I have a question for you and the topic is “friendship.” What is one thing we never seem to have enough of when it comes to our friends?
Time.
Do you agree with me? As I think back over my life and the time that I have spent with friends, it always seems so short. As kids, we would agree to go ask our parents if we could extend our time to a sleep over. Sometimes trying to hangout for the whole weekend.
In High School, a neighborhood friend went to a different school, but as soon as we got home we would call to hangout, until parents called us in.
As an adult, when I go to visit friends and their families, the days pass quickly and the time comes where I have to leave, only to feel like we have just begun.
Why do we want more time with our friends? Because we love them.
Spoiler alert: I am going to do a Jesus Juke on you…
How much time do you spend with Jesus?
My intention is not to play the role of the Holy Spirit and cause guilt or shame in you. I hope as you read through stories of desiring time with friends brought back some of your own memories and good feelings. But I want you to really press in to this idea of desiring to spend time with the ones you love, and bend that toward your relationship with Jesus.
Jesus was asked this question: Matthew 22:36–38
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.
The most important commandment for us to pursue is to love God with our entire being. Notice how the command starts with “your heart”, the seat of desire. Desire – a strong wanting to have something, to long for, hope for, and have an emotion for, desire.
What we don’t always recognize is that the longing, aching, of our heart at the deepest level is a yearning for our Creator, to know Him and be known by Him. Only in prioritizing the love for Him over all else will we understand the beauty and joy of all other relationships and gifts from God.
Like our love for our friends, love for God should produce a desire to spend time with Him. The amazing thing about God is that He is omnipresent (everywhere at all times), therefore it is possible to spend time with God a whole lot, if we are aware of His presence.
Yet, we need to be intentional about setting times or ways of being with God. Attending church, small group, youth group, and other studies is one great way to learn more about God. Missions trips, retreats and camps are other great options. However, we need something even more intimate that will focus our attention on the heart of our God in such that grows our relationship with Him.
Psalm 46:10
“Be still, and know that I am God.”
Here, the psalmist elicits a command from God for us to “be still” or to “quiet” ourselves before God. This is the idea behind the phrase “Quiet Time.” A quiet time is a time set aside to be still, to reflect on God, to listen to God and to become more like God. It is a time to become more devoted to the God you love by listening to His Word, the Bible.
Now the Bible is a big book, actually it is a library of 66 books. It can be intimidating and it can be difficult to figure out how to approach it. However, the more time we spend in it, the more we will see why we need it and how we can understand it. For instance, let’s look at Psalm 119:9-16. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible with 176 verses. Only 7 of the verses do not specifically mention God’s Word in some way. It is a chapter that tells us of the importance of God’s Word.
Psalm 119:9–16
9 How can a young person keep their way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
10 With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!
11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
12 Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes!
13 With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth.
14 In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.
16 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.
Now that we have considered the importance of love, desire, time, quiet and God’s Word, let’s look at what the psalmist wants us to gather from God’s Word.
Verse 9 – purity, or doing what is right, is accomplished by obeying the Word of the Lord
Verse 10 – whole hearted pursuit of God means holding fast to His commands
Verse 11 – memorizing God’s Word prevents sin
Verse 12 – praise be to God, he instructs us in His ways
Verse 13 – we need to speak the word of God to others
Verse 14 – Following God’s ways are more desirable than earthly wealth
Verse 15 – being intentional to dwell on God’s Word with our mind and our eyes
Verse 16 – taking joy in God’s Word will prevent forgetting His Word
The end goal of a Quiet Time with God is to know Him and become more like Him. It starts first with our desires for Him and time with Him. As our desire for Him and time with Him grows, we will see our lives changing and our minds conforming to be more like Jesus. It takes diligence and patience, but it is the promised result of spending time with Him.
I’ve recently chosen to use the Word of Life Quiet Time journals to be a resource to our youth group in digging in to God’s Word. It’s a resource that makes knowing what to read easy, and it is a good way of being accountable in the practice. There are other good resources, and some have developed their own pattern. The most important part is that we are in God’s Word to spend time with Him.
Loving Jesus should produce a desire to be with Him more and more. He wants to spend time with you and desires you to spend time with Him. Don’t wait until tomorrow, start today!
As a kid, Saturday was the only day I liked to get up early for. Why? Saturday morning cartoons! They were the best! Waking up, getting a bowl of cereal and then heading to the living room to turn on the TV. It was a little more difficult then, because I would have turn the knob to the right channel, mess with the tuning and maybe adjust the rabbit ears. Finally I would curl up on the couch and watch my favorite cartoons.
