HE CARES FOR HIS OWN

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

HE CARES FOR HIS OWN

READ:  Psalm 145:8-21

The Lord preserves all who love Him.  Psalm 145:20

A young girl traveling on a train for the first time heard that it would have to cross several rivers.  She was troubled and fearful as she thought of the water.  But each time the train came near to a river, a bridge was always there to provide a safe way across.

After passing safely over several rivers and streams, the girl settled back in her seat with a sigh of relief.  Then she turned to her mother and said, “I’m not worried anymore.  Somebody has put bridges for us all the way!”

When we come to the deep rivers of trial and the streams of sorrow, we too will find that God in His grace “has put bridges for us all the way.”  So we need not fall into hopelessness and anxiety.  In delightful though often untraceable ways, He will provide for us and carry us through the difficulties to the other side.  Even though we may not understand how He will meet our needs, we can be sure that He will provide a way.

Those who have given their situations over to God can exclaim with the psalmist, “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works..The Lord preserves all who love Him” (Psalm 145:17, 20).

Instead of worrying about what’s ahead, we can trust the Lord to be there to care for us.   HGB

Where God guides, He provides.    

JOIN THE STREET TEAM

Join the Street Team

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

Mark 2:17

READ MARK 2:13–17

City health workers in San Francisco are taking medical care to the streets to supply the homeless who are suffering from opioid addiction with medicine to treat their addiction. The program began in response to the rising number of homeless who are injecting. Customarily, doctors wait for patients to come to a clinic. By taking medical care to the afflicted instead, patients don’t have to overcome the challenges of transportation or needing to remember the appointment.

The health workers’ willingness to go to those in need of care reminds me of the way Jesus has come to us in our need. In His ministry, Jesus sought out those who the religious elite were quick to ignore: He ate with “sinners and tax collectors” (Mark 2:16). When asked why He would do that, Jesus replied, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (v. 17). He went on to say that His intention was to call sinners, not the righteous, into relationship with Him.

When we realize that we’re all “sick” and in need of a doctor (Romans 3:10), we can better appreciate Jesus’s willingness to eat with the “sinners and tax collectors”—us. In turn, like the health care workers in San Francisco, Jesus appointed us as His “street team” to take His saving message to others in need.

By Kirsten Holmberg

REFLECT & PRAY

Thank You, Jesus, for meeting me in my condition.

How did Jesus seek you out? To whom can you take the medicine of Jesus?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

Tax collectors were despised and hated by the Jews because they were regarded as mercenaries and traitors who worked for the hated Roman conquerors who subjugated them. They also collected more than what was legally mandated, pocketing the excess and dishonestly enriching themselves at the expense of their own people (Luke 3:13-14). The term “sinners” was used to describe the notoriously wicked—reprobates who rejected God’s law. The Pharisees also used “sinners” to include anyone who didn’t meticulously maintain ceremonial purity or follow their rigid standards. Tax collectors were deliberately lumped together with sinners to show how degenerate and wicked the tax collectors were. Jesus was invited to dine with all sorts of people, even with the Pharisees (Luke 7:36; 11:37; 14:1). But He ate so often with social and religious outcasts—considered to be the scum of society—that He earned the reputation of being “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 11:19). K. T. Sim

TURNING TRIALS INTO TRIUMPHS

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

TURNING TRIALS INTO TRIUMPHS

READ:  James 1:1-11

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall

into various trials.  James 1:2

James’s words “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials” (1:2) offer a vital key for turning trials into triumphs.  Although we don’t choose to have trials, we can choose how we respond.  J. B. Phillips paraphrased it like this:  “Don’t resent them as intruders but welcome then as friends!”

British counselor Selwyn Hughes reminds people that trials are our friends only if our goal is to become more like Jesus.  If our goal is to avoid difficulties or mishaps, our trials will seem more like intruders.

Hughes admits that he often needs to take his own advice.  He recalls a time when he and his wife had pulled off to the side of the road to look at a map.  Then a truck swerved and slammed into their car.   They escaped injury, but their car was totaled.  Then it started to rain!  Hughes immediately battled with frustration, apprehension, and anger toward the other driver, and found it extremely difficult to “count it all joy.”  But as they waited for the police, he began to focus on how God could use the trial to make him more like Jesus.  Gradually, the crisis became his friend.

