Honest Reflections

Two-minute read.

In the last few months of my mother’s life, I stopped for a visit on my way to work. Finding her in bed, still asleep, I crawled in with her. As she always did, Mom wrapped her arm around me and pulled me close, making me feel loved, secure, and cherished. Nothing could stop my mom from loving and protecting me, no matter my age.

Nothing stops God from loving and protecting us.

Even more present than a mom, the Lord loves us so deeply that nothing can separate us from Him. People may not choose to love the Savior, but He loves them. When Paul writes this letter to the Romans, he shares the truth of God’s love with them. The apostle, transformed from murderer to missionary, understood the depth of its truth.

We live in a world that constantly bombards us with negative messaging. Lies permeate the airways as people try to force their agendas. The complexities of life try to convince us that God doesn’t care. And we have a spiritual enemy that wants us to think the same. But none of that can separate us from the love our Father has for us.

The Lord doesn’t love us with a fragile, conditional, or easily disrupted love. His divine affection flows steadily, securely, and unbreakably to us. Anchored in Christ, God’s love holds now and forever.

Paul dismantles our fears with Christ’s love for us. Jesus conquered death, defeated the devil, and discovered the unknown, all with the never-ending love of God, something we can’t lose.

Don’t reject Christ’s love for you. Open your arms wide and receive what the Savior offers. Live in the love of the Lord, fully and wonderfully cherished, always held, never forgotten.

God’s love holds you with something stronger than anything that could try to pull you away.

Reflection:

What fear in your life feels like it could separate you from God—and how does this passage challenge that?

Joy Thought:

Nothing in all creation can stop God from loving you.

Two-minute read.

During my flight attendant days, we lost an engine in severe turbulence over Philadelphia. Strapped in my jump seat, I prayed the 23^rd Psalm to the best of my ability and handed out barf bags. When the pilot called to tell me they had everything under control, I felt peace, even though the turbulence didn’t stop.

Jesus knew we would have turbulence in our lives. Before He departed, the Savior gave us a farewell gift that doesn’t answer every question, but gives us a presence that holds us through it, His peace. Rooted in trust and the Father’s plan for our lives, we can have peace despite bumpy air. God never leaves nor forsakes us. When trouble comes, Christ walks with us through it and gives us His peace.

Unlike the world, which requires conditions to have peace, divine peace has none. The plane may shake around us, but God’s peace keeps us calm. We feel secure even when things seem out of control. Jesus offers us peace amid uncertainty that doesn’t depend on outcomes and remains, even when life gets hard.

God doesn’t want us to have troubled hearts. He invites us to share the weight of our burdens with Him, allowing the Lord to carry what we can’t. Fear may still knock, but it doesn’t have to take up residence. When we anchor our peace in Christ, we will remain steady, no matter what the circumstances.

With Jesus, we can experience calm without having control, and peace before the situation changes. God doesn’t leave us to handle anxiety on our own. When we lift our worries to the Father, He gives us His peace. Connect with the Savior, lay your burdens at the foot of the cross, and trust Him to calm you in the storm.

Reflection:

What situation in your life is trying to steal your peace right now?

Joy Thought:

Jesus gives you peace despite your circumstances.

Two-minute read.

Addressing disagreements among believers, Paul specifically addresses food, traditions, and personal convictions. For centuries, the Jewish people had followed the laws set forth in the Old Testament. The people believed that by following certain practices, they would become more “right” with God. The apostle gently redirects their focus to what really matters: righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Years ago, I attended a church that wanted to make the auditorium look more “full.” To make that happen, they blocked off part of the seating, forcing people to sit in the desired location. Regular attenders who had their own seats got mad when they wouldn’t let them sit where they wanted anymore. Some even left the church. Paul’s telling believers not to lose focus on things that don’t matter.

Getting upset over petty issues steals us of the fruit of the Spirit. When we elevate minor issues to major ones, we miss the heart of God’s work. We don’t build the Lord’s kingdom on external rules, preferences, or secondary matters. We build it on Christ alone, not on where we sit or how full the auditorium looks.

