I’ve never sung this particular hymn (at least I don’t think I have), but the words resonated with me again so deeply. It may just be the perfect hymn for 2020:

“Whate’er my God ordains is right:
His holy will abideth;
I will be still whate’er He doth;
And follow where He guideth;
He is my God; though dark my road,
He holds me that I shall not fall:
Wherefore to Him I leave it all.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
He never will deceive me;
He leads me by the proper path:
I know He will not leave me.
I take, content, what He hath sent;
His hand can turn my griefs away,
And patiently I wait His day.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
His loving thought attends me;
No poison can be in the cup
That my Physician sends me.
My God is true; each morn anew
I’ll trust His grace unending,
My life to Him commending.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
He is my Friend and Father;
He suffers naught to do me harm,
Though many storms may gather,
Now I may know both joy and woe,
Some day I shall see clearly
That He hath loved me dearly.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Though now this cup, in drinking,
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it, all unshrinking.
My God is true; each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,
And pain and sorrow shall depart.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Here shall my stand be taken;
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken.
My Father’s care is round me there;
He holds me that I shall not fall:
And so to Him I leave it all.”

Maybe you’re tired of all the negativity floating around and coming from the television screens.

Maybe you’re sick of being definite by your skin color or your income or your profession.

Maybe you needed to hear just once more that God really is for you.

Don’t let the world or the media or Facebook or Instagram define you. Let the God who made you tell you who you are.

I think for a long, long time, people who profess to be Christians have been known far more for what they are against than what they are for.

My pastor talks about his church growing up and how they made it know all that they were against– drinking, gambling, card playing, and the ususal. Then they’d all gather together and celebrate that they hadn’t done anything.

But when I read the Gospels, I see that Jesus is for much more than He is against.

For instance, He is for everyone who comes to Him in faith. He says He will never cast them out.

He is for anyone who consistently and continually asks, seeks, and knocks out of a desperate need for God. He says those are the ones who will find a God who provides.

He is for the poor in spirit, the broken-hearted, the lonely, the destitute, the outcast. He is for us when we are for them, for such is the Kingdom of God.

Jesus is for the person you can’t stand. I don’t mean that Jesus endorses racism or hate or any sinful actions. I do mean that Jesus recognizes every single human being as being created in the image of God and as someone for whom He died on the cross.

Above all, Jesus is for you. Jesus is for me.

Do I believe that black lives matter? Absolutely.

But let me ask you this: do you believe that your individual life matters? Do you believe that your identity is first and foremost not in your gender or race or nationality but in your status as a child of God? You are the one for whom Jesus died. You and I are the lost ones that He came to seek and save.

Jesus is for you.

It seems like Jesus has been redefined lately in several ways. I see where people on the left have made Him into a radical revolutionary while others on the right turn Him into a middle class moralizer.

But for those who know and believe the Gospels, there is only one choice: Son of God, Savior. C. S. Lewis once said that Jesus by His own claims must be a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. There’s no other alternative.

If you read the Bible through the lens of your politics, it’s inevitable that you will end up recreating God and Jesus in your own image. He will love all the people you love and hate all the people you hate. Your political standard becomes THE standard to which even God must submit.

But the Bible I read says that Jesus’ foremost mission was not revolution but repentance, reconciliation, reclamation, and restoration. By Jesus’ own words, He came to seek and save the lost.

If Jesus was radical, it was in the way He loved the unlovable, reached out to the unwanted, and offered revolutionary grace to the outcast.

His message was the same to the tax collector and the prostitute, to the leper and to the religious leader: follow Me.

The more I understand of the whole Gospel for the whole person, the more I realize that Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, only get the Gospel half right. Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, “Let the one without sin cast the first stone” and “Neither do I condemn you,” but He also said, “Go and sin no more.”

Believers are called to stand outside of the political system and to be prophetic voices to both sides. When we side with one against the other, we have committed idolatry and forsaken the true Gospel of Jesus Christ for man-made doctrines.

The Bible says to choose this day whom you will serve. By the grace of God, I implore all of us to choose Jesus.