The next time you face a trial of some kind, make friends with it and allow God to use the situation to make you more like Jesus.  JY

Our loving God transforms us

And make us like His Son

By using trials and testings

Until His work is done. -Sper

God chooses what we go through;

we choose how we go through it.

SEEDS OF GRACE

Seeds of Grace

The seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.

Mark 4:27

READ MARK 4:26–29

For nearly four decades, a man in India has worked to bring a scorched, sandy wasteland back to life. Seeing how erosion and changing ecosystems had destroyed the river island he loved, he began to plant one tree at a time, bamboo then cotton. Now, lush forests and abundant wildlife fill more than 1,300 acres. However, the man insists the rebirth was not something he made happen. Acknowledging the amazing way the natural world is designed, he marvels at how seeds are carried to fertile ground by the wind. Birds and animals participate in sowing them as well, and rivers also contribute in helping plants and trees flourish.

Creation works in ways we can’t comprehend or control. According to Jesus, this same principle applies to the kingdom of God. “This is what the kingdom of God is like,” Jesus said. “A man scatters seed on the ground . . . the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how” (Mark 4:26-27). God brings life and healing into the world as pure gifts, without our manipulation. We do whatever God asks us of us, and then we watch life emerge. We know that everything flows from His grace.

It’s tempting to believe we’re responsible to change someone’s heart or ensure results for our faithful efforts. However, we need not live under that exhausting pressure. God makes all our seeds grow. It’s all grace.

By Winn Collier

REFLECT & PRAY

God continues to grow His kingdom by His grace.

When are you tempted to think it’s your job to make things happen or grow? Why is it vital for you to trust God’s grace rather than your own effort?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

In Mark 4 (see also Matthew 13:1-3; Luke 5:1-3), Mark tells us the crowd that gathered to hear Jesus speak was so large that He climbed into a boat to teach them. Why do that? Because sound travels farther on the water. And on the shores of the Sea of Galilee or Lake of Gennesaret (also called Sea of Tiberias) near Capernaum is a naturally formed amphitheater. It slopes downward to the sea on an inlet or bay—today called the Bay of Parables—where a crowd of thousands could have comfortably sat and where the acoustics would have made it easy for the people to hear Christ’s words.

To learn more about the geography of the biblical land visit christianuniversity.org/NT110. Alyson Kieda

HIS GOODNESS

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

HIS GOODNESS

READ:  Psalm 33:1-11

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Psalm 33:5

One Saturday my life came perilously close to being permanently altered.  My brother and my nephew stopped by to pick up a desk.  After loading it on the truck, they chatted for a few minutes and then drove off.  I went into the house while my husband Jay pulled our car into the garage.  Moments later I heard a loud crash, so I raced out to the garage.  Jay was staring at the overhead garage door, which had suddenly slammed down.  If the spring had broken a few minutes earlier, someone would have been hit by the two-hundred-pound door-and would have been seriously injured, or even killed.

It was not simply a matter of luck or coincidence that no one was hurt in that garage.  God’s protective hand was there-one more reminder of His goodness.

I sometimes long for a dramatic display of God’s glory and power to show that He is with me.  But He wants me to see Him in His little displays of goodness, which He demonstrates every day in hundreds of acts of mercy and compassion-just as He did in my garage that Saturday.

The psalmist reminds us that “the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord” (Psalm 33:5).  May God open our eyes to His many acts of goodness so we’ll never doubt His presence and His love.   JAL

As endless as God’s blessings are,

So should my praises be

For all His daily goodnesses

That flow unceasingly!-Adams

If you know that God’s hand is in everything,

you can leave everything in God’s hand.  

BRAIDED TOGETHER

Braided Together

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Ecclesiastes 4:12

READ ECCLESIASTES 4:9–12

A friend gave me a houseplant she’d owned for more than forty years. The plant was equal to my height, and it produced large leaves from three separate spindly trunks. Over time, the weight of the leaves had caused all three of the stalks to curve down toward the floor. To straighten them, I put a wedge under the plant’s pot and placed it near a window so the sunlight could draw the leaves upward and help cure its bad posture.

