“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

The foundation of prayer is surrender to God. The first thing that happens in consistent and earnest prayer is that God transforms my thinking and feeling. To step fully into the power of prayer, I must be as much concerned about what God wants to do in me as I am with what I want God to do around me.

New Year

Bottom Line: God is pleased with those that have trusted in him for eternal peace.

Christmas a time filled with joy. Some of the most popular Christmas songs are filled with themes of joy. In reality, the true joy of Christmas is that God came to dwell with his people. It is this truth that brings the shepherds to their joy filled reaction in Luke 2.

Bottom Line: Jesus provides the example of what God desires for his people.

Many times we wonder what we God have us do in a particular situation. Thankfully, Jesus’ life gives us a pathway of how to live in a way that is pleasing to God. A life that is following after Jesus is filled with mercy, justice, compassion, humility, and love. As John would say, “…whoever abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he [Jesus] walked.”

Bottom Line: Jesus became the final sacrifice for all of mankind.

We know we all come short of living the life that God intends for us. Thankfully, through the sacrifice of Jesus our mistakes and disobedience have been covered by the blood of Son. This glorious truth only came reality through the Incarnation. It is through Jesus’ sacrifice that we can be pure in the sight of a holy God.

Bottom Line: Jesus reveals to us the Heavenly Father.

When Jesus came to this earth he showed humanity the way of the Father. John says that he was full of both grace and truth. It was this revelation that allowed us to see the depth of love, compassion, and grace that God has toward us. Through the incarnation, we get a picture of the unbelievable nature of God.

The love of God cannot be overstated. The truth is not just that God loves us. The truth is that God IS love. We can know God because God knows us fully. God knows the good and the bad. But even the bad does not prevent God from loving us, desiring us, and pursuing us. Knowing that God knows me and loves me encourages me to know Him more.

God is the source of all things great, wonderful, beautiful, and powerful. God is the source of all these things because God IS all these things. God is not just the most glorious—God is the standard, the source, and the object of all glory. To know God in greater depth, we must come with humility and gratitude. We recognize that we do not deserve to be with God yet He invites us in, and we recognize that knowing Him is the most wonderful and satisfying experience in all of life.

Shepherd is more than just a role that God offers to serve in our lives. Shepherd is the nature of God’s heart. God is the one true guide, protector, provider, and healer. Being in need of God is not a burden that I must deal with. My need for God is a great blessing that invites me to know God more and more through each season of life.

One of the foundational character traits of God is that He is truth. We can know God because God is trustworthy, faithful, and unchanging. God is the standard for what is true, right, and good. This steady and reliable nature of God allows us to pursue Him with the confidence that He can be known.