Righteousness comes from a right relationship with Jesus and living right toward others. We can’t manufacture it; righteousness flows from a life aligned with God’s. Allowing the Savior to lead the way, following behind Him, and doing what He does keeps us on the straight and narrow.

Through the Holy Spirit, we receive God’s peace both inwardly and relationally. Paul emphasizes unity, encouraging the believers not to allow disagreements to divide what God has joined. Spirit-given joy doesn’t depend on circumstances or opinions. Divine joy remains when you choose love over anything else.

God’s kingdom transforms our hearts and relationships. Instead of worrying about rules and preferences, focus on the Holy Spirit’s work in and through you. Don’t let silly quarrels stop you from kingdom work.

Reflection:

Are you holding tightly to something that might be costing you peace or joy?

Joy Thought:

 Keeping the Son in your eyes helps you experience righteousness, peace, and joy.

Two-minute read.

My sixteenth birthday fell on a Friday in September of 1985. Having taken the test during school hours, I remember walking into school. Rushing up to my high school crush’s locker, I proudly showed him my newly acquired piece of freedom. When we have good news, we can’t wait to share it with others.

When Jesus walked out of the tomb, He gave us good news.

Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, discovered the empty tomb. They got to share the gospel, which means “good news,” first. Running with fear and joy, they ran to tell the disciples. Can you imagine the thoughts running through their mind in those moments?

First, they meet an angel who gives them the world-changing announcement: the grave couldn’t hold Jesus. More than a miracle, the empty grave fulfilled Jesus’s promise “just as he said.” The Savior’s words proved trustworthy, even when hope seemed gone.

Instead of asking the women to blindly believe, the angel asks them to witness the miraculous resurrection of their Savior, grounding their faith in real time and space. Nothing could have shocked the ladies more than the realization that Jesus lived. He had walked out of the tomb and left behind death.

 And now that they know, the angel tells them to spread the news. In a culture that devalued women, the Lord trusted them with the most precious message, an unexpected and beautiful detail in a culture that often overlooked them.

When they took off in “fear and joy,” the fear didn’t mean terror, but awe. The two Marys felt overwhelmed with the magnitude of what had happened. Sometimes our most profound encounters with God hold both a sense of wonder and a deep, uncontainable gladness.

Christ’s resurrection created an urgency to share the good news. When something changes everything, you don’t walk, you run.

Reflection:

Has the reality of the resurrection become familiar to you—or does it still move you to awe and joy?

Joy Thought:

The grave couldn’t hold Jesus.

Two-minute read.

My Dad took our family to a Pittsburgh Pirates game at Three Rivers Stadium in the 70s, a wonderful place that no longer exists. As we left the venue, going through the turnstile, I got disoriented and lost. But my Dad never took his eye off me, and quickly saved me from my momentary adventure, holding my hand firmly in his so it wouldn’t happen again. With my hand in his, I knew I had nothing to fear.

Jesus holds our hand.

As our Good Shepherd, He knows, leads, and protects His sheep. Once His, the Savior never lets us go, holding firmly to our hand and remaining connected with us, even when we turn our back on Him. The relationship God starts with us in this life will continue forever.

My earthly father now resides at a heavenly address. A man of strong character, he worked hard, prayed hard, and lived hard. He never stopped holding my hand, living forever in my heart. Knowing that one day we’ll share a heavenly residence helps me let him go; our temporary separation will one day end.

Christ gives us this beautiful promise to assure us that life doesn’t end when we die; it begins. A God of integrity, Jesus tells us we will have troubles in this life, but take heart, He overcame them. And when we walk through the pearly gates, our issues of today will matter not, because we will experience the glory of the Lord that our human mind can’t even comprehend. Our best day on earth doesn’t even begin to compare to that moment.

No one snatched me from my Dad’s hand that day long ago in Pittsburgh. And no one will snatch me from God’s. Place your hand firmly in the Savior’s. Believe in His promises and let Him guide you to glory.