Shortly after receiving the plant, I saw one just like it in a waiting room at a local business. It also grew from three long skinny stalks, but they’d been braided together to form a larger, more solid core. This plant stood upright without any help.

Any two people may stay in the same “pot” for years, yet grow apart and experience fewer of the benefits God wants them to enjoy. When their lives are woven together with God, however, there is a greater sense of stability and closeness. Their relationship will grow stronger. “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12).

Like houseplants, marriages and friendships require some nurturing. Tending to these relationships involves merging spiritually so that God is present at the center of each important bond. He’s an endless supply of love and grace—the things we need most to stay happily united with each other.

By Jennifer Benson Schuldt

REFLECT & PRAY

Dear God, I welcome You into my closest relationships today.

What can you do to strengthen the spiritual bonds you share with the important people in your life? How might your relationships change if serving and worshiping God together became a priority?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

The book of Ecclesiastes is often classified as Poetry or Wisdom Literature. Traditionally, the author has been considered to be Solomon due to the reference “son of David, king in Jerusalem” (1:1). But this kind of terminology was commonly used at the time to refer to a descendant who wasn’t necessarily a son. This person could be multiple generations down the line. Many scholars simply refer to the author as Qoheleth, the Hebrew word for teacher in Ecclesiastes 1:2, which refers to someone who instructs a group of people as in an assembly. And some scholars suggest the book was written by two authors because the language switches from first person to third person and back again. Julie Schwab

YOU CAN ALWAYS PRAY

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

YOU CAN ALWAYS PRAY 

READ:  ACTS 12:1-16

I called on the Lord in distress; the Lord answered me.  Psalm 118:5

The young mother called out to the missionary, “Come quick! My baby is going to die.”  Gale Fields was in Irain Jaya helping her husband Phil translate the Bible into Orya, a tribal language. But they also provided medical help whenever possible.  Gale looked at the malaria-stricken child and realized she didn’t have the right medicine to help the infant.

“I’m sorry,” she told the mother, “I don’t have any medicine for babies this small.”  Gale paused, then said, “I could pray for her though.”

“Yes, anything to help my baby,” answered the mother.

Gale prayed for the baby and then went home feeling helpless.  After a little while, she again heard the mother cry out, “Gale, come quick and see my baby!”

Expecting the worst, Gale went to the baby’s side.  This time, though, she noticed improvement.  The dangerous fever was gone.  Later, Gale would say, “No wonder the Orya Christians learned to pray.  They know God answers.”

The early Christians prayed for Peter to be released from prison and then were “astonished” when God answered them (Acts 12:16).  We respond that way too, but we shouldn’t be surprised when God answers our prayers.  Remember, His power is great and His resources are endless.  DB

Forgive us, Lord, when we’re surprised

By answers to our prayer;

Increase our faith and teach us how

To trust Your loving care. -Sper

The most powerful position on earth is kneeling

before the Lord of the universe.     

JUST A TOUCH

Just a Touch

Then he placed his right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.”

Revelation 1:17

READ REVELATION 1:9–18

It was just a touch, but it made all the difference to Colin. As his small team was preparing to do charitable work in a region known for hostility to believers in Jesus, his stress level began to rise. When he shared his worries with a teammate, his friend stopped, placed his hand on his shoulder, and shared a few encouraging words with him. Colin now looks back on that brief touch as a turning point, a powerful reminder of the simple truth that God was with him.

John, the close friend and disciple of Jesus, had been banished to the desolate island of Patmos for preaching the gospel, when he heard “a loud voice like a trumpet” (Revelation 1:10). That startling event was followed by a vision of the Lord Himself, and John “fell at his feet as though dead.” But in that frightening moment, he received comfort and courage. John wrote, “He placed his right hand on me and said, ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last’” (v. 17).

