Jan 4
Francis Chan invites us to take steps forward into trusting what God says about us rather than relying on our own opinions and feelings about ourselves. While we struggle with our identity and not measuring up to human standards, Francis illuminates the scriptures, identifying us as God’s richest inheritance.
Scripture References
18.You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19.to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20.because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.”12:20 Exodus 19:12,13 21.The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”12:21 See Deut. 9:19.22.But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23.to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24.to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
8.“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.9.“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
16.I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17.I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit1:17 Or a spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18.I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19.and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20.he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
9.However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”2:9 Isaiah 64:4—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—10.these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
Francis Chan
New York Times bestselling author and pastor of Cornerstone Community Church