“Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed Him in a purple robe and went up to Him again and again, saying, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ And they slapped Him in the face.
As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, ‘Crucify! Crucify!'”
John 19:1-3
If you’ve been putting off reading God’s Word, knowing you need to, reminding yourself you’ve got to do it, but continually find the day is gone, you’re tired, and you haven’t read it, again, I get it. Our lives are busy and complicated and it’s hard to squeeze one more thing into the day. And that’s exactly why it’s so important.
If there were ever a time to start reading the Word God’s given to us, to start studying it, devouring it, memorizing it, loving it, it’s now.
It’s been said the written Word of God is His love letter to us. God reveals Himself to us on its pages, beginning to end, from one miraculous, mind-bending story to another, showing us His vast love through His grace and mercy, and the plan for His most precious creation.
The Holy Bible is not just another book (or 66 of them to be precise). The writer of 2 Timothy, Paul the apostle, tells us in 3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed…”
Throughout the ages God Himself spoke through flawed but chosen people to proclaim a Holy God.
Paul goes on to say scripture is “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
This is the crux of His desire for those who would believe in His Son and follow Him. Sin comes so easily to us, and seems to be even easier as the world around us devolves into a state of maddening chaos.
But God’s Word is the place we can go for refuge, for truth, for all those much-needed disciplines Paul lists so we can be in the process of maturing and fulfilling God’s plan for us: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10
The writer of Hebrews (probably Paul) also tells us in 4:12, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
Through God’s Word-its incredible stories and the people who lived them-the Holy Spirit reveals to us our own hearts and the ways He desires to heal us, give us purpose and the abundant life we were meant to live.
Since the moment we were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, we became soldiers in a spiritual battle and God’s Word is the beginning of our training so we can overcome the enemy of God who is always on the move. We need discernment and wisdom so we know a lie when we hear it, always alert to his ways, and trained to be attuned to the Lord, not allowing ourselves to be distracted by the world’s noise.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, none of us knows what a day will bring. No matter what happens, we want to be found with our spiritual armor securely fastened, strong and courageous, walking with the Lord.
By starting the day with scripture, even if it’s just one verse, and a prayer, we take His hand and turn our hearts and minds to the things of the Lord, allowing Him to prepare us for what lies ahead, so we can walk in the Spirit and not in our flesh.
I can’t tell you how many times the Holy Spirit has brought scripture to my mind as a warning, for healing, and for hope and encouragement. But He can’t remind me of something I’ve never bothered to read in the first place.
So I’m giving you a challenge. Start with just a verse. There are a lot of verse-of-the-days you can have sent right to your email to start you off. But don’t stay there. Add a second verse, and a third, and then a chapter…
And when you truly begin to study it, to make it the priority of your day, you’ll find hidden treasures in the meaning of its words and context that will show you even more the depth and beauty of our God and His love for us.
And pray! Pray for understanding, for wisdom, asking the Lord to speak to your heart in a personal way as you read through its pages.
It may be hard at first, but keep at it. Before you know it, you’ll find you love it and its Author more and more.
As you walk in what you learn, you’ll find yourself bearing His fruit of love, joy, and His peace.
Let me know how it goes!
For Him,
Dorci
Heavenly Father, remind us as we begin each day to begin it with You. Help us be consistent, and fill us with a love for the precious word you’ve so thoughtfully composed because of your love for us. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.
BE STILL
AND KNOW THAT
I AM GOD
Psalm 46:10
Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you for this beautiful day you’ve made. We praise you for your holiness and righteousness. You are the Almighty God, the King of kings and Lord of lords. You are our good Father from whom all blessings flow.
We look to you Father, to fill us again with the hope of your promises, with a steadfast faith, that we may act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with You.
Father, as we fix our eyes on you, our supreme Hope, help us remember to “submit ourselves for Your sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by You for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is Your will, that by doing right we silence the ignorance of foolish people. That we will act as free people, not using our freedom as a covering for evil, but using it as Your bond-servants.” 1 Peter 2:13-16
Father we submit those authorities into your hands and pray that your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We pray for the salvation of each one, that they would fervently seek you and your wisdom to govern rightly.
