Never Forget
As humans, we tend to forget things all the time. Our car keys, our friends' birthdays, our passwords... those things we tend to forget on accident, and it's usually pretty frustrating when we realize what we've forgotten. But we can also forget good things that have happened to us.
When faced with hard things, we often beg God for miracles or plead for His provision. But when we don't get what we prayed for, we can tend to forget what God has already done for us. If you've done that before, you're not alone—the Bible is full of stories about people forgetting the good things God has done.
God has hand-crafted this breathtaking world and chosen the unique times and spaces in which we show up. And even though the world seems to get crazier and scarier by the minute, God is always at work in the mess.
We can fight against forgetfulness today—right now—by remembering that it was God who created this world and filled it with good things—including His people! It was God who offered us mercy when we didn’t deserve it. It was God who gave us real purpose: to love Him and love others; to know Him and make Him known.
So how have you seen God show up in a way that you never want to forget? Thank Him for what He’s done, and worship Him for who He is.
Power, Love, and Discipline
One of the miracles of salvation is that when we have faith in Christ, God not only saves us—He also gives us the power to live according to His will. Your life in Christ is one that is empowered by the Holy Spirit living within you.
This is a great gift, but a big shift. It often takes time to change how we think and act. We may have bad habits that take hard work to correct, or patterns of thought that are challenging to break.
Thankfully, God promises to be with us and to empower us to make these changes in our life. When Paul is writing to his mentee Timothy, he encourages him to continue to develop the gift that God has given to him. While we are saved in an instant, it takes a lifetime to develop and work out what God is doing inside of us.
Paul reminds Timothy that God’s Spirit does not give us fear or cowardice. Those things are tools of the devil who is trying to keep us from God. But the Spirit of God empowers us with confidence in Him. He gives us the ...