One being “He-Man”, when I was allowed to watch it. In every episode, it came to a point when trouble seemed like it was going to defeat them, when He-Man would point his sword to the sky and shout, “by the power of Grey Scull (the castle), I have the power” and all of a sudden he would transform into a superhero.
He-Man always used his power to help others and defeat evil. This fictional cartoon called out to us kids to desire power and to do good with that power. Like so many cartoons, movies and stories throughout the years, it sought to capture something deep inside of us, a longing for power.
Truthfully, it is because God created us in His image that we have an understanding and capability of wielding power. Power is placed on us from our Creator. We do not summon some temporary power from a castle called “Grey Skull.” No, we have inherent power because of God’s image in us.
Every human being has power, but what they do with it will determine whether it is an use or abuse of said power. The Bible is our source for understanding the Image of God and what it means to have the power of an image bearer. The fullest expression of the Image of God is only found in following Christ and being intimately involved in a local church.
Acts 4:32–37
32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
In this passage, we see the earliest Christians response to the Gospel and the new community they were involved in.
The Gospel brought an awareness of others importance and need to the community. It is no coincidence that after salvation, their hearts and minds changed from being oblivious to the needs around them, to observant awareness to the needs around them.
Jesus said the world will know we are His disciples by our love for fellow believers (John 13:35). Love here does not mean just found feelings, it means love in action, care of and community.
There is nothing better than being in a Christian community that gets it. They love Jesus and they love each other. One of the greatest joys as a youth pastor was when a new student attending youth group for a few weeks came to me and wanted to receive Christ. When I asked him what lead him to this decisions, his response was, “I see this group actually believes what they say they do and they love each other, I want to be a part of this!”
The Gospel brought the understanding that power is to be used to benefit others. As we read Acts 4, we see those who had much, sold property to help those in need. All of us have power, some have a little and some have a lot, but when we pool our resources, we have more than enough in Christ.
These two principals, to be observant and aware of other’s needs, and to use our power to benefit others, will produce faith communities that will impact those around us.
Observant Awareness:
Look at those around you, whether in your home, school, neighborhood, work, or church, who is in need? Can you observe needs? Have you asked about needs?
Power to Benefit Others:
What can you do about that need?
You may not have a field or valuables to sell, but you do have power given to you by God as an image bearer. Maybe you have a gift to use music, poetry, or mechanical skills. Maybe a letter or note of encouragement. Maybe God will call you to give up something or sell something to give to others.
I’ve been encouraged lately hearing that someone in our church has been giving money to our leadership to hand out anonymously to the recipient. They have just said, “give to someone who may need this or be blessed by this.” They want no credit or no accolades, they just want to bless the community. Praise God for believers like that!
You can be used by God to bless others. Big or small, use your power to bless others.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
It’s no accident that Jesus put these two commandments together, especially as we begin to understand the Imago Dei (Image of God) that He has woven into our essence. In order to fully love God, we have to love what He loves. How can we say we love God but not see His handiwork in His creation? It’s impossible.
The more you capture an idea of who God is, His heart for humans, what He has done to redeem humanity, and the provisions He makes for this sinful race, you can’t help but love Him more.
Over the past couple of weeks we have seen that God created humanity, both male and female, in His image. That means there is intrinsically something special, something powerful, something beautiful in every human life. We have seen that the Fall, when sin entered the world, did mar the Image, but it did not remove it. God’s plan to create image bearers was not thwarted, but sin brought the need for redemption and reconciliation to fully experience the Image of God as He intended.
Jesus Christ came to be that perfect, exact representation of God to this world. His perfect life, sacrifice and resurrection provided the very means we desperately need to restore the image of God in us. Only in following Jesus Christ will we truly experience the abundant life (John 10:10) as Image Bearers.
The Imago Dei is in you, you are the result of a special work by God (Psalm 139:13-16). The image of God in each of us gives us our identity and brings value to our work.
Tonight we are looking at the image of God in others. This is what Jesus was driving at in Matthew 22. A right relationship with God results in a love for others. A good biblical term for it is, fruit. When deeply rooted in the love of God, your life will bear the fruit of love for your neighbor, or fellow human.
Apart from God, the sinful bent of mankind is to dehumanize and demonize others. Think of the hostility between local schools in the same community, where the competition drives them to disliking and even desiring to harm the opponents. We see this in sports and business. Then we get to extremes seen in tribalism and racism.
