“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.”
– Lamentations 3:22-23

It’s impossible to exhaust God’s love or mercy. Period. His resources in that department (and every department) are infinite. Each day is a new day and it isn’t limited by the previous day. Regardless of how badly you might have failed and fallen short of God’s will and plan yesterday, if you confess your sins and ask His forgiveness in Christ, He will forgive. Every time!

If you’re in Christ, God won’t keep an endless scoresheet of your mistakes and mess-ups, your guilt and your shame. You might, but He won’t. When you cry out to the Lord, He’ll never throw the mistakes of your past in your face if you’ve already asked His forgiveness.

You may struggle to forgive yourself, but God never struggles to forgive. Ask and He will forgive. His mercy is fresh each day. You may struggle to endure the burdens and challenges of your everyday life but God’s grace and mercy to sustain you are fresh each day so ask each new day and He’ll give you the mercy and strength you need for that day.

God is always faithful. Always. He’s always listening for the prayers of His children in Christ. Don’t wait until it’s an emergency (though never hesitate in an emergency) to seek and enjoy His love, mercy, grace, and faithfulness. Go to God in prayer for anything and everything. Go often and enjoy His love and mercy each morning!

“For not even his brothers believed in him.” – John 7:5

It’s humbling to remember that during His earthly ministry, Jesus’ own brothers didn’t believe in Him! It was only after His resurrection that they came to faith and later became church leaders and Scripture writers. Most Christians have family members they dearly love who don’t believe in Jesus. It breaks our hearts but it shouldn’t surprise or discourage us.

If Christ’s own family didn’t believe for many years, it shouldn’t surprise or shake us when we have family members who don’t believe. If they could be so stubborn and hardened toward what many others could see in Jesus, the same is likely true in our families today. Unfortunately (from our human perspective) faith is a gift of God. We can’t persuade, pressure, or badger our believed relatives into God’s Kingdom nor can our faith suffice to make up for their lack of faith. They must come to faith on their own.

As followers of Jesus, we should be sure to share the truth and hope of Christ with them in the best ways we know how. We should be sure to do our very best to follow the example and commands of Jesus (all of them!) around them, because they have the most insight into our failures and hypocrisies. We should verbally live out the Gospel before them, freely confessing our sins and mistakes against them and asking forgiveness in the confidence that God has already forgiven us.

Beyond that, we must pray for them. Even as we do those others things, praying is the most important thing. We don’t save people. God saves people. Coming to faith in Christ is a spiritual act and the best tool we have for spiritual work is committed, diligent prayer. Speak. Act. Confess. Pray.

“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’” – John 6:35

Jesus is the true, ultimate, lasting satisfaction for our souls. Nothing and no one else is or can be! Apart from Jesus, our souls are constantly searching for satisfaction and our hearts are always desiring something more or something new. We see this play out in the relentless consumerism of our culture. We see this revealed by our ever-shifting passions and pursuits which consume our time and attention until we discard them in frustration because our souls remain unsatisfied.

Hobbies, pleasures, experiences, degrees, purchases, awards, activities, careers, people… We pursue and grasp at these things desperately to provide meaning and purpose for our lives. We try to fill our hungry souls with anything and everything within our reach, telling ourselves that if we could just reach more, we would find peace for our restless souls. But we won’t!

Our souls are restless because they were made for eternity. They’re restless because we were made to be in relationship with God. That’s why our souls can only find lasting satisfaction in Jesus Christ. When we trust in Christ we are united with Him. When we follow Him faithfully, nurturing our relationship with Him through prayer, worship, Scripture, service, and sharing Christ with others we allow ourselves to be filled with Christ’s Spirit.

In Him, our restless souls find peace, rest, and satisfaction. Though we’ll still need to eat dinner, the endless hunger of our souls finds eternal fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Though we’ll still need to drink water, the desperate thirst of our souls is quenched by the Living Water of Jesus Christ. Are you feasting on the Bread of Life? Are you drinking your fill of Living Water?

“Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.” – John 6:21

There’s a miraculous element of the story of Jesus walking on the water that is seldom noted or remarked upon. After hours of frustrated rowing against a windstorm and after the sheer terror of seeing their master walking to them on the surface of the water in the middle of the night, the disciples welcomed Jesus into their boat and they were suddenly and immediately transported to their destination! They quit laboring on their own against the forces of nature, welcomed Jesus into the situation, and it was immediately resolved.

There will be times in your own life where the mere act of welcoming Jesus into a difficult situation will immediately resolve it. As Christians, Jesus is always with us. However, quite often we treat Him as if He’s far away, absent, and uninterested. He isn’t! Too often, our instinct in any difficult situation or season is to row harder, work harder, grit our teeth, and grind it out as if we were alone. We aren’t! Yes, we often have to work hard, but we must do so in a way that welcomes Jesus into our labor and relies on His strength and support because ours is inadequate.

Scripture invites us to take EVERYTHING to God in prayer. Even as we’re rowing hard and gritting our teeth, we need to be praying without ceasing. We need to be inviting Jesus to take over and do the hard work while showing us what we need to do to labor in His strength and will. We need to pray for clarity about whether we even need to be rowing and if so, in which direction. We need to invite His power and strength to fill our weakness and exhaustion. Many times, Jesus will give us the strength to keep rowing. Sometimes, the mere act of inviting Jesus into the situation opens the door for Him to completely and immediately resolve our crisis. Have you invited Jesus into your boat?

“When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’” – John 6:14

For over 14 centuries, the people of Israel had been waiting for the prophet “like Moses” to come into the world (see Deuteronomy 18). Here, some of them began to realize that Jesus was that long-awaited prophet. What’s most important to us today is the reason they began to understand that about Jesus…

Jesus had just fed the 5000. A group of Jews were out in the desert and Jesus had miraculously provided bread to fill their empty stomachs. This was a visible sign pointing to Jesus being the new Moses. After all, Moses had led a group of Jews out into the desert and God had miraculously provided bread from heaven to fill their empty stomachs. The difference between Moses and Jesus, and the reason Jesus is greater than Moses, is that unlike Moses, Jesus made the bread! He did the work of Moses (leading the people) AND the work of God (providing the bread) because He is more than a prophet, He is God in the flesh.

What’s the true significance of this miracle? Why should we be so moved and excited about Jesus feeding the 5000? Why is it so prominently featured in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ earthly ministry? Because Moses led the people of God on an exodus out of physical bondage in Egypt and into freedom.

Jesus came to lead an even greater exodus for you and me! Jesus came to lead God’s people (all who trust in Him as Lord) out of bondage to sin and death and into spiritual freedom and eternal life. The miraculous provision of bread in the desert (followed by a miraculous water crossing) points to this deeper spiritual truth about Jesus’ purpose and mission. He’s come to set us free from the consequences of our own sinful rebellion. He’s come to give life to those walking in spiritual death. Yes, Jesus is the prophet like Moses, but He’s also the Messiah like David, the Savior, the Lord, and the Son of God. Believe in Him and be set free forever!