God takes us out of our comfort zone to show us new things, to stretch us, to help us grow. But He also brings the courage and comfort to go through every situation. He won’t leave us alone in our trials. He has everything under control. He has us in His hands.

By Tim Gustafson

REFLECT & PRAY

Jesus, help me recognize Your presence and Your touch in the midst of things that frighten me.

How is God taking you out of your comfort zone? What friends has He given you for support and comfort?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

Seeing Jesus in a vision, John “fell at his feet as though dead” (Revelation 1:17). This is similar to his response some sixty years earlier when he saw the exalted Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration: he “fell facedown to the ground, terrified” (Matthew 17:6). Such reverence is the appropriate response toward “the Alpha and the Omega . . . the First and the Last” (Revelation 1:8, 17). In revealing Himself as “the First and the Last,” Jesus is saying He’s God. For God Himself has declared, “I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God” (Isaiah 44:6). K. T. Sim

GOD IS DOWN-TO-EARTH

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

GOD IS DOWN-TO- EARTH

READ:  I Kings 19:1-18

Arise and eat, because the journey is

too great for you.  1 Kings 19:7

The more challenging life becomes, the more we long for a down-to-earth spirituality to help us with the challenge.  We’re skeptical of believers who are “so heavenly minded that they are no earthily good.”  Yet we seldom get the balance right.

Author Os Guinness writes that we usually end up “being either practical at the expense of being spiritual or spiritual at the expense of being practical.”  He points out that, paradoxically, it is God who gets it right.  God was never more down-to-earth than when Jesus came into the world.  It was Jesus, God’s divine Son, who became truly human by taking on human flesh. Therefore, Guinness concludes, the one who is the most spiritual (God) ended up being the most practical!

How God dealt with Elijah is a prime example of His practicality.  Guinness points out that “God’s remedy for Elijah’s depression was not a refresher course in theology but food and sleep.”  Only then did He confront Elijah gently about his spiritual error.

If you are discouraged because you are tired or overworked, God’s initial remedy for you is probably extra sleep or a day off.  The most practical remedy, it it’s the right one, is usually the most spiritual one.

When we’re discouraged spiritually

And fear and doubt assail our soul,

We may just need to rest awhile

Before God heals and makes us whole. -Sper

If we don’t come apart and rest awhile, we may

just plain come apart. -Havner 

THIS IS ME

This Is Me

Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.

James 3:10

READ JAMES 3:7–12

The powerful song “This Is Me” is an unforgettable show tune featured in The Greatest Showman, the smash movie musical loosely based on the life of P. T. Barnum and his traveling circus. The lyrics, sung by characters in the film who’d suffered verbal taunts and abuse for failing to conform to societal norms, describe words as destructive bullets and knives that leave scars.

The song’s popularity points to how many people bear the invisible, but real, wounds caused by weaponized words.

James understood the potential danger of our words to cause destructive and long-lasting harm, calling the tongue “a restless evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:8). By using this surprisingly strong comparison, James emphasized the urgent need for believers to recognize the immense power of their words. Even more, he highlighted the inconsistency of praising God with one breath and then injuring people who are made in God’s image with the next (vv. 9-10).

The song “This Is Me” similarly challenges the truth of verbal attacks by insisting that we’re all glorious—a truth the Bible affirms. The Bible establishes the unique dignity and beauty of each human being, not because of outward appearance or anything we have done, but because we are each beautifully designed by God—His unique masterpieces (Psalm 139:14). And our words to each other and about each other have the power to reinforce that reassuring reality.

By Lisa M. Samra

REFLECT & PRAY

Creator God, thank You for creating each of us. Help us to use our words both in praise of You and to encourage the people You expertly designed.

Whose forgiveness might you need to seek for using damaging words? How might you encourage someone today?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

James’s strong warning on the danger of misusing our words comes in the context of a focus on the influence of teachers (3:1). Because our language is capable of causing great division and harm, especially when wielded by those with power and influence, James is emphasizing how essential humility is for true wisdom (vv. 2, 13). In that context, when he claims that “no human being can tame the tongue” (v. 8), he’s not excusing harmful language (as though since failing is inevitable we might as well give up), but once again emphasizing the need for humility. Monica Brands

GOD IS GREAT!