Inherent within us is the knowledge of right and wrong, and Romans 1 tells us that the sinful nature suppresses the knowledge of God and believes a lie. When we think back to the atrocities that have happened in our country regarding slavery, we see a particularly demonic agenda where image bearers of God were dehumanized and treated as less than human.
This campaign of American slavery dehumanized an entire ethnic group of people and rip their God-given dignity away from them. It was a dark and demonic movement, and we are still suffering from the sins of our nation’s founders today.
God’s desire for us is to see the beauty of His image in others. When we see someone different than us, it is to be celebrated, not demonized. An artist doesn’t create a masterpiece with one color, she uses a palette of colors. God has created a beautiful diversity in His image bearers, who all equally reflect His fingerprints.
It is the love for Christ that allows Christians to truly see the Imago Dei in others and drives them to spread the Gospel to the world. It drove Paul to travel most of the known world in the first century to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.
We can be agents of the Gospel by loving others and treating them with the dignity of an image bearer of God. In this Covid-19 era, we are confronted with the importance of community and appropriate human contact due to shut-downs and social distancing. Isolation and loneliness are a breeding ground for depression and anxiety.
The simplest touch changes things. A handshake or a hug is more powerful than you can imagine.
I learned this several years ago when I was in Kenya. As we all know, HIV/AIDS has hit Africa hard. In the area we visited, they treated AIDS victims like they treated lepers in biblical times. Viewed as unclean and contagious, people are isolated, neglected and left to die. Even family members keep their distance. It is sad to witness how this poor treatment affects those afflicted.
I saw this first hand when we went to visit Eunice, a young lady with full blown AIDS. Eunice lived with her mom in Marthare slums of Kenya, just outside of Nairobi. Eunice’s case of AIDS was in the advanced stages when we stopped in to check on her. When I entered the shanty, I saw shocked by what I encountered.
Before me lay a 20 year old girl withering away on a thin mat on the dirt floor. AIDS had taken her sight, most of her hearing. Her body had wasted away to all but skin and bones. Breathing was labored.
Dave, our missionary leader, shared the Gospel with her and asked me to pray for her. I knelt down beside her and reached out to grab her hand. When my hand met hers, it was if her whole body jumped with a start, surprised at human contact. But then a sigh, followed by her frame relaxing from the comfort. I prayed and we departed.
As we left, Dave said that was probably the first time she had been touched by another human since contracting AIDS. Forever I will remember Eunice and that moment when dignity was restored to her by a simple touch. She died less than two weeks later.
The image that comes to mind when I reflect on this story of Eunice is a reminder to me of what Jesus has done for us. We were desperate and sick, skeletal and dying, isolated and wasting away, when He came into our world. He came, not just to hold our hand and pray, but to bring life and healing to us by His Word.
Why would I remember a person I only met once, for just a brief moment, who was dying from AIDS? Because she was an image bearer of God, and I hope and pray that she heard the message of Jesus and is today experience wholeness and life with Him.
Who do you need to treat with the dignity today? How can you help someone feel a little less lonely in this world? How can you see the Image of God in others?
It starts with looking to Jesus and loving Him above all else. The rest will be the fruit of His love flowing through you.
We are continuing on in our series The Good Shepherd in Psalm 23. This beloved Psalm has been quoted in numerous contexts and settings, offering encouragement to believers for thousands of years.
The problem with familiarity is that we don’t often slow down and think through the depth of the psalm, and we pigeon hole the text to common expressions. For instance, considering Psalm 23 as a funeral Psalm and missing out on the everyday life application of this song.
I am so thankful Petar chose to begin this year in this Psalm by focusing in on each verse individually.
With that, let’s turn to Psalm 23 and read it in its entirety, then we will focus on verse 5 today.
Read Psalm 23
Theology Provokes Worship
As we read through the text there are a couple of shifts David presents us. 1-3, David is describing God with the pronoun “He”. In these few phrases, David is recounting what he believes about God, which is what we call “theology.” Every believer is an amateur theologian, meaning we all think about God and talk about God. We have views of God which we should regularly recount and develop.
Then in verse 4-6 we see a shift from talking about God, to talking to God, this is called “worship.” We should never allow ourselves to talk about God’s glories without turning those into praise. This is a natural shift when our theology engages our hearts.
I also think verse 4 gives us another reason for this intimate shift, the valley of the shadow of death. Suffering is the breeding ground for intimacy.