Whenever I’m on social media, I see a lot of posts along the lines of “I thank God that I’m not like those moronic Trump supporters” or “I’m so thankful that I’m not like those crazy liberals.”

There’s a lot of self-righteous finger pointing and blaming when it comes to all the social unrest we’ve witnessed lately. I find it’s very easy to sit behind a keyboard and cast blame at others.

I’m reminded of the parable Jesus told about the Pharisee and the tax collector who went to the temple to pray. The Pharisee’s prayer that went something like “I thank You, God, that I’m not like those dirty rotten sinners, especially that tax collector over there.”

The tax collector’s prayer was much simpler and shorter: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Which prayer did Jesus commend? Jesus Himself said that it was the tax collector, not the ultra-religious Pharisee, who went home justified before God.

The point is that before I start assigning blame, I need to look in the mirror. When I point a finger at someone else, that usually leaves 4 pointing back at me.

I’m also reminded of Jesus’ response when told of an injustice done to the Galileans. He called not for retaliation but for repentance. In other words, you have enough sin in your own life to grieve over before you start trying to punish everyone else for their sins.

While it is vitally important to be socially conscious and aware of injustice, the place for change has to start within. The one staring back at you in that mirror is the first one who needs to change.

Also, once you realize just how much you need the grace of God, you will be freer in giving it to others. Once you understand how much God has forgiven you, you will be faster in forgiving others. I know in my own heart what I am capable of apart from the grace of God sustaining me every single day, so I have no right to condemn or judge anyone else for their wrongs.

God, have mercy on Your people.

“Jesus, the Blessed Child of the Father, is a peacemaker. His peace doesn’t mean only absence of war. It is not simply harmony or equilibrium. His peace is the fullness of well-being, gratuitously given by God. Jesus says, ‘Peace I leave to you, my own peace I give you, a peace which the world cannot give, this is my gift to you’ (John 14:27).

Peace is Shalom – well-being of mind, heart, and body, individually and communally. It can exist in the midst of a war-torn world, even in the midst of unresolved problems and increasing human conflicts. Jesus made that peace by giving his life for his brothers and sisters. This is no easy peace, but it is everlasting and it comes from God. Are we willing to give our lives in the service of peace?” (Henri J. M. Nouwen).

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9, NIV).

Did you catch that?

Jesus blesses the ones who actively seek for and make peace in the midst of conflict. Not the ones who passively stand by hoping for a lull in the action before they declare peace.

It’s about laying down your arms, your rights, and sometimes your life. It always means sacrifice. Jesus knows better than anyone the true cost of peace within, with others, and ultimately with God. The price was His very lifeblood.

Jesus calls us to make peace– not the easy peace that avoids conflict or disagreements, but the kind where we put the other’s well-being ahead of our own. Jesus calls us to His peace, the kind the world and all its calamities can never take away. The kind the gates of hell can’t stand up against. The peace that passes understanding.

God’s peace.

I can’t remember if I’ve posted this previously, but it doesn’t matter. Reminders like these keep popping up in my newsfeed, in my memories, in other people’s posts. Funny how God sometimes speaks through people in ways they never intended or imagined.

But yes, God is enough. Even for these times. In the midst of the dumpster fire that has been 2020, God is still enough.

Today, I needed that reminder. I bet you did, too.

For all your tomorrows, God will always be enough.

You have enough because God is enough.

“You have been taught to love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you this: love your enemies. Pray for those who torment you and persecute you— in so doing, you become children of your Father in heaven. He, after all, loves each of us—good and evil, kind and cruel. He causes the sun to rise and shine on evil and good alike. He causes the rain to water the fields of the righteous and the fields of the sinner. It is easy to love those who love you—even a tax collector can love those who love him. And it is easy to greet your friends—even outsiders do that! But you are called to something higher: “Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:43-48, The Voice).

You can never get away from the words of Jesus. He said it simply so there’s no way of getting around it. Love your enemy.

Who is it that makes you the angriest? Who is it that you wish could go away? Who would you injure or kill if you knew you could get away with it and that no one would ever find out?

Love your enemies.

Jesus doesn’t give us any room for disobedience. You and I can’t say, “But You don’t know what he or she did to me. You don’t know how they made me feel.”

