New Morning Mercies for Teens E-Book

Paul David Tripp

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Paul David Tripp's Bestselling Daily Devotional New Morning Mercies, Adapted for Teenagers Teenagers today face unprecedented and complex challenges in their lives and relationships. Parents and youth leaders can offer valuable Christian guidance, but it's in Scripture that we encounter the wisdom of Jesus, new and sufficient for that day's difficulty and temptation.   This updated edition of Paul David Tripp's bestselling book New Morning Mercies features 365 engaging daily devotionals, adapted for ages 13–21. Each reading includes a compelling, gospel-centered tweet, an extended meditation for the day, a Bible verse to commit to memory, and a prompt for discussion or personal meditation. Tripp also includes a bonus Q&A chapter in which he briefly answers questions around relevant topics including anxiety, gender, social media, and spiritual disciplines. Focused less on behavior modification and more on helping teenagers encounter the living God, this book helps young people to fall in love with Jesus, find freedom and joy within his boundaries, and live for his glory—day in and day out. - Adapted from New Morning Mercies (Over 1 Million Copies Sold): Features 365 revised devotionals and new discussion questions for ages 13–21 - Bonus Q&A Chapter: Tripp answers teens' questions around 18 important topics including depression, pornography, social media, and church - Written by Paul David Tripp: Author of the bestselling books Parenting and Age of Opportunity: A Biblical Guide to Parenting Teens - A Great Gift for High School Students and College Students

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“We give deep thanks to the Lord for Paul Tripp’s unique ability to apply the gospel of grace to the ins and outs of everyday life. For many years, Tripp has shaped our own lives, family, and ministry through his biblical wisdom, generous friendship, and wonderful way with words. Now, as the parents of four daughters, we are thrilled for our girls to receive the same blessing of biblical truth, beautifully distilled in devotional form, that speaks to the joys and fears, delights and concerns, questions and hopes of their growing hearts. We pray that they, and all other young people who engage the daily rhythms of this book, will find ever-increasing joy and peace as they encounter the glory of the Savior.”

Keith and Kristyn Getty, hymn writers and recording artists, “In Christ Alone”; authors, Sing! How Worship Transforms Your Life, Family, and Church

“Paul Tripp’s writing has been a great source of life to me. New Morning Mercies for Teens encourages those who have grown weary of the struggle, living under the weight of the world.”

TobyMac, hip-hop recording artist; music producer; songwriter

“In an age when teens are more distracted and anxious than ever, Paul Tripp’s book is a clarion call to remember the one thing that is necessary. He urges young readers to examine the depth of their personal beliefs and consider how they will live out their faith in tangible ways as they move into adulthood. What a great resource to get teens thinking about and talking with God every day!”

Jim Daly, President, Focus on the Family

“What a valuable application of Paul Tripp’s classic devotional for teenagers. New Morning Mercies for Teens retains the timeless and life-giving gospel message while adding reflection questions to help young Christians meditate on the truths. This book is a welcomed gospel resource for young people.”

Cameron Cole, Founding Chairman, Rooted Ministry; coeditor, Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry; author, Therefore I Have Hope

“Solid countercultural truth! That’s what you can count on in this treasure trove for teens who are serious about nurturing their faith in God. Paul David Tripp does not serve up spiritual milk to teens but the meaty truth they need. Each day he provides a daily truth statement at the top of each day’s devotional. That single daily sentence alone is worth the price of this book.”

Dannah Gresh, bestselling author, Lies Young Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free

“Paul Tripp is one of the most skilled at connecting the gospel to all of life. In New Morning Mercies for Teens, he connects the everyday struggles and joys of teenagers to the hope found in the finished work of Jesus. I couldn’t be more excited to put this in the hands of my own children, and I would encourage you to do the same.”

John Perritt, Director of Resources, Reformed Youth Ministries; Host, The Local Youth Worker podcast; author; father of five

New Morning Mercies for Teens

New Morning Mercies for Teens

A Daily Gospel Devotional

Paul David Tripp

New Morning Mercies for Teens: A Daily Gospel Devotional

© 2024 by Paul David Tripp

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Matt Lehman

First printing 2024

The text of New Morning Mercies for Teens has been adapted from Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014).

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

“Not in Me,” words and music by Eric Schumacher and David L. Ward, © 2012 Hymnicity. Used with permission. (Cited in September 19)

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4335-9236-2 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-9238-6 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-9237-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Tripp, Paul David, 1950- author.

Title: New morning mercies for teens : a daily gospel devotional / Paul David Tripp.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, [2024] | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2023029891 (print) | LCCN 2023029892 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433592362 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781433592379 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433592386 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Teenagers—Prayers and devotions. | Devotional calendars. | Christian teenagers—Religious life.

Classification: LCC BV4850 .T76 2024 (print) | LCC BV4850 (ebook) | DDC 242/.63—dc23/eng/20231020

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023029891

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023029892

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2024-02-13 12:34:07 PM

To the members of my ever-expanding team, you are faithful, godly, and smart, and I am beyond grateful for each of you.

