwise sitting Baptist congregation, she stood and raised her hands while singing to nobody but the Lord.
Her faith had been purified through many fiery trials. I remember visiting her after finding out her daughter died suddenly and unexpectedly. I approached her with a broken heart and a nervous mind. What could I possibly say to this woman facing her worst-case scenario? How could I minister to this mother whose heart has been ripped out by the loss of a child? Adult daughters typically bury their elderly mothers, not the other way around. Only six years prior, Mrs. Maggie had lost her husband, and now grief piled on more grief. As I hugged her, I heard her soft voice, laced with grief and hope, whisper, “God is good.”
A few years later, Mrs. Maggie finished her race and was able to worship the Lord face-to-face with the same zeal and passion, reunited with her husband and daughter. I miss seeing her each week. Ours was an unlikely friendship that defied generational and racial barriers. Worldly speaking, there would be little reason for our paths to cross and our relationship to grow. But, our paths did cross in the beautiful design of God who binds brothers and sisters into a body of believers that we call the church.
God’s Plan and Design for His People
Knowing Mrs. Maggie is just one of many examples that highlight the beauty of the church. Thus, it grieves my heart when I hear people say things like: “I love Jesus, but I don’t go to church. I’m just not into man-made, organized religion.”
We too often think of the church as an organizational structure set up merely by man. Sometimes this is even done for more sinister reasons, in ways that benefit the pursuit of power and money. While it’s undoubtedly true that snakes have crept in and used the church for such ill purposes, it is also true these slimy serpents did not design the church.
God did.
The church is his plan. It’s a visual display of his glory, a gathering of people created in his image and born again into fellowship with him.
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To be well-balanced Christians, we should be men and women who dive deeply in the word and examine the doctrines of the faith. These beautiful truths should not only challenge our thinking, but deeply move our affections for the Lord. The more we learn about him, the more we should love him. The more we love him, the more we should desire to learn more about him.

Human beings are people of extremes. The pages of history give testimony to our ability to diagnose a problem and then overcorrect to an opposite error. Children raised under the pressures of legalism often gravitate toward licentiousness. Reacting against an overemphasis in logic, some have gone to the opposite error of relative truth.
The church is not immune to such pendulum swings.
One area we see the pendulum continually swinging back and forth is the area of thinking and emotions. Some refer to this as focusing on either the heart or the mind, some might say emphasizing either Word or Spirit.
However one phrases it, the gist is that in our personal life and in our church services, we tend to either highlight truth/thinking or emotional/experiential. Some tend to prioritize emotions to the neglect of their mind. Others, perhaps in reaction against that, feed their mind but seem unmoved in their emotions.
How do we understand the relationship between truth and emotions? What are we to make of church services that simply seek to move our emotions just to have an emotional experience? What about the churches that strain the gnat regarding truth but seem to lack any true emotion?
Both/And Not Either/Or
Perhaps instead of swinging the pendulum to one extreme or the other, we recognize the value and importance of both truth and emotions. Jesus said we need to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. Those who gravitate naturally to the experiential side need to equally emphasize truth and doctrine. Those who naturally flock to the truth and love studying doctrine would do well to make sure those truths are stirring their affections for the Lord.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones emphasized the need for both. He said that often the problem is “due to the fact that people have emphasized either experience or doctrine at the expense of the other, and indeed they have been guilty, and still are, of putting up as contrasts things which clearly are meant to be complementary.”‌1 He argued that we must avoid the extremes of fanaticism on the one hand, or dry intellectualism on the other.
We tend to think that you have to pick between truth or emotions. Many assume if you focus on truth, then you will be dry, intellectual, and boring. A church service with this emphasis will feel more like an academic lecture. Others view emotion as mere effects of entertainment or emotional manipulation. Certainly, both of these extremes exist, but that doesn’t mean it has to be one or the other.
Books could be written on this subject, but for today we’ll just narrow it down to two propositions: (1) Our emotions should be based on truth, and (2) studying truth should move our emotions.
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A well-grounded Christian hope perseveres through all the confusion going on in our culture. Live each day to the glory of God by displaying this hope to those around you. Love God, enjoy him each day, care for your family, care for your neighbor, and rest in Christ. It’s possible to be so caught up in changing the world that you don’t even influence those in your circle. Serve faithfully where God has you and never lose hope. 

It was the strangest of times, it was the most frustrating of times. How else could one revise Dickens’ famous opening line to describe our current cultural era?
Foundational ideas and understandings are changing at lightening pace. The majority opinion from twenty years ago regarding marriage is now viewed as oppressive and unwelcome in public discourse. Definitions established for much of human history that differentiates a man and a woman are now viewed as abhorrent. Basic biology and common sense are thrown out the window to create a new normal. Like a square cat or smelling seven, much of the language of today is illogical and unscientific, yet the culture demands full acceptance without discussion or debate.
Watching the culture go down such a dark path brings about a great deal of discouragement for believers. Some Christians have given over to despair, while others have embraced a blind optimism that doesn’t take seriously what’s at stake with the current issues.
Christian Hope
In his book Strange New World, Carl Trueman warns believers against both despair and blind optimism: “To fall into the former would be to fail to take seriously the promise that the church will win in the end because the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. To engage in the latter is simply to prepare the stage for deeper despair later. And both will feed inaction, one out of a sense of impotence, the other out of naïveté.”
Instead, as believers traverse these dark roads, we do so with hope. Not a false hope that pretends problems don’t exist, but a hope that sees the issues and yet perseveres; a hope rooted in the ultimate reality of who God is, the good news of the death and resurrection of Christ, and the imminent return of Christ. As Trueman explains, “Christian Hope is realistic. It understands that this world is a vale of tears, that things here are not as they should be, and that…all life death does end. This world is not the Christian’s home, and so we should not expect it to provide us with home comforts.”
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It is true that we can worship God anywhere, but is that the only purpose of the church gathering? No. God has designed the gathering to do what can’t be done alone in your living room. You can meet with God by yourself, but God didn’t call you to serve him merely as an individual; he called you to be a part of the whole body. Christ is the head who provides nourishment to the rest of the body, and every believer needs this nourishment.