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

GOD IS GREAT!

READ:  Psalm 86:1-17

You are great, and do wondrous things;

You alone are God.  Psalm 86:10

Only God is great.”  That was the solemn and unexpected declaration of Jean-Baptiste Massillon as he began his sermon at the funeral service of ing Louis XIV.

The king, who liked to be referred to as Louis the Great, had ruled France from 1643 to 1715 with absolute power and incredible splendor.  His funeral was held in a magnificent cathedral that was lit by a single candle alongside the ornate coffin.  When it was time for Massillon to speak, he reached out and extinguished the flame.  Then he broke the silence with the words, “Only God is great.”

We recognize and admire some of our fellow mortals who are considered to be great thinkers, great scientists, great inventors, great achievers in every field of endeavor.  In many ways they tower above all of us ordinary people, but they still have the same needs we do.  They experience aches and pains.  They have troubled minds and hungry hearts.  They cannot stave off death nor guarantee life beyond the grave.

Only God is truly great-great enough to meet all our needs, great enough to forgive all our sins, and great enough to carry us through the dark valley of death into eternity to be with Him forever.  So we declare with the psalmist, “You are great,…You alone are God” (Psalm 86:10).    VCG

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,

In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,

Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,

Almighty, victorious-Thy great name we praise. -Smith

In a world of empty superlatives, God is the greatest.

!

GOOD NEWS FOR FEET

Good News for Feet

For you, Lord, have delivered me from death . . . that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

Psalm 116:8-9

READ JOHN 5:1–9

The ad brought a smile to my face: “The most comfortable socks in the history of feet.” Then, extending its claim of good news for feet even further, the advertiser said that because socks remain the most requested clothing item at homeless shelters, for every pair of socks purchased the company would donate a pair to someone in need.

Imagine the smile when Jesus healed the feet of a man who hadn’t been able to walk for thirty-eight years (John 5:2-8). Now imagine the opposite look on the faces of the temple officials who weren’t impressed by Jesus’s care for the feet or heart of someone who had gone without help for so long. They accused the man and Jesus of breaking a religious law that allows no work to be done on the Sabbath (vv. 9-10, 16-17). They saw rules where Jesus saw the need for mercy.

At this point the man didn’t even know who had given him new feet. Only later would he be able to say that it was Jesus who had made him well (vv. 13-15)—the same Jesus who would allow His own feet to be nailed to a tree to offer that man—and us—the best news in the history of broken bodies, minds, and hearts.

By Mart DeHaan

REFLECT & PRAY

Jesus, allow me to see and meet the needs of others. To learn more about the life of Christ, visit christianuniversity.org/NT111.

What needs do you see in those around you? In what ways have you seen Jesus meet your own needs?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus begins His ministry by quoting from Isaiah (61:1-2) that the Messiah would perform miracles. Christ’s miracles served as proof that He was indeed the Messiah. In John 5, Jesus directly confronted the religious leaders about His identity. When they began to persecute Him for working on the Sabbath, He referred to God as “my Father” (v. 17) and stated that God too worked (on the Sabbath). As evidence of His deity, Jesus pointed to the miracle He’d just performed, saying that as the Father gives life so does the Son (v. 21). In other words, He wouldn’t have been able to restore the paralyzed man’s legs if He were not doing it through the power of the Father. J.R. Hudberg

HOW WILL MY WORRY LOOK?

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

HOW WILL MY WORRY LOOK?

READ:  Luke 12:22-24

Which of you by worrying can add one cubit

to his stature?  Luke 12:25

Hans Christian Andersen, author of such well-known fairy tales as “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” had a phobia of being buried alive.  As a result, he always carried a note in his pocket telling anyone who might find him unconscious not to assume he was dead.  He often left another note on his bedside table stating “I only seem dead.”  Such was his anxiety until he finally succumbed to cancer in 1875.