In everything, with hope and faith, may we live worthy of the high calling you’ve placed on our lives, as children of the King.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
In Jesus’ holy and precious name we pray, amen.
Dear Almighty God, Heavenly Father, we praise your name. We praise you for your goodness and your faithfulness. We acknowledge that your ways are higher than ours, that your plans are holy and righteous.
Father, please forgive us for our sins. We pray your Holy Spirit is free to move in and through us with His love and wisdom and kindness. We pray for your strength and courage to remain steadfast and faithful to our calling as dearly loved children of the Holy One as we weather this storm.
Lord, let us be a beacon of your light as we walk in the peace and love that only you can give. May we stand out as a light in the darkness, prepared and ready to serve you in whatever way you call us. May your will be done.
Lord, we pray you would pour out your Spirit and bring a revival such as we have not seen in a long time. We pray you would soften hearts, open spiritual eyes, and grant repentance so many can come to faith.
Father, we pray for a swift end to the virus that is making its way around the world right now. We pray you would give wisdom to the leaders, wisdom to those who are working hard to come up with a vaccine, and wisdom for each of us as we choose our steps.
We look to you, Lord, the One seated on the throne in heaven, the One who rules the world, and yet is near to us, as near as our own hearts, indwelling us with your Spirit, leading us with love and compassion.
Thank you for all you are, for all you are doing, and all you will do. We pray in the holy and precious name of Jesus, our Yeshua HaMashiach, our Yahweh, our Adonai, our Elohei Ma’uzzi, our El Roi, our Jehovah Rapha, amen.
A lot of Christians have given up on church. Many have been hurt by the church; many feel like it’s a waste of time, that they’re not learning anything anyway; and many believe their faith is strictly between them and God so they don’t need church.
I get it. I get all of those.
And I’ve read a lot of reasons why we should go to church.
But I want to tell you why we must go. Why we need to go.
When I read in Isaiah 53 that the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of the world, Jesus, is “despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” I understand. Granted, to a far lesser degree, but I understand living a life like that. I fully understand living a life of rejection and sorrow, and I understand grief being a very close acquaintance.
By the time I came to know Jesus as my Savior when I was 26, I had already lived a lifetime, a very long and painful one. I knew Grief better than anything else, including love.
And for the next 14 years after I was saved and going to church, I knew God loved me, but God knew much of that was head knowledge. He knew Grief was still a closer acquaintance. And, oddly enough, He was about to increase the pain.
And yes, I know that doesn’t sound very appealing, but His plan was something far greater than I could have anticipated.
So for the next 15 years, through sickness and so many things that can come with it, I became even more acquainted with Grief, yet, at the same time more acquainted with the God of love in that grief.
Because that description of the Savior in Isaiah is not of a God in the heavens, far-removed or oblivious to our human suffering. He is not a God who is unfeeling or detached. In fact, the letter to the Hebrews tells us that “we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
This is a God-Man who understands my pain.
He is a God who is “near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.” (Psalm 34:18)
That word contrite means “crushed (literally powder, or figuratively contrite): – contrite, destruction.” And the root word of contrite is daka which means “to crumble; to bruise, to beat to pieces, break in pieces, destroy, humble, oppress, smite.”
Brokenhearted. Reduced to powder. Crumbled, bruised, beaten to pieces. Yeah, I understand that. Maybe you do, too. But in my brokenness God was closer to me than I could have imagined. He was faithful to not only keep my faith in tact, but to grow it.
Still, during this 15 year period, being attacked from within and without, with no understandable cause or reason, led me to desperately need to feel God’s love. I needed it to move that impossibly long distance from my head to my heart. I needed it to become my beloved companion in place of the old acquaintance.
Since salvation I’d settled for the belief that love was as close to me as it would ever get, and knowing Christ as my Savior, it was indeed closer than it ever was before. I had been content with the head knowledge, but the increased pain and suffering meant the head knowledge wasn’t enough anymore. I needed to feel God’s love.