“We are more prone to talk about God when we are in the green pasture and more prone to cry out to God when we enter some fearful ravine.” – John Piper
As believers, we need to develop a robust theology of suffering, that is, we need to understand that suffering is an opportunity to rely on God, to loosen our grip on the temporal and embrace the eternal. Suffering moves us from being satisfied in the green pastures to longing for to be with our Savior in His heavenly dwelling place.
James 1:2–4
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (ESV)
It’s About Honor
One more thought from the context before digging in to verse 5. In verse 3, we heard an astounding phrase, “for His name’s sake.” Why is God doing all this for us? For His name’s sake! It’s about His reputation, about His character. It is who He is.
As we just sang, “You’re a good good Father, it’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are!”
In our culture honor, character and integrity are virtues, but we are not an honor culture, at least not like the what we see in the Jewish and Middle Eastern cultures. Your name, your family name and your house’s reputation were guarded with great care.
We see this understanding of honor and “name’s sake” expressed in the Bedouin hospitality laws. The Bedouin culture has been around for over 4,500 years. Bedouins are a people who live in tents and continually move around the Judean/Jordanian wilderness.
In a Bedouin context, tales about hospitality and generosity became as important as battle stories. Just as important as being a strong and victorious in battle was being a welcoming and hospitable host. Consider,
1 Kings 8:41–43
41 “Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for your name’s sake 42 (for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, 43 hear in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name. (ESV)
It is this honor code that God has used to describe Himself. His provision, protection, leading and hospitality communicate His character and draws people to Himself. This is why it is so important for us to be His “witnesses” to the world, that we proclaim the love and care we have experienced from our Father.
It is this Bedouin backdrop that shapes how I’ve read through Psalm 23, and especially verse 5. Keep that in mind as we talk through our verse for this week.
Psalm 23:5
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. (ESV)
Many commentators and Study Bible contributors provide a significant change in Psalm 23 when we come to verse 5. They transport us from the shepherd with His sheep in the field, to the royal palace. They use the words like “banquet” and “feast” and conjure up images of a kingdom and festivals.
Those images and ideas are not foreign to the Bible and feasts and celebrations with God are talked about numerous times. But I don’t want to leave the wilderness, the shepherd/sheep context of Psalm 23 too quickly.
Will you walk through this with me, thinking of a Bedouin context for verse 5.
Radical Hospitality
“You prepare a table before me…”
In the Negev, the Judean wilderness, where shepherds watch over their flocks, it is a hard land. It’s not the green pasture lands of Ohio. It’s rocky, difficult terrain, where the shepherds need to lead their sheep continually to new grasslands. This led to the nomadic lifestyle of the Bedouin.
In the desert wilderness of Judea, the harsh environment was exhausting and would demand the life of one who does not know the wilderness. This is why the Bedouin’s developed the desert code of hospitality. In the desert, one is always welcomed to your tent. When a guest arrived, announced or unannounced, they were to be treated with honor and care.
Look at Genesis 18:1–8
1 And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth 3 and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, 5 while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6 And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quick! Three seahs of fine flour! Knead it, and make cakes.” 7 And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly. 8 Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate. (ESV)
Here we see the Bedouin Hospitality on display. The generosity of Abraham is on display. The invitation, the water for washing, a place to rest, to a snack to eat and to be refreshed. Once that is taken care of, he rushed out to prepare a meal.
If we read this from an American perspective, Abraham looks task driven, hasty and inconvenienced by the important visitors. But from a Bedouin’s view, this is a wonderful tale of hospitality, where Abraham is not rushing out of inconvenient embarrassment, but out of joy for having a guest in his tent.
This is the image I have as I read this verse. We haven’t left the wilderness where the Shepherd watches over the sheep. Rather, we have a tent in the wilderness, where the host beckons us to his table.
I think David is caught up in this imagery as he is humbled by God preparing a meal, washing his feet, and giving his weary soul a place to rest.
Not only is God’s radical hospitality on display at the table, but it also says a strange phrase:
“in the presence of my enemies…”
We all have enemies, whether external or internal. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. Habitual sins, wayward thoughts, lies we believe, relationships that are broken, or even people who antagonize us. David definitely knew about having enemies.
Early on, David faced the Philistine giant, Goliath. Shortly thereafter he had to run from King Saul, who was jealous of him. David wander throughout the desert land evading enemies in his youth, and later in life when he fled from his own son’s conspiracy to take over his kingdom.
David knew what it was like to be overwhelmed by this world. He did not take God’s hospitality for granted.
