“All things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” (Mark 9:23-24, New American Standard Bible)
If you read my blog yesterday, you know that I referenced those verses. I really didn’t intend to go back to the same place again today, but the Lord orchestrated this morning’s circumstances to bring these verses back to mind from a different angle.
I will keep the story short and focus on the insight. (That’s hard for me to do, by the way. I love to tell stories!) 3 sources during my devotional time with the Lord impacted my thinking today:
- Near to the Heart of God: Meditations on 366 Best Loved Hymns (Robert J. Morgan). I am reading one meditation per day and posting a photo on Facebook and Twitter. This morning’s was “I Am Thine, O Lord” (Fannie Crosby & William Howard Doane).
- “Hearing God through the Year” (Dallas Willard). I started a few days ago including one devotional per day in this book. Today’s focus was Psalm 143:10 – “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.” (New Living Translation).
- A friend’s comment on the Facebook hymn post. He quoted Brennan Manning, “One question we will be asked by God when we die—‘Did you believe that I loved you?’”
For some people, the hardest thing to believe—the unbelief for which we desperately need the most help—is to believe that God truly, genuinely, passionately, recklessly loves us right now. We have not earned His love, nor are we in the process of earning it. No amount of “righteous” actions will put us in His good graces. No amount of sin will cause Him to stop loving us. Do we really believe this?
Here is how I meditated on Psalm 143:10 this morning and how I’m inviting you to join me: look at the phrase “you are my God” and meditate on one word at a time. (I am not going to share the results of my meditation because it was for me and I don’t want to influence what God wants to say to you.)
- YOU are my God
- You ARE my God
- You are MY God
- You are my GOD
I am not going to ask you to share what God says to you, but I am interested in what it was like for you to meditate that way.
Question: Do you really believe that God loves you?