So I began to pray just that – that God would let me feel His love. It wasn’t just a desire or a hope, but a need. I needed His love to survive. I needed Love to knock grief to the ground and live with me as my constant, Beloved Companion.
I prayed and prayed that prayer over the course of several months.
And gradually God began to lay on my heart “…if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36) More and more those words filled my mind, and honestly, I didn’t connect them with my prayer at all. I believed God was going to do something, but I thought maybe it had to do with a family member or a friend.
During this same time I started going to a women’s Bible study at our church. I hadn’t been to one in years and I was excited to connect with women over the study of God’s Word again.
After every Bible study I’d drive home and catch myself smiling and full of joy. These women were so kind, so loving and accepting, and they had no idea they were being used by God to answer my prayers. They just loved Jesus and because of that, they loved me.
And then one day, as I stood there talking and waiting for the study to start, two of the women walked in with bunch of flowers for my birthday, and the group sang Happy Birthday. That was the day grief (and his buddies rejection and sorrow) took a backseat to Love.
God did a miraculous work of forgiveness in my heart, and suddenly the past was in the past. Both my mind and my heart were renewed, and I felt like a new, new creation.
Jesus used those precious women to show me how much He loved me, and bring to life in my heart those words “…if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” And so I was.
That is why the letter to the Hebrews goes on to exhort all of us “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
God has built into us a need to gather together with other believers to meet spiritual needs. That’s the way He’s chosen to operate in and through our lives. But when we don’t fulfill that need in the highest, God-given way, we find a million other counterfeit ways of trying to fill that need to meet together as friends, even as friends close enough to consider themselves family – social media, causes, clubs, bars, stadiums, gangs. But they will always leave us unsatisfied and unfulfilled.
We need each other. But we need to feed our souls and our faith, not just our flesh. We need a setting with other Jesus-loving, Spirit-filled believers, our family in the faith, to love us (and us, them), to encourage one another in our daily walks with Christ, to keep us focused and moving into an even deeper walk with Him, the Savior of our souls, the one who understands our pain, and is there again and again to rescue us, to heal us, even more than we can imagine. And with our ever-renewing hearts, glorify Him with the good works He’s prepared for us to do. And the darker it gets out there, the more we need it.
Now, does that mean my life is perfect? No. Grief doesn’t like to be knocked down, and when it’s found a comfy place to live for a long time it doesn’t give up that place easily (and satan doesn’t like it a whole lot either).
It tries to get up, again and again, and that’s why I need to keep going back, to be surrounded by my brothers and sisters in Christ, and encourage one another in love so we can then take that love on the road with good deeds, like my Jesus-loving friends did. Their love and good deeds in Christ changed a life, glorifying Him, and that’s what this life is all about.
And yes, I know it’s not always easy to find a Spirit-filled, Bible-believing/teaching church. Political correctness and a desire to be liked, among other things, don’t stop at the front door of every church.
Just pray. God knows your heart and He will answer your prayers for a body of believers who worship in Spirit and in Truth, a body that will accept you in the love of Christ.
Don’t give up. We need you.
* * *
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the body of Christ, the family you’ve given us where your love and joy can come alive, where we can join hearts and worship you in spirit and in truth. I pray for each person reading this. For those who need a good spiritual home, I pray you would lead them to one. I pray you would remove any fears, grant forgiveness for past pains, and help them to step out in faith. For those who have one, I pray you would use them in the church homes you’ve placed them to show your love in tangible, Christ-honoring ways. For churches who may be a little stuffy and not used to acts of love, oh Lord, may you fill them with your Spirit, and lead them to a better way, where giving and receiving your love is as common as breathing. May you bring revival in the Body, and throughout the world. In Jesus’ holy and precious name I pray, amen.
There are many faithful and trusted believers who have studied the scriptures and find that we may very well have just entered the last decade before Christ’s return. No, no one knows the day or the hour, but the year? Quite possibly.