Introduction

You are a teenager: that means you are in one of the most exciting and most important times of your life! As you begin to read through this special edition of New Morning Mercies for Teens, I want to alert you to seven issues you will face that will influence the shape and direction of the rest of your life.

1. During these years you will begin to decide the meaning and purpose of your life. So far, your values—the things you think are worth living for—have been shaped by your parents. You begin to make that critical decision for yourself during your teen years. What will be the thing that will capture your heart and shape the direction of your life?

2. Will you internalize the faith you have been taught? There is probably no more significant decision in life than this one. Everyone believes something. Every home has religious convictions, whether or not they consider themselves religious. Every home seeks to instill their “faith” in their children. In the teen years, you will decide what you will believe about God, about yourself, about right and wrong, about what is true and what is false, about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and about how you will live out your beliefs in everyday life.

3. You will make significant decisions that shape your future. Wow, there are huge decisions ahead of you! What are your gifts, interests, and passions? What do you see as your life’s work? Where will you go to college? Will the church be an essential part of your life? If you could have your dream future, what would it be?

4. You will begin stepping out of some daily parental protection. During the younger years of your life, your parents made all of your decisions for you. During the teen years, you begin to make more and more of those decisions for yourself. I don’t mean that you no longer need parents. However, you are moving into a stage where rather than exercising total control over your life, your parents will offer you wise counsel, while you will bear more and more of the burden of making the decisions that will shape how you live.

5. What kind of community will you surround yourself with? This is a big one. Until now, your mom, dad, grandparent, or guardian have chosen the community they felt comfortable having you in. They were the gatekeepers, vetting the friends that came into your life. But now, you will increasingly have that responsibility. Who will you allow into your life? Whose advice and counsel will you listen to? Who will you entrust with the important things in your life? Who will you allow to influence the way you think and the way that you live? You will surround yourself with others, and those people will significantly impact who you become.

6. How seriously will you pursue your relationship with God? Most teens were first exposed to God, his will, and his way in their homes and by their parents. My mom and dad thought a relationship with God was the most important thing for me, but I had to decide that for myself at some point (which I did during my teen years). No one can make you love God. No one can make you willing to surrender your heart and life to him. No one has the power to produce faith in you. Will you make God the center of your life? Will you pursue him every day?

7. What kind of success will you value most? Every human being runs after some type of success. Everybody defines what a successful life is. Will you live for material success? Will you live for career success? Will you define success in money terms? Will success be determined by how many people love and respect you? Will success be defined as living a life pleasing to your Creator? You will define success somehow, and how you define it will determine how you live.

Since you will be asked to grapple with life-shaping issues in your teen years, you will need reliable, true, and trustworthy guidance. What will be your life GPS? Whose plan for life will you follow? I love what the Bible says in Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” God gave you his word to be a guide to you. As you walk through the forest of life, often dark with roots that will trip you up, the Bible has been given to you to light the way so you can be sure of where to go and how to get there. The central theme of the word of God is the story of the transforming grace that is ours because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

I am excited that you are about to embark on a journey through this special edition of New Morning Mercies, designed specifically for teens. Each daily reading includes a brief devotional, a passage from Scripture to meditate on, and a reflection question that applies to what you’re facing in life. We’ve also added a new Q&A bonus chapter, with questions about topics that every teen will experience and how the Bible provides answers. So be sure to visit and revisit the back of this book when these issues arise in your life.

My prayer is that in your daily devotional time with the Lord and this book, you will be reminded of the truths of God’s word day after day. May it cause you to admit how much you need the forgiving, reconciling, and transforming grace of Jesus. And may it give you wisdom from God’s word to live by. There is no better way to prepare for all the significant issues that will shape your future than to spend time every day meditating on God’s truth, remembering his grace, and recommitting yourself to a life shaped by following him.

May God use these devotions to light the exciting path before you.

Paul David Tripp

May 26, 2023

January 1

Here’s the bottom line. The Christian life, the church, and our faith are not about us, they’re about him—his plan, his kingdom, his glory.

It really is the struggle of struggles. It is the thing that makes our lives messy. It is what sidetracks our thoughts and kidnaps our desires. It is the one battle that one never escapes. It is the one place where ten out of ten of us need rescue. It is the fight that God wages on our behalf to help us to remember this: life is simply not about us.

This is precisely why the first four words of the Bible may be its most important words: “In the beginning, God . . .” (Gen. 1:1). Everything that was created was made by God and for God. All the glories of the created world were designed to point to his glory. That includes you and me. We were not meant to live independently for our own moments of glory. No, we were created to live for him.

Where is this godward living meant to find expression? I love how Paul captures this in 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” When Paul thinks of the call to live for the glory of God, he doesn’t first think of the big, life-changing, spiritual moments of life. No, he thinks of something mundane and repetitive, like eating and drinking. Even the most regular, seemingly unimportant tasks of my life must be shaped and directed by a heartfelt desire for the glory of God.

