Lessons from Sunday Sermons - August 25, 2025

Once again this week, I find myself reflecting on the songs we sang together more than the message. Not that it wasn’t good! You can listen to it HERE.

The music, specifically the lyrics, have been teaching me something important lately, and I thought it was worth sharing.

Perspective

I think we’ve all heard the statement that God will see us through the storms in our lives, and if we are not currently in a storm, we are either coming out of one or heading into one. This could very well be true, but if we are in the in between place after we’ve gone though something and before we are immersed in the next crisis or struggle, how should we spend our gratitude?

Thanking Him that He will get us through the next trial? Do we only measure our lives by where we are between difficult times? If all we spend our time thinking about is how to brace ourselves for the next hardship, it makes it very hard to thank God for the good things we had, have, and will one day gain.

Gratitude

One of the songs this week was Gratitude by Brandon Lake, another was Crowns Down by Gateway Worship. Both of them lead me to think about all the things I have to be thankful for. The good things AND the things that changed me because they were hard.

I am getting ready to launch a new phase of my writing career and I am unbelievably excited about it. I am thanking God everyday that I am able to sit in my home office and do what I love to do. I am planning ways to make this endeavor more successful than it’s ever been, and I’m praying God will open doors for me. AND HE HAS!

But how much of my momentum would be stolen if all I focused on was how God will get me through when things don’t work out? If all I thought about was how grateful I’ll be that we will still be able to pay the bills if I never sell any of my books, even if we lose all the money I’ve spent to make them the best they can be?

What if all I gave thanks for was the way God protected us when relationships went sideways a few years ago? What if all I thanked Him for was that He will always be with us even if no one else is?

I get that all those things are possible, and thanking Him for His faithfulness in times of trial past, present, and future isn’t wrong. BUT - what if nothing bad happens? Is that all your doing or His?

Sometimes, I think we are so conditioned to expect bad things to happen we have become almost completely unable to pray blessing and success into our future. This is NOT name-it-and-claim-it. The success we dream of might not happen, but I guarantee we won’t grab onto it if we are constantly afraid it will be taken from us.

Worthiness

Maybe this article is all for me, and I’m fine with laying my personal struggles out there, but because of all the advice like ‘don’t get ahead of yourself’ and ‘be realistic,’ there were times I’d nearly convinced myself the idea of ever being a successful author is crazy.

It all comes down to not feeling worthy of God’s favor and blessing, and that is a lie from the pit of Hell. God declared me (and you) worthy of His favor the moment we submitted to Christ as Lord. We became co-heirs with Him, with direct access to the God of the Universe. We were adopted into His family and given the title son and daughter.

Why then would our Heavenly Father only be with us in the hard times? Why would He only allow one hard time after another? Hard times come. I am not denying them, but if we spend our life in anticipation of ONLY hard times and not ALSO of the good times, hope dies. And Jesus died for the purpose of giving us HOPE.

Hope

Hope is one of my tag words. It is important to me because in this world of 24/7 news and constant updates via the devices we carry in our pockets, hard times are always scrolling past our eyes even when our current circumstances are quite good, thank you very much.

It is easy to let gratitude be all about surviving instead of THRIVING. We are told that we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (Ps 27:13); that we will have abundantly more than we can ask or imagine (Eph 3:20); we will have peace beyond all understanding (Phil 4:7)…and so many more promises of joy and fulfillment that apply to the here and now.

That is the hope of today. We have the hope of heaven that sustains us through the difficult times, but our hope can truly be in the fact that the Lord will be with us, encourage us, give us favor, and bless us beyond our wildest imagination NOW.

He promised the Israelites in Joshua 1:9 He would be with the wherever they go, and we who know Jesus as Savior have Him living inside us ALL THE TIME! He truly is with us wherever we go. He rejoices with us when we succeed just as much as He weeps with us in our grief and struggles.

If you find yourself asking Him to be with you in the hard times more than you ask Him to show you favor in the good times, consider increasing the time you ask Him for favor. Not for worldly gain, but because He is your Father, and He wants to give you goodness AND mercy all the days of your life (Ps 23:6)!

Things to Think About:

Is there something from your past God is calling you to let go of?

What would it look like to move forward without that holding you back?

Playlist:

Jericho - Andrew Ripp

Hidden Places - Vertical Worship