Discovering God in Difficult Places | Rev. Elisha Satvinder


Summary & Key points
Rev. Elisha Satvinder's sermon begins by discussing the importance of bearing fruit and moving the needle in our spiritual lives, with a focus on ending the year well and preparing for Christmas. He announces an upcoming 21 days of reflection from Psalms, encouraging the congregation to deepen their spiritual practice. He emphasizes the necessity of having a deep anchor in God during difficult times rather than just surface-level faith. Introducing Psalms 103:1-2, 8-18, Rev. Elisha highlights God's compassionate and merciful nature. The sermon explores God's infinite, immeasurable, and everlasting love, surpassing human comprehension. God's mercy and compassion are likened to a mother's womb, indicating deep nurturing, protection, and provision. This concept includes empathy, protection, provision, and intimacy, showing that God's mercy is essential for our well-being and not just an abstract concept. Rev. Elisha uses the story from 1 Kings 3:26 to illustrate compassion, highlighting the profound heart of a mother willing to sacrifice for her child's life. God's mercy is deep and nurturing, not abrupt or judgmental. He emphasizes that God's love knows no boundaries and is constant and unwavering in every season of our lives. Psalms 103:1-2 encourages praising God and remembering His benefits, focusing on relationship rather than just needs. Rev. Elisha urges the congregation to seek intimacy with God, carve out personal time for connection with Him, and extend grace, love, forgiveness, and compassion to others. He calls for surrendering to God's love, allowing it to permeate every aspect of our being, and practicing justice, mercy, and humility as required by God, leading to genuine transformation in society.
Show Transcript

We want to bear fruit as well, so the memory verse keeps engaging this Friday. Now, this morning I want to talk about discovering God in difficult places. You may think it’s going to be a message of faith and you know the “Rah” thing, but you know what, all the “Rah” in our Christian life doesn’t help when we actually encounter problems. It is where we have an anchor in God that helps us. It is not just having a surface engagement with God, but it’s something that goes deeper. So today we’re going to look at a few scriptures, but predominantly one particular verse in the Psalms.

But let me invite you to read with me Psalms 103. We’re going to read verses 1 and 2 and then 8 till 18. It says, let’s all read this together, okay? I’ve been working through this a bit with the prayer time this morning. Are we ready to read this? “Praise the Lord, my soul.” Okay, come, let’s do it again. I’m sure all of us are alive, right? Okay, let’s do it. “Praise the Lord, my soul. All my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”

Now, we could park here and we could talk about praising God, what it means to be praising God in all that we are, and we have His holy name and why we shouldn’t forget His benefits. What are His benefits? But to understand this, we’re going to go a bit further into this Psalm and a few thoughts today on the character of God. Verse 8 onwards: “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love.” I want to take time with each one here. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love. It sounds like a mouthful, isn’t it? God is compassionate or merciful, He’s gracious, He’s slow to anger, He’s abounding in love. How does this work in my heart and in my life? Verse 8: “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according

to our iniquities.”

Just wait there. He does not treat us as our sins deserve. Now, we can get lost with that word sins, but if we just look at it and say, “God, what are my compromises? Where do I find it hard to bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me? I want to bless His holy name. I understand you’re compassionate, you’re merciful, you’re gracious. God, you are kind. Lord, Your love abounds. But God, you know, you are compassionate, you don’t treat me the way I’m supposed to be treated.” Pause for a while. We often are. We all have our limits, yes? No? We all have our limits. Now imagine if God’s limits were our limits with dealing with problems, with dealing with rebellion, with dealing with not reciprocating. If somebody doesn’t reciprocate your kindness or your love, what do you do after some time? You walk away, right? You walk away.

Next: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him.” And we did this a few weeks ago. Verse 12: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” He has removed our transgressions, but sometimes we go chasing after it. Verse 13: “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him, for He knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust.” Verse 15: “The life of mortals is like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field. The wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting, the Lord’s love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their children’s children, with those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts.” 

It looks like a tag team thing, isn’t it? You know, this is God, this is His goodness, but you know, He also sees our issues, but you know, this is who God is. It keeps giving us this balance, isn’t it? But it’s more than that. And when we dive into this, I want us to look at a few things today. I’m after actually three things but can only do one today. So as we look into the heart of God, I would normally use this main scripture for my father heart of God, but that’s not where I’m going. But I want us to look at something else today.