Let’s start the new year by admitting that there is nothing less natural for us than to live for the glory of another. This admission is not the doorway to despair but to hope. God knew that in your sin you would never live this way, so he sent his Son. Jesus lived the life you couldn’t, died on your behalf, and rose again, conquering sin and death. He did this so that you would be forgiven for your allegiance to your own glory. When you admit your need for help, you connect yourself to the rescue he has already provided in his Son, Jesus.

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,

for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! (Ps. 115:1)

Reflect: Where do you feel hopeless this week? How does reaching out for God’s rescue actually give you hope to live for God’s glory?

January 2

Your rest is not to be found in figuring your life out but in trusting the one who has it all figured out for your good and his glory.

We were on our way to the local mall with our two young boys when the three-year-old asked out of the blue, “Daddy, if God made everything, did he make light poles?” When he asked, I had the same thought that all parents have: “Why does he have to ask me ‘why’ questions all the time?”

Human beings have a deep desire to know and understand. Each day we spend a lot of mental time trying to figure things out. We don’t live by instinct. We are all archaeologists who dig into the mounds of our lives to try to make sense of the civilization that is our story. We are all theologians.

God gave us this drive to know, and he also gave wonderful abilities to analyze. This motivation and ability set us apart from the rest of creation. They are created by God to draw us to him, so that we can know him and understand ourselves in light of his existence and will.

But sin makes this drive and these gifts dangerous. They tempt us to think that we can find our hearts by figuring it all out. We think: “If only I could understand this or that, then I’d be secure.” But it never works.

In your most brilliant moment, you will still be left with mystery in your life; sometimes even painful mystery. We all face things that appear to make little sense. So we never find rest in our quest to understand it all. No, rest is found in trusting the one who understands it all and rules it all for his glory and our good.

In moments when you wish you knew what you can’t know, there is one who knows. He loves you and rules what you don’t understand with your good in mind. Few passages capture this kind of rest better than Psalm 62:

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,

for my hope is from him.

He only is my rock and my salvation,

my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

On God rests my salvation and my glory;

my mighty rock, my refuge is God. (Ps. 62:5–7)

Reflect: Do you ever struggle with doubt? How does God’s love give better rest to your soul than God’s answers?

January 3

If eternity is the plan, then it makes no sense to shrink your living down to the needs and wants of this little moment.

There is no doubt about it—the Bible is a big-picture book that calls us to big-picture living. Often we shrink our focus to whatever spontaneous thought, emotion, or need grips us at any given time. Yet the Bible simply does not permit you to live for the moment. God’s word calls you to think about things that happened before the world began and thousands of years into eternity in the future.

But it’s hard to live with eternity in view. Again and again, life shrinks our focus down to the moment in front of us. There are moments when it seems that the most important thing in life is getting through this day of classes, winning this game, or getting more food. There are moments when who we are, who God is, and where this whole thing is going shrink into the background of the thoughts, emotions, and needs of the moment. There are moments when we get lost, even though we’re in the middle of God’s story. We lose our minds, we lose our sense of direction, and we lose our remembrance of him.

God reminds us that this is not all there is, that we were created and re-created in Christ Jesus for eternity. He reminds us not to live for the treasures of the moment: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matt. 6:19–20).

Think about this: if God has already granted you a place in eternity, then he has also granted you all the grace you need along the way, or you’d never get there. There is grace for our easily distracted hearts. There is rescue for our self-absorption and lack of focus. The God of eternity grants you his eternal grace so that you can live with eternity in view.

But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. (Luke 12:20–21)

Reflect: At the beginning and ending of your day, how can you set your mind on eternity?

January 4

The best theology will not remove mystery from your life, so rest is found in trusting the one who rules, is all, and knows no mystery.

In 2006, a drunk and unlicensed driver swerved up on the sidewalk and crushed our daughter Nicole against a wall. She had devastating injuries. The injury shattered her pelvis and triggered massive internal bleeding. I rushed to the hospital. When I entered Nicole’s intensive-care room, I wasn’t sure if she could hear me. I crawled up on Nicole’s bed and whispered, “It’s Dad, you’re not alone. God is with you too.”

That day, I felt like the whole world went dark. My heart cried, “Why, why, why?”

If I could choose, I wouldn’t have any of my children go through such a thing. And if I had had to choose one of my children, I wouldn’t have chosen Nicole at that moment in her life. She seemed so vulnerable. But in an instant, we had been cast into life-changing mystery. And all our belief in God didn’t take that mystery away. Nicole did recover well, but we lived through four years of hardship.

During that time, here was my comfort: when it came to Nicole’s accident, God was neither surprised nor afraid. You see, there is no mystery with God. He is never caught off guard. I love the words of Daniel 2:22: “He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with him.”

God is with you in your moments of darkness because he will never leave you. But your darkness isn’t dark to him. He understands all the things that confuse you the most. Your mysteries aren’t mysterious to him. More than that: he is in complete charge of all that is mysterious to you and me.

Remember this: what you see as dark, God sees as light. He holds both you and your mysteries in his gracious hands. And that means you can find rest even when the darkness of mystery has entered your life.

Can you find out the deep things of God?

Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?

It is higher than heaven—what can you do?

Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?

Its measure is longer than the earth

and broader than the sea. (Job 11:7–9)

Reflect: What confuses you about life right now? Ask God to give you his light about that area. And ask him for strength to trust him in the dark, while you wait for his light.

January 5

If you obey for a thousand years, you’re no more accepted than when you first believed; your acceptance is based on Christ’s righteousness and not yours.

Sin is a bigger disaster than we think, and grace is more amazing than we seem able to grasp. Because if you know what the Bible says about sin, you know it’s impossible for someone to rise to God’s standard of perfection. No one can perform his or her way into acceptance with God. What an insane delusion! Yet we all tend to think that we are more righteous than we are. And when we think this, we’ve taken the first step to embracing our own delusion: maybe we’re not so bad in God’s eyes after all.

This is why the reality check of Romans 3:20 is so important. Paul writes, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight.” If you prayed every moment of your life, you could not pray enough prayers to earn acceptance with God. If you gave every penny of every dollar that you ever earned in every job you ever had, you could not give enough to deserve acceptance with God. If every word you ever spoke was uttered with the purest motives, you would never be able to speak your way into reconciliation with God. Sin is too big. God’s bar is too high. It is beyond the reach of every human being who has ever taken his or her first breath.

This is why God, in love, sent his Son (Rom. 5:8). You see, there was and is no other way. There is only one portal to acceptance with God—the righteousness of Christ. His righteousness is given over to our account; sinners are welcomed into the presence of a holy God based on the perfect obedience of another.

Christ is our hope, Christ is our rest, Christ is our peace. He perfectly fulfilled God’s requirement so that in our sin, weakness, and failure we would never again have to fear God’s anger. This is what grace does! So as the children of grace, we obey as a service of worship, not in a desperate attempt to do what is impossible—independently earn God’s favor.

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:8)

Reflect: What’s been the biggest hardship of your week? Take a few minutes to compare this hardship with the disaster of sin. How is Christ your hope over all of it?

January 6

Contentment celebrates grace. The contented heart is satisfied with the giver and is therefore freed from craving the next gift.

Sin does two very significant things to us all. First, it causes us to focus on ourselves, to make life all about us. We are too motivated by our wants, our needs, and our feelings. We tend to be more aware of what we don’t have than of the many wonderful blessings we’ve been given. And this self-focus tends to make us scorekeepers; we constantly compare our piles of stuff to the piles of others. It’s a life of discontentment and envy. Envy is always selfish.

There is a second significant thing that sin does to us. It causes us to look horizontally for what can only ever be found vertically. So we look to creation to give us life, hope, peace, rest, contentment, identity, meaning and purpose, inner peace, and motivation to continue. The problem is that nothing in creation can give you these things. Creation was never designed to satisfy your heart.

Creation was made to point you to the one who alone has the ability to satisfy your heart. Many people go through life asking creation to be their savior, that is, to give them what only God is able to give.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Ps. 73:25–26)

These are the words of a man who learned the secret to contentment.

When you are satisfied with the giver, you are free. You are free from the discouraging existence that consumes so many people. Your heart will rest only ever when it has found its rest in him.

Here is one of the most beautiful fruits of grace—a heart that is content. It is grace and grace alone that can make this kind of peaceful living possible for each of us. Won’t you reach out today for that grace?

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. (1 Tim. 6:6–7)

Reflect: Is your heart more given to worshiping God or demanding from God? Are you more given to the joy of gratitude or the anxiety of want?

January 7

Every day you need it. You and I simply can’t live without it. What is it? The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

For years, I had a terrible gap in my understanding of the gospel. I can’t tell you why it was missing, but it made my Christian life pretty miserable. I knew that by grace I had been granted God’s forgiveness. I knew that I had been graced with an all-inclusive pass into eternity. In the meantime, I thought it was my job to just gut it out. It was my responsibility to identify sin, to cut it out of my life, and to give myself to living in better, more biblical ways.

I tried this, trust me. I tried it and found it didn’t work. It seemed that I failed more times than I succeeded. I became more and more frustrated and discouraged. I can remember the moment in college when it all came to a head. It was six o’clock in the morning. I was having the devotions that I really didn’t want to have, when I finally put my head down on my desk and cried, “I can’t do what you’re asking me to do!” Then I read the next chapter in my daily Bible reading, and by God’s grace it was Romans 8.

I read that chapter over and over, including these words: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (8:13). They were like fireworks going off in my head. God knew my need as a sinner was so great that he had to come and live inside me. If he didn’t, I would not be or do what I had been re-created to be or do.

I need the presence and power of the Holy Spirit living inside me because sin kidnaps the desires of my heart, blinds my eyes, and weakens my knees. My problem is not just the guilt of sin; it’s the inability of sin as well. So God graces his children with the convicting, sight-giving, desire-producing, and strength-affording presence of the Spirit. It can’t be said any better than Paul says it at the end of his discussion of the gift of the Spirit:

[He gives] life to your mortal bodies. (Rom. 8:11)

Reflect: What temptations trip you up most often? How is putting “to death the deeds of the body” different than doing the same thing “by the Spirit” (cf. Rom. 8:13)?