Does this apply to the arena of politics? Absolutely.

Does it apply to those who are on the opposite end of the political spectrum? You bet.

From Donald Trump to Nancy Pelosi to Barack Obama to Sarah Palin, they are all created in the image of God.

Did God say you must agree with them at all points? No.

Did God say you could never be angry at them? No.

Did God in Jesus say to love them, even if they are your enemy and even if you in your flesh despise them? Yes.

Is it easy? No.

What God in Jesus calls you and I to do is humanly impossible. When Jesus says, “Be perfect as Your Heavenly Father is perfect,” that is an impossible standard. Unless you have the Spirit of God living inside you, transforming you from the inside out. Then it becomes more and more possible.

You can only love your enemies with God’s love in you. You can only love your enemies because God first loved you when you were His enemy. You can only love your enemies when you understand that Jesus died for them as much as He died for you. You can only love your enemies when you realize that you needed the atoning blood of Jesus just as much as anyone in history has ever needed it.

Love your enemies. Period.

This is a prayer by Ravi Zacharias that seems perfect for these times. May it be our prayer that unarmed truth and unconditional love will overcome anger and hate.

“God, our heavenly Father, our minds go back to the day when Jesus knelt beside his beloved city and wept, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes’ (Luke 19:42).

We sense so deeply the same reality. We weep for our cities even as we bury our dead. The sound of gunfire is the grim sound of what has already shattered our relationships. We are witnesses of distrust, revenge, and anger. We see no one to lead us and guide us. To whom shall we go?

Our differences seem to lead us even farther apart. Oh, Lord of miracles, do what only you can do to save us from ourselves. Give us men and women who will lead us to reconciliation. Give us leaders who will bind us up to heal our wounds, not those who will only incite more hate.

Give us voices that will bring hope and not despair. Please comfort the bereaved and give humility to the ones who are resistant to your ways. Give us pause so that we might sit back for just a few moments to look to you before we look at our impulsive solutions.

We shed another’s blood when we are without answers. You shed your own blood as our only answer. We kill, buried in despair. You rise, giving us hope.

You told Peter to put back his sword and you restored the one wounded. That’s what we long for. A reprimand to the one who would injure and a healing within the one injured. God of miracles, please do it again. We need you. Our nation needs you. Our leaders need you. Many a home today will not have a loved one returning. Without you we have no hope. With you all things are possible—even for beauty to come out of ashes. We pray for the day of unarmed truth and unconditional love. Please answer our prayer.

In the name of Jesus your Son, our only Savior, we ask this.

Amen” (Ravi Zacharias)

“Jesus, the favorite Child of God, is persecuted. He who is poor, gentle, mourning; he who hungers and thirsts for uprightness; is merciful, pure of heart and a peacemaker is not welcome in this world. The Blessed One of God is a threat to the established order and a source of constant irritation to those who consider themselves the rulers of this world. Without his accusing anyone he is considered an accuser, without his condemning anyone he makes people feel guilty and ashamed, without his judging anyone those who see him feel judged. In their eyes, he cannot be tolerated and needs to be destroyed, because letting him be seems like a confession of guilt.

When we want to become like Jesus, we cannot expect always to be liked and admired. We have to be prepared to be rejected” (Henri Nouwen).

I confess that I have a strong desire to always be liked. I have a deep need for approval, so often I hold back from saying or posting anything that might seem controversial or opinionated.

I understand that Jesus was often misunderstood and rejected, and He told us that if we followed Him, we would be misunderstood and rejected as well. He all but guaranteed that we would have trouble in this world.

I also understand that in those rare moments when my faith is bigger than my fears, I find that Jesus is more faithful to me and His promises to me than I am to Him. I find Jesus is more than enough to compensate for any loss of friends or reputation or anything else I could ever lose in this world.

Never for the sake of relevance or acceptance deny your convictions. Never back down from living AND speaking out the whole gospel. Hold on to the faith that has been passed down from generation to generation and found to be true and trustworthy in every age.

And trust that ultimately the worst that could ever happen to you in this life is momentary and light compared to the joy that awaits.