Book: Psalms

Sometimes God delivers you from the storm, but sometimes God sustains you through it. Practice resting in God, not in circumstances. Peace does not come from perfect conditions. Peace comes from trusting a perfect Savior.

Psalm 3 is David’s journal entry from one of the darkest moments of his life—running barefoot from Jerusalem as his own son Absalom leads a coup against him. The psalm is raw, emotional, and brutally honest. Yet woven through the distress are three holy interruptions: Selah.

What is your primary objective in life? All of us are called to leverage our lives for the spread of God’s glory on earth—the gospel. Are you leveraging your talents & resources to bring God glory, or to pursue your own stuff?

You can summarize the gospel in 4 words: JESUS IN MY PLACE. It’s not just that Jesus died for the sins of the world; he died for my sins; for me… Jesus was rejected in our place, so that we would never have to be. Jesus walked through Psalm 88 so I would never have to. So when I feel like God has forsaken me, I’m wrong. Why? If Jesus didn’t abandon me in the dark hours of the cross, would He ever leave me now?

Do you want to be happy? It’s found in forgiveness. It’s not being “guilt-free” that makes you happy; it’s being reconciled to God.

You have to drive the roots of your soul deep into the gospel, so that your thinking, your actions, & your identity are all shaped by it. The gospel must become a root that goes so deep that whatever seasons you pass through.

Does my life represent Jesus getting my first and best? Do I need to make a commitment that will change everything in my life? Does the commitment I’ve made to God say that He is important to me or that in everything He comes first?

The presence offered through a relationship with Jesus is what we most require while on this earth & what we need when we leave it.

God’s general presence provides us with a faint memory of what no longer exists. Sin has caused our worst wound in separating us from God’s actual presence.
This is the great pain that all mankind lives with: the absence of God.