January 8

God calls you to believe and then works with zeal to craft you into a person who really does live by faith.

I don’t know how much you’ve thought about this, but faith isn’t natural for you and me.

Doubt is natural. Fear is natural. Living based on your brain’s thoughts and your body’s senses is natural. Pushing the current catalog of personal “what-ifs” through your mind before you go to sleep is natural. Envying the life of someone else is natural. Looking horizontally for the peace that you will only ever find vertically is natural. Anxiously wishing for change in things that you have no ability to change is natural. Giving way to despondency, discouragement, depression, or despair is natural. Numbing yourself with busyness, material things, media, food, or some other substance is natural. Lowering your standards to deal with your disappointment is natural. But faith simply isn’t natural to us.

As Paul says in Ephesians 2:8, faith really is “the gift of God.” To the average, sin-damaged human being, there is nothing more counterintuitive than faith in God. So God gives us the power to first believe. Yet he doesn’t stop there. By grace he works in the situations, locations, and relationships of our everyday lives to change us. He’s crafting us into people who hold the radical belief that he really does exist and he really does reward those who seek him (Heb. 11:6).

Next time you face a difficult or unexpected moment, remember: your situation actually reflects a God who is near to you and doing in you a very good thing. He is rescuing you from relying on the inadequate resources of your wisdom, experience, righteousness, and strength. He is transforming you into a person who is shaped by radical God-centered faith. He is the ultimate craftsman, and we are his clay. He will not take us off his wheel until his fingers have molded us into those who really do believe.

But when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” (Mark 6:49–50)

Reflect: What difficult situation in life might God be using to build greater reliance on him? How are you tempted to respond to this situation naturally?

January 9

For the believer, fear is always God-forgetful. If God is sovereign and his rule is complete, wise, righteous, and good, why would you fear?

The words of King Hezekiah (below) ring as true today as they did in the scary moment centuries ago when they were first spoken. Judah had been invaded by the powerful king of Assyria, Sennacherib. King Hezekiah prepared and armed Judah for battle, but that is not all he did. He addressed the people with a more significant issue. He knew that in these moments God’s people were often given to fear. And he knew where that fear came from.

Often in moments of challenge the people of God would panic because they were identity amnesiacs. They would forget who they were as the children of the all-powerful God. So at this moment, Hezekiah knew he couldn’t just be a good king and a skilled general. He must also be a wise pastor to his people.

As they were preparing for the Assyrian onslaught, Hezekiah didn’t want the people of Judah to think that they were left on their own. He wanted them to know they had more than just their battle courage, war experience, and skill with weapons. He wanted them to realize they had been amazingly blessed with another ingredient, one that they could not and must not forget. So Hezekiah said: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him. . . . With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles” (2 Chron. 32:7–8).

There will be a moment when you will ask, “Where can I find courage to face what I am facing?” Hezekiah gives you your answer: “Look up and remember your God.” As God’s child, you are never left to battle on your own.

I, I am he who comforts you;

who are you that you are afraid of man who dies,

of the son of man who is made like grass,

and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker,

who stretched out the heavens

and laid the foundations of the earth. (Isa. 51:12–13)

Reflect: In what situations around friends is it easy for you to become an “identity amnesiac,” forgetting who you really are? Why do you think that you forget in these kind of situations?

January 10

The DNA of joy is thankfulness. Have you noticed that entitled, complaining people don’t happen to be very joyful?

I imagine that you are like me; that is, that you tend to think that a good life is a comfortable life. We get irritated, impatient, and angry at even minor difficulties. Long lines make us mad. Having to listen to an overtalkative person makes us impatient. A day when we don’t feel great causes us to grumble and complain. We complain when it’s cold, when it’s hot, when it rains, when the sun is too bright, or when it gets dark too early for our liking. We grumble if our food is too hot, too cold, too salty, or not seasoned enough; we complain if the portions are too big, if we’re still hungry, or if it’s not the kind of food we like.

Sadly, we spend many of our days being dissatisfied with our lives because we are not getting our comfortable way.1

I wish I always

carried it with me.

I wished it always

shaped the way

I look at life.

I wish it directed

my desires.

I wish it was

the natural inclination of

my heart.

I wish remembering

your boundless grace

would silence

my grumbling.

I wish

my worship of you,

my trust of you,

my rest in you

would drive away

all complaint.

If my heart is ever

going to be freed of

grumbling

and ruled by

gratitude,

I need your grace:

grace to remember,

grace to see,

grace that produces

a heart of humble joy.

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever!

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,

whom he has redeemed from trouble

and gathered in from the lands,

from the east and from the west,

from the north and from the south. (Ps. 107:1–3)

Reflect: When you’re tempted to grumble, try to answer this question: At this moment, what do I feel like I deserve? How does God’s grace affect what you deserve?

January 11

If you have been freed from needing success and acclaim to feel good about yourself, you know grace has visited you.