Reflection:

Are you living like your security depends on you—or resting in the fact that He holds you?

Joy Thought:

God holds you securely in His hand.

Two-minute read.

In 1965, Corrie Ten Boom, a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, returned to Germany to speak about forgiveness. After one of her talks, a former guard from the camp where her sister died approached her, extending his hand and asking for forgiveness.

Corrie froze, later describing the struggle: every memory, every pain rising to the surface. In her humanity, forgiveness felt impossible. But she prayed and asked God for help. Then, by an act of obedience to her Savior, she reached out and took his hand.

Something unexpected happened, she later wrote that warmth flooded her, and she found the ability to genuinely say, ‘I forgive you.”

Victory came through Christ for Corrie in that moment. She defeated bitterness, hatred, and the lasting power of evil, exactly what Paul describes in his letter to the Corinthians. Victory comes in different ways; sometimes it looks like choosing forgiveness when you have every reason not to forgive, and other times it looks like hope in the middle of grief.

Paul starts with worship, victory begins when we recognize the source. Like David, when he faced Goliath, he fought in the name of the Lord, not on his own might but on God’s. When we allow the Savior to lead the way and fight our battles, we will find victory, not in our power but His.

God gives us victory when we do what Corrie did, what Paul did, and what David did. Asking the Lord for help leads to success. Corrie successfully forgave the guard when she asked her heavenly Father for help. Paul’s ministry had many divine victories, as did David’s battle against Goliath. We can experience the same victories when we put our trust in God and allow Him to lead the charge.

Seek the Savior and allow Him to lead you to victory, whatever battle you face today.

Reflection:

Where do you need to receive—not achieve—God’s victory in your life right now?

Joy Thought:

God has secured the victory and given it to you.

Two-minute read.

Grace means unearned favor, kindness we didn’t earn and can’t repay. Nothing we do can earn the salvation we receive from Jesus. Salvation begins and ends with God’s initiative, not a reward for effort, but an act of love. Accepting the gift can challenge any of us, knowing our sins, it can seem hard to believe the Lord would give so freely, but He does. God knows, we can’t do it ourselves; He must do it for us. And praise Jesus, He does.

Through faith, we receive the gift, trusting the Father’s words and the Son’s actions. We don’t need a perfect belief to accept salvation; we have to trust Jesus rather than ourselves. Faith doesn’t earn salvation; rather, it opens our hands to receive it. Developing a Biblical worldview means looking at life through the lens of scripture. The journey begins when we receive salvation through Christ.

Since we can’t earn our salvation, we can’t boast about it. Submitting our lives to the Savior means admitting we need His help because we can’t rescue ourselves. God gives us the faith to believe and the salvation we cannot achieve on our own. In our humanness, we battle pride, but by giving our lives to Jesus, we learn humility.

We must accept the gift we can’t earn. When we do, our relationship with God changes. We no longer strive to earn His approval because He has already given it to us. Only Jesus gets credit for our salvation, no one else. In Christ, we all receive the same gift, which removes comparison, pride, and pressure. Instead of focusing on what we have done, we focus on what the Lord did for us.

You don’t have to prove yourself to God. Instead, you can accept His invitation to trust His Son and receive the gift He offers.

Reflection:

Are you trying to earn something that God is offering as a gift?

Joy Thought:

Grace means you can stop striving

Two-minute read.

When we submit our lives to Jesus, our old self dies, and a new one begins. We become attached to the Savior’s transformational power as His Spirit takes up residence in us.

Ron and I got married in August of 2012. When I committed my life to him, I became a new creation. No longer single, we merged our lives together, becoming one. If Ron hurts, I hurt, and vice versa. Our old lives have passed away, no longer the same person. The more I become one with my husband, the more distant my old, single life becomes.

In the same way, when we merge our lives with Christ and allow Him to take control of our words and actions, we become a new person. Jesus teaches us to forgive instead of retaliate. Through His word, we learn to center our thoughts on the Savior and pick up the cross He has for us to bear. Our old lives grow dim as we embrace the new path God leads us down.

