God's word is better than yours.

"What should I say?"

Have you ever wondered that?

You're in a situation where someone is in need. Maybe they need to be encouraged. Maybe they need to be rebuked. And you're just not sure if you can come up with the right words.

What can you do?

Simple, give them the Bible.

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Jeremiah 23:28-29 - "Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the LORD. 29 Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?"

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The Bible gets the job done every time. It always works.

Jeremiah is dealing with this in his day. There were false prophets who thought their words were more effective than God's and so instead of giving the people Scripture, they gave the people their own words.

But their words are just dreams and straw. Unreal. Worthless.

How silly for prophets or pastors to give the people stories and tales from their own hearts instead of feeding the people the real and effective word of God.

God's word is a fire, able to burn away our sin and reform God's people. It is a hammer able to break apart our hard hearts.

So the next time you don't know what to say, don't just say something. Don't just tell them the first thought that comes into your head. Or the second. Or the third.

To give them your ideas would be like telling them to trust in a dream you had. Instead of the bread of life, you'd be trying to feed them worthless straw.

Get in the Bible and look for an answer. Trust that God's word will be exactly what they need to hear. A slow, but correct answer is better than a quick, but wrong one.

Do you have confidence in the word of God? Do you trust it? Do you believe its power?

Or do you think the Bible needs a little help? Like those false prophets, do you think that your ideas, your "dreams", will do more good than God's sure and certain word?

God's word is a purifying fire, cleansing us from our sin. His word is a reforming hammer, sculpting his people, breaking them that they might be remade.

May we be a people who have more faith in God's word than in our own.

God's word is always better than yours.

What does God want you to know?

The Bible is a fount of knowledge for God's people. It is filled with all sorts of wisdom and instruction.

But Paul gives us a quick summary of what he prays for churches to know and I hope that today God would help you to grasp these great and deep truths...

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Ephesians 1:18-19 - "having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might"

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Paul has just told the Ephesian church that he is praying for them, that he is asking God to give them wisdom and revelation about who they are and who their God is.

And what is it that Paul hopes they learn? He lists three things.

Three foundational truths for all believers to know...

First, the hope to which they've been called. In Christ, we have hope. Hope of eternal life, hope of reconciliation with God, hope of forgiveness. And it is a hope not instituted by us but a hope that God has called us to. The Christian life is a life of hope.

Second, God wants us to know that we are rich, that the inheritance that awaits us is one that will not disappoint us. We may lay down our lives to follow the Lord, but there is no loss in the Christian life, only gain.

Lastly, that we may know God is not just powerful, but that he is powerful on our behalf. It is one thing to think of God as some immensely powerful being in the sky, it is quite another to recognize that all of that power is focused for our good. What a relief! What a comfort! God's sovereignty is not some sterile theological term. God's power is a promise that protects his people.

And notice all of these things come from God, not us: It is the hope HE calls us to. It is HIS rich inheritance that he graciously gives us. It is HIS power that protects us.

What does God want you to know? What does he want us all to know?

We have been richly blessed by God.

Our lives are filled with hope, a rich inheritance, and all protected by the power of God.

May those words bring you comfort and joy today, Christian.

This is what God wants you to know.

What's your foundation?

Everyone's life is built on something. A truth, a hope, an idea that you turn to for comfort, for direction, for meaning and purpose.

The question isn't do you have a foundation, everyone does. The question is is your foundation solid, firm. Is it a foundation worth trusting in or will it fail you?

There are plenty of foundations out there, plenty of choices, but the only foundation that really holds any true support is the foundation laid out by God.

So what foundation does God lay out for his people?

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2 Timothy 2:19 - But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

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Here is a firm foundation. God's firm foundation that will stand and that bears the seal of his workmanship.

And this foundation is built on two great pillars of hope and truth.

First, God knows who are his.

In a world of chaos and tumult, where sin and darkness can feel like oppressive foes constantly seeking to devour us, God makes a promise that he knows who his children are.

We have not been nor will we ever be forgotten by our heavenly Father. We will never turn around to grasp his hand in trials and found he has wandered off or find him looking at us as if we are a stranger seeking comfort. We are and ever will be his.

Rest in that hope. Our comfort and assurance do not rest in our circumstances but in God's promises.

But God says there are two pillars to his firm foundation. What is the second?

Those who are God's act like it.

God will not forget his children and his children must not forget their father.

How do we act like his children? We must cast off sin and iniquity in our lives.

If the first pillar of our foundation rested in God's care, this second one is firmly established by our lives. We must not only call on God's name to rescue us, we must live as the rescued. What fool indeed would be pulled from the ocean's depths only to fling himself anew into those turbulent waters?

When God saves his people, his people live as if they have been saved. They do not return to that which killed them. They eschew the scene of that eternal crime, for they are happy in the presence of their new Father and want nothing more to do with that home of death. If we have been saved from sin, we must run from sin as a mortal foe.

Trust God. Run from sin.

In a world built on so many shaky foundations, here is the one that bears God's seal. This one can be trusted. Build your life on these two pillars and you will find a foundation that will prove itself eternally firm and true no matter what this world may throw at you.

What's your foundation?

Singing in the Dark

What should you do when you feel like God has forgotten you?

Sing.

That might seem like a silly answer, an unreasonable response to difficult times.

But that’s what David did...
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Psalms 13:1-2
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
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Even David had times where he felt that God had forgotten him.

He went through moments where the only thing he could think to do was cry out - “How long?”

How long, God? How much more of this do I have to take? My knees are shaking. I’m losing my grip. I don’t know if I can make it much longer.

Where are you, God?

So what did David do?

He sang.
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Psalms 13:6
I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
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In the end, though David panicked, though he felt weak, though he questioned.

In the end, David knew that God would be faithful.

He knew that God’s love was steadfast. That God would save him. That he had not been forgotten.

So David sang.

And he wrote a song to remind us to sing in the dark.

And notice he didn’t sing when the difficult time was over.

He sang during the difficult time.

He sang in hope. He sang in confidence.

He looked to his past blessings to craft a song for his present distress.

Are you going through a difficult time? Do you feel forgotten by God?

Maybe what you need to do is sing.

Look back at all the blessings that God has lavished upon your life.

And find in those blessings a song.

Christians, let’s sing...even in the dark.

Someone who keeps their word...

We live in a world of failure.

A world where people make promises they can’t and sometimes never intend to keep.

A world where even the best intentions don’t mean all that much.

People fail us because they are broken. Sin has driven them to seek themselves even at our expense.

People fail us because they are weak, powerless to keep their word even if they wanted to.

Fail. Fail. Epic fail.

Which is what makes God so amazing.

God keeps his promises.

Every. Single. Time.
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Joshua 21:44-45
And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.
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God kept his promises.

Everything God said he would do for his people, he did.

But he didn’t just keep them.

Not a word of the promises failed.

It’s not that God was just able to keep the gist of the promise.

God kept every word. Every single word that he promises he keeps every single time.

No matter who you are, you can always trust God to keep his word.

In a world where people will fail you every day, it’s nice to have someone you can trust.

So what should you do with that?

Find out what God has promised.

Get in God’s word and see the words that never fail.

Watch him keep his promises in your life.

Every. Single. Time.