It is an intensely human endeavor. Here’s the quest we all pursue: We all want to feel good about ourselves. We all want to think that we are okay. And this is a fearful and anxious quest from which only grace can free you.

Here’s how it happens to all of us. We seek horizontally for the personal rest that we are supposed to find vertically. And it never works.

Looking to others for your inner sense of well-being is pointless. First, you will never be good enough consistently enough to get the regular praise of others that you are seeking. You’re going to mess up. You’re bound to disappoint. You will have a bad day. You’ll lose your way. At some point, you’ll say or do things that you shouldn’t.

Add to this the fact that the people around you probably don’t want the burden of being your personal messiah. They don’t want to live with the responsibility of having your identity in their hands. Looking to people for your inner self-worth never works.

Second, the peace that success gives is unreliable as well. Since you are less than perfect, whatever success you are able to achieve will soon be followed by failure of some kind. Then there is the fact that the buzz of success is short-lived. It isn’t long before you’re searching for the next success to keep you going.

That’s why the reality that Jesus has become your righteousness is so precious. His grace has forever freed us from needing to prove our righteousness and our worth. So we remind ourselves every day not to search horizontally for what we’ve already been given vertically. Our righteousness is found in Christ alone.

And the effect of righteousness will be peace,

and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. (Isa. 32:17)

Reflect: What makes you feel good about yourself? What makes you feel bad?

January 12

God calls you to persevere by faith, and then, with powerful grace, he protects and keeps you.

In Romans 15:5, Paul calls our Lord “the God of endurance.” This title really gets at the center of where hope is to be found. Let me state it plainly: your hope is not to be found in your willingness and ability to endure. Your hope lies in God’s unshakable, enduring commitment to never turn from his work of grace. Your hope is that you have been welcomed into communion with one who will endure no matter what.

Why is this so important to understand? Because your endurance will be spotty at best. There will be moments when you will forget who you are and what God has done for you in his grace. There will be times when you will get discouraged and for a while quit doing the good things God calls you to do. There will be moments, big and small, when you will willingly rebel. You may be thinking, “Not me.” But think with me—when you, as a Christian, say something nasty to another person, you don’t do it because you’re ignorant that it is wrong. You talked that way because in that moment you don’t give a rip about what is wrong.

You see, perfect endurance demands just that, perfection. And since none of us is there yet, we must look outside ourselves for hope. Your hope of enduring is not to be found in your character or strength, but in your Lord’s. Because he will ever be faithful, you can bank on the fact that he will give you what you need to be faithful too.

When difficulty exposes the weakness of your resolve and the limits of your strength, you do not have to panic. Here’s why: Even in those moments when you don’t feel able to do so yourself, God will endure.

But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (1 Tim. 6:11–12)

Reflect: How has God shown his enduring patience with you this past week? This past year?

January 13

Yes, it is true—God will remain faithful even when you’re not because his faithfulness rests on who he is, not on what you’re doing.

“If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself” (2 Tim. 2:13). This verse pictures a radically different way of living, one that’s not natural to most of us. Most human beings buy into a view of life that says you are the master of your fate. In this view, you’ll hear phrases like, “life is on your shoulders,” “you make or break your life,” “pay your money and take your choice,” or “you have no one to look to or blame but yourself.” You have little to rely on other than your instincts, your strength, the wisdom that you’ve collected over the years, your ability to anticipate what is around the corner, your character and maturity, and the natural gifts that you have been given. It is a scary “you against the world” way of living.

But your welcome into God’s family turns all of this upside down. God not only forgives your sins and guarantees you a seat in eternity, but welcomes you to a radically new way of living. This new way of living is not just about submitting to God’s moral code. No, it is about God committing himself to be faithful to you forever, unleashing his wisdom, power, and grace for your eternal good.

Think about this. You can take your life off your shoulders because God has placed it on his. This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t matter how you live. Instead, it does mean that your security is not found in your faithfulness but in his. He can be trusted even when you cannot. He will be faithful and good even when you’re not. He will do what is right and best even when you don’t. And he is faithful to forgive you when convicting grace reveals how unfaithful you have been.

God’s grace calls you to invest in the one thing that will never come up short, and that one thing is the faithfulness of your Lord.

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Cor. 1:9)

Reflect: Does God’s faithfulness to you make you want to obey him more or less? Why?

January 14

Don’t be discouraged today. You can leave your “what-ifs” and “if-onlys” in the hands of the one who loves you and rules all things.

Even though you’re a person of faith who knows something about the Bible, there’s one thing you can be sure of—God will confuse you. The theology, commands, and principles of Scripture will take you only so far in your quest to figure out your life. There will be moments when you simply don’t understand what is going on. In fact, you will face moments when what God brings into your life won’t seem good. It may even seem bad, very bad.

Now, if your faith is based on your ability to fully understand your life, then your moments of confusion will become moments of weakening faith. But you are not left with only two options—understand everything and rest in peace or understand little and be tormented by anxiety. There is a third way.