“I don’t need to go to a building to meet with God.”“I can read my Bible and pray anywhere.”“I love Jesus, but I’m against organized religion.”
I often hear these types of statements as a justification to skip out on the weekly gathering of God’s people (church). It’s true that we can meet with God anywhere, but is that a biblically acceptable reason to miss the church?
We live in a culture where church attendance is valued less and less, especially among younger generations. I’m not talking about non-believers either many who call themselves followers of Christ don’t place a high value on church attendance anymore.
Perhaps some are rebelling against hypocrisy or inconsistency they have witnessed among churchgoers. For some, church attendance may never become more than a religious ritual that seemed irrelevant to them. Or perhaps we’ve become too busy, and the church isn’t high on our priority list.
You Need the Local Church
We are all likely familiar with the admonition in Hebrews 10:24-25:
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
This well-known passage reminds us that we NEED to meet together with God’s people. Doing so stirs our hearts and affections toward the Lord and provokes us to do good works. You NEED brothers and sisters to encourage you and pray for you. You NEED people in your life who will correct you in grace and love. Our hearts cannot be trusted, so we depend upon others in our lives to help us see our blind spots.
God has provided the local church to be this kind of spiritual community. If we are not involved in a local church, if we are not living life with people we have covenanted with, or if we try to live out an “it’s between Jesus and me” kind of spiritually, then our spiritual growth will be stunted. Thus, the Lord warns us not to neglect this important time together.
Hebrews 3 also reminds us of our need for Christian brothers and sisters:
“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
What will help us remain strong in the faith and fight against a hard heart? Exhortation from our brothers and sisters in Christ. The regular gathering of the saints is a God-ordained community for that very purpose.
It is true that we can worship God anywhere, but is that the only purpose of the church gathering? No. God has designed the gathering to do what can’t be done alone in your living room. You can meet with God by yourself, but God didn’t call you to serve him merely as an individual; he called you to be a part of the whole body.
Christ is the head who provides nourishment to the rest of the body, and every believer needs this nourishment.
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If God can hold all the waters of the earth in the hollow of his hand, if he can move the mighty mountain ranges on a scale like a toy to weigh them, then he is certainly able to help us through our trials. So as we begin this new year and face whatever trials may lie ahead, let’s wait confidently on the Lord. His strength alone can carry us on wings like eagles through every storm.  

Each year, for some reason, we buy into the belief that next year will be different. As December concludes, we have high hopes that a change in the calendar will end the struggles and hardships that we are facing. However, as the new year dawns, it usually doesn’t take long for such happy hopes to be dashed to pieces by the less-than-romantic reality before us.
For my family, the first blow came in February with the unexpected loss of my brother-in-law. One minute he was completing his normal duties at work, the next minute he was unexplainably unconscious on the floor, leaving behind my sister and two young children. Then, in July, my granny passed away. It wasn’t as unexpected, but the loss still hurts. It has been a recurring theme in my life this past year: Death deals his blows while I cower in the corner longing for Resurrection Day.
Hope When Love Hurts
God has ingrained in us a desire for authentic and meaningful relationships. It’s therefore no surprise that we find great joy in living life deeply with those in our family, church, and community. In these relationships we enjoy lots of laughs, make lots of memories, and always have a story to tell. No doubt, the deeper we love, the more we enjoy other people. But, there’s also a greater potential for pain. Losing someone we love dearly is heartbreaking. Traversing such painful times can often leave us desperately searching for hope and strength to sustain us.
As believers, we know our hope is always in the Lord, yet it’s sometimes difficult to feel it during a season of hardship. It’s often a battle to let the propositional truths we know to be true sink down into the depths of our heart and stir our affections. It’s a continual fight to soak in the hope-filled truths of our majestic God, who alone encourages and sustains us, yet Isaiah 40 is an encouraging chapter to remind us of the greatness of God.
The Majesty of God
Isaiah 40 clearly demonstrates God’s majesty. For example, it teaches us that God holds the waters of this world in the hollow of his hand (v. 12). Imagine all the waters of every ocean, river, stream, and pond being held in God’s hand! We’re told, too, that he names each star. We can’t even count the stars, but God knows them all by name. And, because he is great in power, not a single star goes missing (vv. 25–26).
If God so cares for the stars, how will he not much more care for his people.
In verse 27, God’s people ask two questions of him that most of us can relate to: Is my way hidden from God (does God see me)? Has my way been disregarded by God (has he abandoned me)? In the midst of hardship, we, too, might find ourselves asking these things of God. I am thankful for how these questions are answered in verses 28–31.
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