If that’s so (and even if it isn’t, none of us knows when we’ll be called home), we don’t have a minute to lose. More than ever I want to pray.
Now, I’ve never been a big thinker. I think in small details. Up close and personal. Which is great on one hand, but on the other, my small thinking can cause me to have a hard time praying big.
God-sized.
There have been times I’ve dared to step out to think and pray big, and many times there’s been someone right there, ready to tell me how ridiculous that is. That I’m just an idealist, a dreamer, living in a fantasy.
There will always be those. But those are not thoughts from the Almighty God who created a universe, heals the sick, brings bodies back from the dead, forgives sins, redeems a people, indwells souls, and creates a future, eternal home for us.
Ours is a God who does miracles.
I recently asked God again to help me think and pray big, to not limit Him and what He may want to do in and through my prayers.
Of course, being the faithful God He is, He’s already given me some understanding about praying big, limitless prayers. You know, since we have a big and limitless God.
A couple of days after that I ran across this video again. A friend sent it a few months ago, and the Lord brought it to my attention again, at just the right time.
This is the story of Rhonwyn Kendrick. She’s the mom of Stephen and Alex Kendrick who have given us movies like Courageous, War Room, and Overcomer. Her sons understand the power of prayer because she is a woman who prays big. Watching her story again, especially right after my prayer for bigger prayers, encouraged me and cemented my resolve to think and pray big. I hope it encourages you to let God out of that box and pray big, enormous, God-sized prayers. To pray bigger than our own minds can comprehend on their own. To pray in the Spirit, in God’s big, amazing, ridiculous, nothing-is-impossible will.
To pray with faith, and with hope.
I can’t wait to see what He’s going to do this year.
“Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in Him and He will do this:
He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
your vindication like the noonday sun.”
Psalm 37:5-6
Heavenly Father, help us to let you out of the box in our minds. To throw the box away. Holy Spirit, help us to pray big and mighty prayers for our families, our neighbors, our churches, our country, and our world. May we be known as a praying people, who pray to a big and mighty God. May your will be done in and through us. Help us redeem the time, O Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
A couple of blogs ago I gave a link to the series, The Chosen.
This time I want to bring to you the short film that started it all.
Writer and director, Dallas Jenkins (son of Jerry B. Jenkins who gave us the Left Behind series and more), shares here the story of how God led him to make The Chosen through a short film (24 minutes) he made for his church’s Christmas Eve service. How at the moment he felt like a failure the Lord led him to depend on Him to make a series that is defying all odds.
The Christmas Eve special about the birth of Jesus is told from the perspective of the shepherds, one in particular.
Grab some tissue. And maybe share with your family and friends. I’m going to. Hearing all God did to bring it to pass, I can’t wait to see what He does through it.
Merry Christmas!
I am so blessed to be able to sit in church on Sunday and worship the Lord with some beautifully composed music and be fed by pastors who love the Lord greatly and study hard to bring us Bible-based sound teaching. During the week there’s a Bible study and home groups. My social media page is full of pastors and messages that remind me about God’s truths. I have at least 15 Bibles in several translations, and more faith-based books than I will probably ever be able to finish. On the internet I have access to teachings from some of the most gifted pastors and teachers from all over the world, countless commentaries, uplifting Christian music…
And I wonder how many other people are doing the very same thing Sunday after Sunday, week after week.
We are deluged with messages from and for believers of every type, for every situation, every level of faith, and every age.
So why does the church, at least here in America, seem more anemic and ineffective than ever?
Why do we live our lives largely indistinguishable from the world?
Why do we get up in the morning and still feel like we’re being sucked under the trials of life, wondering where the joy is we’re supposed to be experiencing? Why we’re not feeling like an overcomer? Why we aren’t living that life Jesus talked about when He said:
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly”
(John 10:10)
That question has a lot of answers, but I want to tackle just one right now. Could it be the thief is still working hard to steal, kill, and destroy as much of that abundant life as he can, and maybe he’s using busyness, even “Christian” busyness, to do it?