The Bedouin Hospitality laws not only demand that provisions are made, but that protection is offered. A leading scholar on the Bedouin life, Dr. Clinton Bailey, said this,
“A Bedouin host is obliged to protect anyone who enters his tent from outside threats…Preventing harm from befalling anyone who has entered a man’s tent, who has thereby become his guest, is reflected in the legal directive, “Defend a guest if he’s done good or done bad; keep a violator at bay or pay for his faults.” Defending a guest may mean stopping assailants from assaulting their intended victim by admonishing the assailants, especially if they are still outside the tent.”
Again, it was the character and honor of the host at stake, and therefore they would protect the guest, even if it put their own life in danger. As in this Bedouin legal directive, “You will die in front of the one you’re protecting.”
This understand is transformative! God is not transporting us out of the shepherd’s fields and into a palace, He is meeting us where we are at to provide refreshment and protection for our souls.
Not only will God stand before you and your enemies, He sent His Son to defeat your enemies. Jesus was willing to die in front of the one He is protecting, by taking our sin and shame to the cross, conquering it by overcoming death. Listen to His invitation:
Matthew 11:28
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (ESV)
Oh weary soul, listen to the voice of our Savior calling out to you, come to His table and find the provision and protection you need. Experience the radical hospitality of our divine host today.
Compassionate Care
Not only does our Shepherd offer us radical hospitality, but he shows us compassion in the way He cares for us.
“Anoints my head with oil…”
It’s easy to read this and think of the anointing of kings, or the anointments of perfumed oils at festivals. But let’s stay in the shepherd’s context here. The Hebrew word for anoints in this passage is “to make healthy.” To anoint a king is a different word all together.
The Bedouins would offer their guests oils to refresh their face and skin. This was particularly refreshing coming out of the sun and wind of the wilderness.
A caring shepherd, even today, will anoint the sheep’s head with oils for several reasons. We all know what it is like to have dry and cracked skin, especially in the winter. A shepherd would rub oil to bring healing to the sheep’s cracked skin.
Another reason as shepherd would put oil on a sheep’s head was to keep the flies away. There is a type of fly that will pester the sheep continually so they can’t rest. These flies will land on the sheep and try to lay their larva in the cracks of their skin or in their nose. This causes to the sheep pain, frustration, and can even lead to death.
Shepherds developed an oil mixture that keeps these flies away and protects. Sheep who are being attacked by these flies will rub their noses in the ground or on a bush, or sometimes even bang their head on a rock. An observant shepherd would see this and treat the sheep with this medicinal salve.
Do you resonate with that sheep having flies attacking and being a painful nuisance to you? Allow the tender, compassionate Shepherd to apply the oil of healing to your pain.
James 5:14
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. (ESV)
We most often refer to this when it comes to physical sickness, but it is not limited to the body. The flies that are attacking can be physical sickness, or mental struggles. James is calling us to bring in spiritual leaders who can be the presence of the Good Shepherd to us. Whether it is real oil, or the presence of prayers and counselors that act as the oil of healing to our weary souls, we need to bring others into our pain.
As I read Psalm 23, especially 4-6, I see David increasingly being astounded by what he is writing about God. This is a song of praise, of worship and wonder. As he ponders God’s protection, provision, and care, I can’t help but think he did recall the time he was called from the shepherds field and anointed with oil.
Yes, it’s a different word, as I have said earlier, but it was a profound moment in David’s life. This radical hospitality, compassionate care and call from his God led David to Abundant Joy.
Abundant Joy
“my cup overflows.”
The Bedouins would offer water, milk and wine to their guests. A generous host would ensure that their cup was never empty, thus, my cup overflows would mean that I have been greatly cared for by my host.
Consider Psalm 104:15
“You (God) gave… wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.” (ESV)
In this verse we see the Bedouin radical hospitality of our God on display to bring joy to our hearts. David is overwhelmed by God’s love and his care for him. An overflowing cup is a symbol of abundant joy.
When you dwell on the presence, provision and protection of our Good Shepherd, how can you not be filled with joy?
When we come to Psalm 23, and dig deep, as we have, we have to allow the truths, the promises and the teaching to sink deeply into our hearts. We cannot just memorize the verses, recite the refrain, without letting it affect our heart and expect the abundant joy that David sings about.
Oh Christian, Jesus is offering you abundant joy, are you living in it? Drink deeply from His provision, His care, His protection and know His love for you.
John 7:37–39
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (ESV)
This is His promise to you, that when we come to Him, our lives will be the cup that overflows with the living waters, that His Spirit will indwell us, empower us, and help us overcome.
Daily you can come to the table of our Lord and experience His provision, protection and care.