The Bible tells you that real peace is found in resting in the wisdom of the one who holds all of your “what-ifs” and “if-onlys” in his loving hands. Isaiah captures this well with these comforting words: “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isa. 26:3).

Real, sturdy, lasting peace isn’t to be found in picking apart your life until you have understood all its components. You will never understand it all because God, for your good and his glory, keeps some of it covered in mystery. So peace is found only in trusting the one who is in careful control of all the things that tend to rob you of your peace. He is never out of control or surprised. He is never confused, and he never worries.

You need to remind yourself again and again of his wise and loving control. This won’t immediately make your life make sense. Yet it will give you rest and peace in those moments when life doesn’t seem to make any sense.

And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. (Luke 12:29–31)

Reflect: What about the future triggers your anxiety? What would you love to know that God hasn’t shown you? How can you give this to God in trust?

January 15

Unlike human love, which is often fickle and temporary, God’s love never fails, no matter what.

I love all of the psalms, but Psalm 136 blows me away every time I read it. I love the fact that Psalm 136 is a history psalm that, because of its repeated refrain, gets turned into a love poem. I love that it affirms again and again what we desperately need to hear again and again—not once or twice, but twenty-six times! Now, I think that we should pay careful attention to those places where God chooses to repeat himself, and even more so when he repeats himself so many times!

Why does God repeat, over and over through the pen of the psalmist, “For his steadfast love endures forever” (Psalm 136)? There are two answers to this question.

First, there is no reality more radical and foundational to a biblical worldview and a personal sense of identity than this. What is the biblical story? It’s the story of a God of love invading the world in the person of his Son of love. Why? To establish his kingdom of love by a radical sacrifice of love, to forgive us in love and draw us into his family of love, and to send us out as ambassadors of the very same love. Without this redeeming love, the Bible is a book of interesting stories and helpful principles, but it is devoid of any power to fix what sin has broken.

The second reason God repeats this refrain is that, in our lives, we don’t experience this kind of love. All the human love we’ve experienced has been flawed in some way. But not God’s. His love is perfect and perfectly steadfast forever. It is the single most stunning reality in the life of a believer. God has placed his love on us and he will never again remove it. There’s a reason to continue, no matter how hard life seems and how weak you feel.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods,

for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords,

for his steadfast love endures forever. (Ps. 136:1–3)

Reflect: Which best describes the default setting of your heart? (a) God loves me; (b) God likes me; (c) I’m not sure God loves or likes me. Which of these is actually true?

January 16

There’s not a day without sin rearing its ugly head and not a day in which God’s abundant mercies are not new.

They really are the two foundation stones of a God-honoring life: (1) you still have sin living inside you, and (2) God is abundant in mercy. Because I am a sinner, I need mercy, and because God is merciful, I can face the reality of my sin.

The words in Nehemiah 9 describe us all: “They . . . did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules” (9:29). Maybe it’s a thoughtless word, a selfish act, a proud thought, a moment of envy, a flash of lust, a willing act of disobedience, a minor moment of thievery, or giving into an addiction. None of us is sin free yet. It is humbling to admit—and important. Because only when you admit how deep and comprehensive your problem is, can you get excited about the rescue that only God’s mercy can supply.

We aren’t just left in our sins. Nehemiah 9 continues, “Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God” (9:31). You can be courageous in admitting your sin precisely because God is abundant in his mercy.

He comes to you in mercy, not because you are good, but because you are a sinner. He knows that you are a bigger danger to you than anything else in your life. And that it’s impossible for you to run from you. Therefore, there is only one hope for you. It is that someone with power, wisdom, and mercy will invade your life, forgive your sins, and progressively deliver you from the hold that sin has had on you. That mercy comes to you in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his mercy is always fresh, uniquely fashioned for the sin struggles of this new day.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2:4–7)

Reflect: During a typical day, which of the two foundation stones (above) are you most easily tempted to neglect?

January 17

To think today, when your life doesn’t work as planned, that it’s out of control is to forget that Jesus reigns for your sake and his glory.

What are you facing today that you wouldn’t be facing if you were in control? What do you really wish you could avoid? Where have your plans dripped like sand through your fingers? Where would you like to take back choices and redo decisions? Where do you tend to look over the fence and wish you had someone else’s life? Where do you feel troubled, inadequate, weak, defeated, overwhelmed, alienated, or alone? Where do thoughts of the past tend to flood you with regret, or visions of the future make you a bit afraid? What causes you to wish life was easier or at least a bit more predictable? Where does it feel to you as if you’re on an amusement park ride that you never intended to be on?

Life in this fallen world is often very hard. This world and everything in it are not functioning the way God intended. In those moments, it is tempting to conclude that you don’t have much power and that life is all about surviving the chaos.

But this is not where God’s word leaves us. Yes, it does confront us with our smallness, weakness, and lack of control, but it doesn’t leave us there. The Bible declares something to us that is the opposite of the way we tend to think. It tells us that the chaotic difficulties that we face every day are not the result of the world being out of control, but the result of one who reigns in complete control.