Could it be that we have so much all around us that we are kidding ourselves into thinking we’re living a Christian life that would lead to abundance without really living it?
Maybe all the doing – sitting in a seat on Sundays, singing along, having a Bible (and maybe even opening up from time to time), maybe listening to a Christian song every now and then or even reading a faith-based book, is causing us to think we’re accomplishing something.
But maybe all it’s become, if done in the flesh, in our own strength, is nothing more than a rote religion, or just another sort of self-help.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…”
(Galatians 5:22)
Jesus came to give us life, and when He went back to the Father He gave us His Holy Spirit to bring about the abundant life we desire and Christ died to give us.
All those things – the teachings, the worship (the music is not a warm-up concert for the pastor!), the studies, the reading, are all meant to draw us closer to Jesus as we walk through them with the Holy Spirit. He is the power in our lives. He will bring about the abundant life we all so desperately want.
We’re on a journey with Him to know God and love Him more, to grow in faith, not to just put in our time on Sunday morning. Walking with Him is not just part of our life, it IS our life.
God desires to do so much in our hearts, our minds, and in and through our lives, and He wants us to partner with Him – to seek Him, to know Him, to love Him – as we do those things.
Do we pray before going to church, asking and fully expecting to hear from God, to receive from Him what He wants to say to us? Do we use the time we sing together to truly worship the Lord, to enter into the throne room of God and praise and exalt Him and let Him prepare our hearts for His message? Do we pray for our pastors during the week, that He will speak to them as they prepare the teaching, and that He will speak through them on Sunday morning? Do we pray before reading God’s Word or other books, or before listening to teachings online?
Do we pray without ceasing, inviting the Holy Spirit to speak to us and change us through those things?
Are we, the branches, clinging to the Vine, allowing Him to use all those things as nourishment for our souls, bringing its fruit in His time?
What all those things are meant to do, what they should do, is draw us closer to Jesus, reminding us of His love and grace and mercy so that we will continue reaching out to Him, reading and studying His Word and praying, inviting Him into every aspect of our lives. Inviting Him to leave no sin-stone unturned in the sanctifying of our souls. Inviting Him into every bit of suffering, every attitude, every decision, every joy.
Oh Church, we must leave the dead religion behind and get back to a living, breathing relationship with the One who died to bring us abundant life – to mold us into His image, to bring about the godly treasures we could never find in the world if we looked forever, and to be a light to the world.
Can you imagine if we invited the power of God into our lives every single day? If we let the Holy Spirit continually have His way in and through us?
If He changed the world with 12 men, what could He do with a nation full of Spirit-filled, God-fearing, mercy-loving believers?
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
(Ephesians 3:20-21)
.
Heavenly Father, thank you for not only giving us your Holy Spirit to be with us, but to indwell us. He is an amazing gift and we are so grateful. Help us to always walk in the Spirit, to breathe and live and grow and speak in the Spirit. Help us to cling to you through Him so that He might produce the fruit and gifts in our hearts and lives that you desire so that we, as your church, your kingdom, can be effective witnesses and bright lights to the world around us that’s so dark and seems to get darker every day. Help us to have wisdom and discernment to know how to live in this world, but not to be of it. Help us to glorify and magnify the name of Jesus. It’s in His precious name we pray, amen.
I like court shows. And Datelines and 20/20s and documentaries where the guilty person is finally proven guilty and pays for their crimes, or where an innocent person who was wrongly convicted finally goes free.
I love justice and truth. But the more shows I watch the more I see that justice is not always served in this lifetime.
There is one court show I occasionally watch where there are three judges who hear each case. So many times they don’t all agree. Two will come to the same conclusion, but one will dissent from the others. How can that happen? They all heard the same case, they’re all sworn to deliver justice, but somehow, someway, they come to different conclusions. Was justice actually served? Was the verdict correct because the majority agreed, or did the one lone holdout have the correct verdict? Three judges, two conclusions.