We may think such a fear is strange, but do we have fears that will someday look just as irrational?  Is it possible that the day will come when we look back and marvel at our own anxieties?  Will we one day wonder at that foolish person who chose to worry rather than to pray?   Will time eventually cast us as a pitiful person who was plagued by fear because we did not face life with the resources lavished on his by the Almighty Lord of the universe?

Worrying doesn’t change anything.  But trusting the Lord changes everything about the way we view life.

Forgive us, Lord, for our inclination to worry.  Help us to see how foolish it is for us to worry about what you have promised to provide.  Don’t let us bury ourselves alive with fears.   MD

A STRATEGY FOR WINNING OVER WORRY

Identify specific worries.

Work to change what you can.

Leave what you can’t change with God.

When we put our cares in God’s hands,

He puts His peace in our hearts.

  

A FEAST OF LOVE

A Feast of Love

I am the living bread that came down from heaven.

John 6:51

READ JOHN 6:47–59

In the Danish film Babette’s Feast, a French refugee appears in a coastal village. Two elderly sisters, leaders of the community’s religious life, take her in, and for fourteen years Babette works as their housekeeper. When Babette comes into a large sum of money, she invites the congregation of twelve to join her for an extravagant French meal of caviar, quail in puff pastry, and more.

As they move from one course to the next, the guests relax; some find forgiveness, some find love rekindled, and some begin recalling miracles they’d witnessed and truths they’d learned in childhood. “Remember what we were taught?” they say. “Little children, love one another.” When the meal ends, Babette reveals to the sisters that she spent all she had on the food. She gave everything—including any chance of returning to her old life as an acclaimed chef in Paris—so that her friends, eating, might feel their hearts open.

Jesus appeared on earth as a stranger and servant, and He gave everything so that our spiritual hunger might be satisfied. In John’s gospel, He reminds His listeners that when their ancestors wandered hungry in the wilderness, God provided quail and bread (Exodus 16). That food satisfied for a time, but Jesus promises that those who accept Him as the “bread of life” will “live forever” (John 6:48, 51). His sacrifice satisfies our spiritual cravings.

By Amy Peterson

REFLECT & PRAY

Jesus, thank You for giving Your body and blood for us.

How has God satisfied your hunger? What might it look like for you to give sacrificially?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

Of all the “signs” (miracles) Jesus performed, John only records seven that point to Jesus as God’s Son (John 20:30-31). The miracle of the multiplication of the fish and loaves in 6:1-14 is one of those. (It also appears in the other gospels—Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17.) The additional miracles John includes are changing water into wine (2:1-11), healing the official’s son (4:46-54), healing the paralyzed man (5:1-15), walking on water (6:16-21), healing the man born blind (9:1-7), and raising Lazarus from the dead (11:1-45). Arthur Jackson

SEEING THE UNSEEN

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

SEEING THE UNSEEN

READ:  Psalm 34:4-7

The angel of the Lord encamps all around those

who fear Him, and delivers them.  Psalm 34:7

In a materialistic world like ours, we are tempted to conclude that the only real things are those we experience with our five senses.  Yet “there are things we cannot see:  things behind our backs or far away and all things in the dark,” said C.S. Lewis.

There is another realm of reality, just as actual, just as factual, just as substantial as anything we see, hear, touch, taste, or smell in this world.  It exists all around us-not out there “somewhere,” but “here.”  There are legions of angels helping us, for which the world has no counter measures (Hebrews 1:14).  The psalmist David referred to them as a force of “thousands of thousands” of chariots (Psalm 68:17).  We cannot see God nor His angels with our natural eyes.  But they are there, whether we see them or not.  I believe the world is filled with them.

Faith is the means by which we are able to “see” this invisible world.  That is belief’s true function.  Faith is to the spiritual realm what the five senses are to the natural realm.  The writer of Hebrews says that faith is “the evidence of things not see” (Hebrews 11:1).  By faith we recognize the existence of the spiritual world and learn to depend on the Lord for His help in our daily life.  Our goal, then, as George MacDonald once said, is to “grow eyes” to see the unseen.  DHR

At times our fears may loom so large,

We long for proof that God is near;

It’s then our Father says to us,

“Have faith, My child, and do not fear.” -DJD

Faith sees things that are out of sight