Series: Devotion

Why in the world would God care about us that much? We know it’s not because of anything wonderful in ourselves. After all, looking inside, what do we see? A mess of foolishness and trouble and mistakes, that’s what. A fool in need of wisdom. A sinner in need of a Savior.

The writer to the Hebrews provides the prophetic meaning of our psalm. Jesus, the Son of God, took on human flesh. He was born in Bethlehem and, for a little while, was “made lower than the angels.” For our sake, Jesus suffered and died on the cross, taking onto Himself the penalty of death for our sins and “tasting death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9).

Following Jesus means losing faith in every merely human director. Others try to direct us. But when some mere creature tries to take the burden of directing all the other creatures, this typically turns them into a tyrant, into another Napoleon.

One of the hardest things in life is when you believe, rightly or wrongly, that you are not loved. That’s incredibly lonely. Jesus understands this need, and He offers us what our hearts long for—love that is actually returned. Jesus says to us, “If anyone loves Me, He will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. … And the word that you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”

When God gave the first Christians the gift of the Holy Spirit, they needed some way to recognize that the Holy Spirit was working through them—some kind of gift, some evidence of His presence. What should God choose?

The whole thing seems like such a show of strength—they want to make a name for themselves; they’re building this huge tower, and so forth. And yet, look at their reason for doing this. They say, “Lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.

Answer me quickly, O LORD! My spirit fails! Hide not Your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear in the morning of Your steadfast love, for in You I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to You I lift up my soul.

Every sermon we hear brings with it a series of images suggested by the preacher’s words. With both head and heart engaged, we “see” these images by faith, and we are sometimes brought low and at other times built up and encouraged.

We rarely get an angel to tell us if we are doing the right thing or not. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us, and if we do make mistakes, we trust that He will use even our mistakes to God’s glory.