So no matter how it looks to you at street level, your world is not out of control. No, it is under careful rule. As radical as that thought is, it’s not radical enough because it does not do justice to all that Paul says in the verse below. Paul wants you to know something else. That rule has you in view! Right now, Jesus rules over all things for the sake of his children. This is where peace is to be found.

And he [God] put all things under his [Christ’s] feet and gave him as head over all things to the church. (Eph. 1:22)

Reflect: When juggling all the activities in your life is crazy and chaotic, what untruths do you tend to tell yourself? Why?

January 18

If you’re God’s child, you will never again have just you to depend on. No, you’ve been blessed, right here, right now, with grace.

It’s a bigger problem than most of us think. It’s something I have encountered again and again—in the lives of singles and the married, the old and the young, men and women, and leaders and followers. It’s subtle, but has the power to leave you feeling frustrated and unable or overwhelmed and discouraged. It has the power to put your Bible on the lower shelves of your life. It changes the way you think about yourself and the way you make decisions.

What’s the problem that I’m fretting about? It’s the fact that so many of us have a huge dark hole in the middle of our gospel.

Sure, we have a pretty good understanding of the gospel past: the forgiveness we’ve received through the sacrifice of Jesus. We also have a fairly clear understanding of salvation future: the eternity that we will spend with Jesus. Yet have we really understood the benefits of the work of Christ in the here and now?

The Bible powerfully declares that Jesus didn’t just die for your past or your future, but for all the things that you face right here, right now. Listen to the present tense, the now-ism of the gospel in Galatians 2:20:

I have been crucified with Christ [a statement of historical redemptive fact]. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me [a statement of present redemptive reality]. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me [living in light of the gospel right here, right now].

What does the gospel say you have been given right here, right now, so that you can be what you’ve been called to be and do what you’ve been called to do? The answer is Christ! He is in you. He is with you. He is for you. In him, you really do have everything you need. You simply have not been left to yourself.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Rom. 8:15)

Reflect: Where even in your family relationships do you feel that you’re on your own? How does the gospel correct that feeling?

January 19

If you look into the mirror of God’s word and see someone in need of grace, why would you be impatient with others who share that need?

It is so easy to forget the amazing grace that’s been freely showered upon us. I wish I could say that this is not my problem, but it is. And when you forget the grace that you’ve been given, it’s easy to respond to the people around you with non-grace.

When you try to be gracious—because it’s your duty, it isn’t pretty. Pretend with me that I plop down on the couch next to my dear wife, Luella, and say these words: “You know, Luella, I have come to the realization that it’s my duty to be gracious to you. So I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to give you grace, not because I really want to, but because I guess it’s what I have to do.” Do you think that Luella would be encouraged by that statement for a moment? I think not.

A joyful life of grace toward others grows best in the soil of gratitude. When I take time to remember that that grace has been lavished on me at the cost of the life of another, then I am joyfully motivated to give that grace to others.

For the believer, impatient, and irritated responses are always connected to forgetting who we are and what we have been given in Jesus. No one gives grace better than a person who’s deeply convinced of his own need of it. And no one gives grace more graciously than someone who is aware of the grace he has been, and is being, given.

Because we forget so quickly, we all need to be given grace right at the very moment when we are called to be a tool of grace in the life of another. First John 4:19 really is true: “We love because he first loved us.” Now, that’s worth remembering.

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:17–19)

Reflect: When are you most impatient and grumpy? What helps you become most aware of the grace that God has given you in Christ?

January 20

Where is hope to be found? In five life-altering words: “I am with you always.”

You and I are on a constant quest for hope. We all want a reason to get up in the morning. Here are some things you have to know about hope:

God hardwiredhuman beings for hope. We don’t live by instinct; we all find our identity, meaning, purpose, and inner sense of well-being in something.What you place your hope in will set the direction of your life. Whether it’s hope in a person, a dream, or whatever, your life will be shaped by what you place your hope in.Hope always includes an expectation and an object. I am hoping for something and hoping that someone or something will deliver it.Hope, to be hope, has to fix what is broken. Hope that does not address your needs isn’t very hopeful. You place your hope in your mechanic only if he has the ability to fix what’s broken in your car.You always preach to yourself a gospel of some kind of hope. You’re always reaching for hope and preaching to yourself the validity of what you reach for.

In life, you have something profoundly deeper to hold on to than the hope that people will be nice to you, that your job will work out, that you will make good choices when tempted, that you’ll be smart enough to make good decisions, that you’ll be able to avoid poverty or sickness, or that you’ll have a good place to live and enough to eat.

So here is the radical truth of the gospel. Hope is not a situation. Hope is not a location. Hope is not a possession. Hope is not an experience. Hope is more than an insight or a principle. Hope is a person, and his name is Jesus! He comes to you and makes a commitment of hope: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). If nothing you envisioned ever works out and all the bad things that you’ve dreaded come your way, you still have hope because he is with you in power and grace.

Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” (Hag. 1:13)

Reflect: Do you struggle with being discouraged or cynical? How does Jesus’s being with you provide hope? If he weren’t with you, how would that take away hope?

January 21