“I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words.” – Psalm 17:6

It’s a truly marvelous thing that God is personal and relational. The Creator of the Universe certainly isn’t required to listen to our prayers, invite us into a relationship with Him, or reconcile us to Him through the sacrifice of His own Son. But He does!

The Almighty Creator of galaxies, stars, and planets, and the Author of life actually knows every detail of our lives and cares deeply. He cares deeply for you personally and for what’s best for you. He is merciful, gracious, patient, faithful, loving, and kind. He extends the offer of friendship and adoption to everyone who will put their faith in Jesus. And He listens.

It’s easy to forget what extraordinary privileges and incredible status we enjoy as those adopted and befriended by God through Christ. We live in a fallen world in which it can be hard to even get the people we live with to put down their phone and actually hear our words, yet God in Heaven hears our words and answers our prayers! With God, we are never alone, never forgotten, never unloved. To Him, we can pour out the fears, anxieties, frustrations, joys, triumphs, and praises that fill our hearts and flood our minds. And He listens! He listens!!! Thank you Lord, for truly hearing us!

“Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” – Matthew 19:24

As residents of a wealthy part of a wealthy nation in the wealthiest time in human history, we can’t flinch or look the other way at what Jesus says here. We must understand and apply it to our lives. What does Jesus mean? Is money bad? Does having money make a person bad? How can this teaching possibly make sense in light of salvation by grace? How can our bank balance interfere with God’s grace?

It can’t, of course. God’s grace received through faith in Jesus Christ overcomes all sin and every obstacle to accomplish salvation. However, in practical terms, having or deeply desiring material abundance can hurt our faith. When we enjoy great financial blessings, we can forget our deep need for God. We easily begin to fool ourselves into thinking we can take care of ourselves, provide for ourselves, and purchase everything needed to be complete, fulfilled, and happy. This is a lie! Whether large or small, our net worth can deceive us about our spiritual situation.

This is what makes it so hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God (of course, it’s hard for all of us, because we can’t ever get there on our own). Because our money can’t save us and neither can our generosity in giving it away. Our material comfort can’t save us, but it easily numbs us to the truth that we desperately need salvation. As the Bible warns so often, money can have a powerful spiritual impact on us. We can fall in love with it, be tempted to pursue it in ungodly ways, become anxious about losing it, become selfish about keeping it, forget Who truly gave it to us, and find strength in it rather than in Christ. Money is a blessing from God that can do wonderful things for His Kingdom. It can also be a powerful temptation used by Satan to undermine our spiritual condition.

As followers of Christ, whether we have much or have little financially, we must always remember where our blessings come from and what can truly and eternally rescue us from the brokenness around us and in our own lives. The US dollar won’t save us, but the Son of Man will. Trust in Him!

“But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.’” – Matthew 19:14

What does it mean to be like a child with respect to the Kingdom of Heaven? How do we have child-like faith in an age of cynicism, sarcasm, misinformation, radical autonomy, and doubt? Jesus’ words aren’t an invitation to be satisfied in ignorance or disinterested in matters of theology. After all, children are always full of questions! However, as adults, we have a tendency to gradually let our pursuit of questions and answers, certainty and knowledge crowd out or control our faith. Our goal in studying the Bible, learning the great truths about God, and engaging arguments for and against Christianity shouldn’t be to replace, limit, or put asterisks on our faith. Knowledge can’t save us – only faith in Christ can! Our faith must come first and our studies and debates should enrich and fuel our faith, not the other way around.

Little children ask numerous questions, but they always believe. They trust in the authority and capability of their parents even as they bombard us with questions. Likewise, as we wrestle with matters of faith, the Bible, and Christianity, we must do so in complete trust in God’s authority and ability to do all that the Bible reports He’s done and all that it promises He’ll do. Rather than approaching our faith by asking “how could God possibly do that” we ought to begin with awe, wonder, and respect for what the supreme and sovereign Creator has done.

Grow in your knowledge of God and His Word. Grow in your knowledge of church history and theology. But even more important, grow in your faith and don’t ever make your faith bow to your limited knowledge. That’s the difference between the faith of a child and that of a jaded, cynical, post-modern adult.

“The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.” – Psalm 16:4

Many today are running after another god. That includes many who go to church on Sundays and loudly proclaim the name of Jesus. Another god is whatever we pursue to such an extent that we fail to accept Jesus’ ongoing invitation to “Follow me”. Another god is the distraction, passion, or obsession we choose over God, whether we realize it or not. Another god is what prevents us from truly being reshaped into the image and character of Christ, even if we’ve been going to church for decades.

The other gods of our culture have many names: power, politics, pleasure, comfort, accomplishments, career, safety, health, choice, individualism, entertainment, sports, family, kids, money, food, retirement, fun, travel. Many of these things are fine in themselves, but when we spend our days and nights thinking about them, strategizing about them, celebrating them, and pursuing them rather than pursuing Christ, they have become gods to us.

Many will be the sorrow of all, Christian and non-Christian alike, who run after the vast number of other gods available in our 21st century life. Choose the one true God and put all the other gods in their proper place and discover true and lasting joy in Christ!

“He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”” – Matthew 17:20

How big is your faith??? Certainly if you have faith in Jesus Christ, your faith is big enough to save you. But is it big enough to move mountains? Are you even willing to try??? Sometimes we’re afraid to ask God for big things because we don’t want to be disappointed if He says no. We try to protect our small faith from disappointment or protect God from failing in our eyes. That’s not how we’re called to live!

The Bible certainly teaches us to pray in God’s will. We aren’t meant to treat prayer as a daily visit to Santa Claus. However, the Bible also teaches us to be bold and full of faith when we pray. We’re able to pray boldly and confidently because Christ reconciled us to God at the cross. Through Christ, we’re explicitly invited to come and pray boldly and honestly. We live by faith and must develop our faith muscles to pray in faith!

We mustn’t be afraid to ask God to move mountains for the sake of His Kingdom. Yes, He might turn us down or make us wait or give us something better, but we’ll never know until we ask in absolute faith. Christians sometimes have too little impact on this world because we’re afraid to ask the One Who wants us to make a huge impact for His sake!

Don’t be afraid to have and live big faith in God through Jesus Christ! He wants you to, invites you to, and His Word reveals what happens when His people learn to consistently live by Spirit-filled big faith.