Christ doesn’t improve our life or upgrade it; He gives us a completely new one. We no longer have an identity rooted in our past, or failures, or even our former selves. Giving the Lord authority over our lives breaks the hold sin once had on us. Immediately, God begins changing our desires and thinking as we align our hearts with His.

Our foundation for our lives changes when we give our lives to Jesus. We don’t attain instant perfection, but we live from the new person He made us. No longer does our past define us; instead, we find our identity in Christ. And that identity comes with the eternal hope that awaits us when the Lord calls us home.

Reflection:

What part of your “old self” are you still holding onto that no longer belongs to who you are now?

Joy Thought:

Each day, God unfolds more newness into your life.

Two-minute read.

When Jesus talks about freedom, He means the deep, unshakable kind that reaches the heart. God’s Son has the authority to do what no one else can-set people free from the power of sin. Earlier in this passage, the Savior explained that sin enslaves us, not just something we do, but something that holds us. Habits, guilt, shame, and cycles we can’t seem to break keep us in bondage, and Jesus frees us from them.

“Indeed” means truly or without question (Merriam-Webster). Jesus uses indeed to emphasize the certainty and completeness of the freedom He gives us. Christ offers us a real, lasting freedom. Our guilt no longer condemns us. Our shame no longer defines us, and the power of sin no longer has ultimate control over us.

Jesus has a mixed crowd receiving His message. Talking to a group of Jews in the temple, some had begun to believe, while others remained skeptical. The audience believes they have already received freedom because of their heritage, but Jesus redirects them. True freedom doesn’t come from status, background, or self-effort, but through a relationship with the Savior.

Often, when we receive Christ’s forgiveness, we remain bound, still holding on to old labels, regrets, and patterns that can feel stronger than the truth. But Jesus makes it clear: the freedom He offers releases us from our past. We can let them go because He has.

In John 10:10, Jesus tells us He came to give us life in abundance. To experience life fully, we must accept the freedom Christ died to give us and not hold onto what He has forgiven. Transformation happens when we allow the Lord’s grace to take root in our lives and make different decisions, following His ways instead of ours. When we do, we will discover the abundant life He wants us to live.

Live in the freedom Christ died to give us.

Reflection:

Where in your life do you still feel stuck, even though freedom has already been offered?

Joy Thought:

Jesus gives us freedom that breaks the bonds of sin.

Two-minute read.

Deep, settled joy comes from a right relationship with God. When you know the weight of sin and the relief of forgiveness, you will understand the meaning of blessed. David’s not talking about shallow happiness, but the indescribable relief that comes when we receive the Lord’s grace.

Although we use the words sin, transgression, and iniquity interchangeably, they all have slightly different meanings. Sin means missing the mark, not always intentionally, and focuses on falling short of God’s standard. Transgression means crossing a line, a more deliberate action, and carries a sense of rebellion. Iniquity means inner crookedness and points to the condition of the heart, ongoing tendencies like pride, jealousy, or bitterness that shape behavior.

A few weeks ago, I lied to cover up a mistake. And then I immediately repented and found forgiveness. How quickly the words came out of my mouth amazed me. Without even thinking, as much as I love the Savior, they spilled from my lips with ease. Even though I received forgiveness, I learned a lesson on how easily we can veer off the straight and narrow.

Only through confession can we find our way back to the Lord. He forgives our transgressions and covers our sin. Jesus died for our white lies and everything in between. He suffered because of our inability to live a sin-free life.

When the Lord forgives our transgressions, He lifts what once weighed us down from our shoulders, carrying it away so it no longer defines us. In the same way, when He covers our sin, He hides it from sight, not ignoring it, but dealing with it once and for all. David reminds us that God removes and restores us; He doesn’t just take away our guilt, He restores our relationship with Him.

Discover the freedom of confession as you receive the Lord’s immediate forgiveness and restoration.

Reflection:

Are you carrying something God is ready to lift, simply because you haven’t brought it to Him yet?

Joy Thought:

Forgiveness brings joy.