If God has planned your future, there is no such thing as fate. Fate is impersonal. Fate says blind and invisible forces determine whatever I do and whatever is done to me. There’s no use trying; whatever will be will be. If God has planned your future, then the three Persons who love you the most—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, have mapped the route for you. You cannot be more secure.
Christians disagree about exactly how God plans your future, how he takes into account your desires and free will, but all should agree that the future is set. God says he “makes known the end from the beginning,” and “works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Isa 46:10; Eph 1:11).
God easily plans your future because he exists outside of time. He is the Lord of time, for he created time. Jesus is Lord of the past; you can give all your regrets to him. Jesus is Lord of the future; you can give all your fears to him. Jesus is Lord of the present. You can give this day to him. Do it now.
If God is beautiful, and God is real, then reality is beautiful. Your heart might be squeezed from regular encounters with ugliness: grim swaths of potholed asphalt; pop songs that soon grow tiresome; or formulaic movies with predictable plots and cliched lines. You might be drowning in oceans of mediocrity, but the world was beautiful once and will be again.
If God is beautiful, then a standard for beauty exists. Beauty is not solely in the eye of the beholder. We have a yardstick that measures beauty. We can tell the difference between good art and bad. We can paint and compose art that is objectively beautiful, and know it.
If God is beautiful, and God made you in his image, then you are made for beauty. Don’t be satisfied with anything less. You have been created for the One who is beauty itself.
If God is beautiful, and God loves you, then you are loved by beauty. We desire beautiful people. We yearn to be with them, but they seem out of our league. God is out of your league, yet he desires you. He gave his Son so he could be with you. If God is beautiful, beauty wants you.
If God is holy, there is someone above our pay grade. Someone whose shoulders are broad enough to carry the weight of this world and an infinite number of others. Someone who dwells in unapproachable light, a light that burns brighter than the thousands of suns he has made.
If God is holy, you can go to bed and sleep soundly, knowing that whatever happened today did not surprise him and whatever will happen tomorrow will not surprise him. God holds you and your situation and your whole world in the palm of his hand. God holds every universe that ever was in the palm of his hand. He’s got this, and he’s got you.
But here’s the thing: If God is holy, then his standard for justice, for right and wrong, is also out of this world. It’s not good enough for us to be as good as our neighbors. To be accepted by God, we must be as good as God. But we can’t be, we won’t be. That’s why God sent Jesus.
Because God is holy and because God is love, He gave Jesus to die for our sin. If we renounce our sin and throw our weight on Jesus, we are fully and finally forgiven. Because God is holy, you can be too. Who can comprehend this?
Sometimes we think that God could not forgive us. If you knew what I’ve done, and how many times I’ve done it, you would not glibly tell me that I am forgiven. Jesus died for sinners, but you don’t know how bad I am.
I agree. I don’t know what you’ve done and how many people you have hurt. You might be the most wicked person you know. But if you think that your sin is too much for God to forgive, then at the top of your list of sins you must add the sin of pride.
Who do you think you are? Do you really think that lil’ ol’ you has done something that is bigger than God? You might have really blown it this time. You might have yelled ‘no’ at God and the people who love you the most. But God in Christ roars YES to you. And God’s YES destroys your puny, mousy ‘no.’
Do you know what happened on the cross? The Son of God endured his Father’s wrath on your sin. God was punished by God. You are not God. So yes, what happened there is plenty big enough to cover whatever you might do. God can easily forgive you. He won’t even break a sweat.
God is not only not surprised by your sin. He was counting on it. That’s why Jesus died! Have you committed a colossal sin? Don’t waste time beating yourself up. Run to the cross. Run to Jesus.
If God is holy, there is someone above our pay grade. Someone whose shoulders are broad enough to carry the weight of this world and an infinite number of others. Someone who dwells in unapproachable light, a light that burns brighter than the thousands of suns he has made.
If God is holy, you can go to bed and sleep soundly, knowing that whatever happened today did not surprise him and whatever will happen tomorrow will not surprise him. God holds you and your situation and your whole world in the palm of his hand. God holds every universe that ever was in the palm of his hand. He’s got this, and he’s got you.
But here’s the thing: If God is holy, then his standard for justice, for right and wrong, is also out of this world. It’s not good enough for us to be as good as our neighbors. To be accepted by God, we must be as good as God. But we can’t be, we won’t be. That’s why God sent Jesus.
Because God is holy and because God is love, He gave Jesus to die for our sin. If we renounce our sin and throw our weight on Jesus, we are fully and finally forgiven. Because God is holy, you can be too. Who can comprehend this?
If God is beautiful, and God made you in his image, then you are made