Or, a whole jury hears the same trial, convicts, and then later the conviction is proven wrong and overturned.
Makes you wonder how many innocent people have been convicted, and how many guilty people have gone free.
Or, closer to home, there are doctors who misdiagnose, friends, family, spouses, or children who misjudge or mistreat us, basic human rights go unmet, and now, what is all too common, an entire internet of people who, virtually overnight, will rashly judge, convict, and verbally carry out their harsh sentences.
I have a dear friend who, years after we had gotten to know each other, confessed to me that when she first met me she thought I was “stuck-up.” I’m not exactly sure what made her believe that, but oh boy was she wrong.
Parents may have warned us that life isn’t fair, and they were right.
And maybe, especially when we’re hurting very deeply, we wonder why God hasn’t answered our prayers, and if God hasn’t made the wrong decision, too.
It can seem as if we’re suffering unjustly, and the truth is, maybe we are.
Jesus did. He didn’t deserve to be nailed to a cross, every nerve in his body searing with pain, heaving to fill his lungs with even the slightest bit of air, a mob of people standing before him who have rashly judged and convicted him and were verbally carrying out their harsh sentences.
It was wholly unjust, but here’s the thing: it was right. In God’s sight it was good because of what He was doing through it, and though no one knew it at the time, it would have an effect, a purpose more meaningful than any other act of injustice ever would.
God has the power to do that.
So if you’re suffering unjustly right now, remember the cross. Remember that the glory Christ’s Heavenly Father brought about through His suffering, our Heavenly Father can and will do through ours.
He saw His Son suffering unjustly, and He sees everything that’s happened or is happening to us. Nothing escapes Him. He is compassionate and understanding toward us and always knows the right thing to do, because He is the Righteous Judge. He is right 100% of the time.
In fact, there are three Persons to the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and they never disagree. There are never instances where One dissents from the conclusion of the other Two. There is no miscarriage of justice that He doesn’t see and that will not be paid for, either through His Son’s work on the cross, or through judgment in the next life.
And there is no suffering, no injustice, no unfairness – whether He allows it to continue or stops it, whether He heals or doesn’t heal, whether He restores a relationship or doesn’t, whatever the case may be – that He cannot use for His glory and make something out of it more beautiful than we can ever imagine.
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” Romans 8:18-21
God is using those painful circumstances (if we let Him) as a holy fire in our hearts to burn off the sin that would separate us from Him, steal our peace, cause us pain, and probably injustice in another person’s life.
I’m glad my friend eventually changed her mind, and I’m glad my Father sees my heart, my life, and will use all my painful circumstances, those done to me and by me, when given to Him at the foot of the cross where all sin goes to die, to create in me and through me something beautiful.
And my pain is just one piece of the puzzle. When we stand before Him and all our puzzle pieces are put together, we’ll see the whole picture, and know that truth and love and righteousness has prevailed because we have the Perfect Judge who judges rightly every single time.
I’ve watched those stories where someone was wrongly convicted and spent 10, 20, 30 years in prison, and then those people are proven innocent and released. Almost every time, when asked if they’re bitter because of the time spent in prison, with a huge smile on their face, they say no. They’re just happy it’s over and now they’re free.
It will be that way with us when we’re released from our time spent here, having suffered all kinds of trials, and we see our Savior face to face. All the pain will be gone, and we’ll just worship Him and rejoice that we’re finally free. And I’m convinced that somehow, someway, our Father will more than make it up to us.
Sometimes the state will pay restitution to someone who’s served time unjustly. In some cases millions of dollars. If human beings do that, imagine what our Heavenly Father has planned for those who love Him, who trust Him through the injustices we face here, knowing our Righteous Judge will more than make everything whole and right and perfect in the end.
So take those injustices and give them to our Righteous Judge. Give Him those circumstances, that pain, those people, and let Him judge rightly. Then hold onto Christ. Hold onto Hope. It may seem like a long time away, but it isn’t. Justice is coming, and all things will be made right.