Psalm 23v3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
This is faith, knowing as we enter times of uncertainty, change, and/or struggle we have no need to fear for the Lord is here.
Matthew 28v20 …“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Jesus
Psalm 20 1 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you! 2 May he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion! 3 May he remember all your offerings and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah 4 May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans! 5 May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions! 6 Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand.
Matthew 23v25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
Jesus loves to hit the pharisees in the mouth with His words of truth and wisdom; oh how true they still ring today. Being a follower is an every day fight and like the Pharisees it is easy to get caught up in the life we sometimes keep to ourselves, but we must first attend to what is working at us on the inside cleaning our inner most thoughts taking them captive to Christ through prayer, study and self reflection. With our insides clean then we can experience the immense joy of His blessing and righteousness found IN us not just on us.
1 John 3v18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
Our actions speak louder than words, our love reigns true when we display it.
Here is a version I made of “How He Loves.”
Luke 9v23 “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
Jesus lays it down hard in verse 25. Our human nature is to work towards treasures and goals found in this world to supply our fleshful desires. But what truly matters is the treasure we build through the Spirit which lasts forever in the kingdom of heaven. Becoming successful, wealthy, or whatever it is the world keeps telling us to be ends with our death but the beautiful gift from sharing and being the gospel lasts for all eternity.