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A study exercise I really enjoy is pulling on threads in the Bible and following them from start to finish to get the full Biblical picture. This morning, I was reading Jeremiah and ran into 2:22: “For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, Yet your iniquity is stained before Me, says the Lord God.”

I’m sure many of you, like me, have turned to Isaiah 40:29-31 in times of weakness, seeking comfort from the Father...

Romans 8 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. I must throttle the number of times I write about Romans 8, or I’d be writing about it all the time. But occasionally . . . I can’t help it! Versus 12-17 of the Great Eight proclaim a truth so rich, so glorious, that if we truly believed it by childlike faith, it would transform our lives entirely. We are not merely servants of God, nor mere recipients of His grace—we are His children, adopted into His family, and heirs with Christ Himself.

What do you aim to be in your faith journey? My answer to this question has varied a lot over time, but the gyrations in my heart have settled over the last decade or so. My aim now, the target I frequently check my heart against, is that I desire to be like a child in the presence of my Father.

To maximize your joy and thankfulness in Christ, it is necessary to consider the depth of depravity from which He saved you. Jesus put this concept simply in Luke 7:47 – “He who is forgiven much loves much.” Paul writes about his own experience of self-reflection leading to Christ-praise in 1 Timothy 1:12-17. The Apostle Paul’s testimony stirs our hearts because of the sharp contrast he draws between his past rebellion and the abundant grace of Christ. Paul was a blasphemer, a persecutor, a man whose name was feared by the early church. Yet, by the mercy of God, this chief of sinners became a great apostle.