Now, when we explore His love that knows no limits, and I want you to think about it, how many of you, there are some restaurants when you go to, they say bottomless refills, isn’t it? All people, all the young folks are very happy because they can go and load up on Coca-Cola or Sprite or whatever, you know. No limits and you keep going, you keep going. Even when you are so full, you go to the toilet and come back. Why? Because all of a sudden you realize you can keep tapping into that one gift. You can keep tapping. When we go to the buffet, you realize your eyes eat more than your stomach. You go, you pile up the plate, but then you realize you can’t get it done, isn’t it? You can’t. And it’s a buffet there for you. Wow, and it’s all you can eat. Keep eating and keep eating and keep eating. God’s love knows no limits. How do we apply that? How do we comprehend that? How does it become practical in my life? So His love that knows no limits. How can we explore it practically, living His love that knows no limits? But remember, He also has His discipline. Why? The discipline is to mold us and shape us into being a better version of ourselves. And there is a compassion that comes, but I call it compassionate anger. Why? He wants to restore.

So together I actually want to uncover three key questions, but again, like I said, I only can do one today. What does God’s love look like? We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. We talk about what does love look like? When I say I love you, Lord, what does it look like? When I love somebody, what does it look like? When I love something, what does it look like? When I love a particular food, what does it look like? I overeat. When I love money, what do I do? My energy is all into it. So even my prayer is about prosperity and power and deliverance and provision. It’s all targeted. Everything is all channeled into that one area: God’s gift to me. So think about it here. Think about it very carefully. What is this whole issue of God’s limited, unlimited love? What does God’s love look like?

What does God’s love look like? We know what a father’s love is like. An engaging father, we know what his love looks like. A mother, a friend, a lover, a husband, or a wife, we know the ideal, what it is supposed to be like. But let me present you the question: What does God’s love look like? Because for us, God’s love looks like He must give me all my needs. He must provide me all my needs. So that’s one thing we want to look at. What does God’s love look like? Why does God love us? We know the famous scripture, “For God so loved the world.” We bandied this word love all around, but why does God love us? Actually, Psalms 103, we just read, he said, because He knows we’re dust. Why does God love us? Look at me, look at me. Those of you, why do you love your husband? Paycheck? I mean, okay, no. Why do you love your wife? Why do you love your children? Why do you love your work? There’s always a why behind that action, right? Yes. There’s always a why behind the action. Why does God love us? See, if I don’t deal with it, I always struggle and I always have an immature faith. 

The third thing, the third question, and like I said, I can only deal with one today. What does compassionate anger look like? So what does God’s love look like? How deep is His love? Verse 11 says, “As high as the heavens are above the sky.” Wow. So we are reminded of the largeness of God’s love. It describes, isn’t it, as high as the heavens are above the earth. God’s love is not based on our performance or our merit. And then I know I’m preaching to the choir, but I think I want to revisit this for us to understand something deeper today. God’s love is not based on our performance or merit. It flows from His very nature, that His very being, who He is. It comes from who He is.

What happens here? We encounter the profound truth that God’s love goes beyond human comprehension. It’s infinite. It’s immeasurable. It’s everlasting. Those three words: it’s infinite, it’s immeasurable, it’s everlasting. Our expressions are all temporal. Now, the psalmist here, Psalms 103, he paints actually a stunning picture of God’s unlimited love. It’s amazing. Look at it this week. Read Psalms 103 as many times as you can. It’s a stunning picture. He declares this few expressions, these characteristics of God. He said, “God is merciful, compassionate, He’s gracious, He’s slow to anger, He’s abounding in steadfast love.” That seems to be a lot, but can I wrap my brain and my heart around it? 

Here we are confronted with what I would say, there are many things, but there’s one thing I feel I’m confronted with when I read this. It’s the incomprehensible. It sounds like, okay, I don’t know what I’m saying. Can I really comprehend God’s love? It’s incomprehensible, this immenseness of His love, this nature of God’s love. It surpasses human understanding. It extends before, beyond what? Before, beyond time, space, whatever it may be. It even says His peace goes beyond our ability to understand, isn’t it? But where does His peace come from? It comes from the very nature and nurture of God and of His love for us. So if I don’t understand that, I’m constantly bankrupt of peace and understanding or engaging life. I’m groping in the dark. I’m struggling. I’m always breaking up in relationships. I’m struggling in relationships. I’m struggling in my character. I’m struggling with integrity. I’m struggling with all kinds of things.

So verse 8, I’m going to read it in two versions. “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” The ESV says this, “The Lord is merciful.” So you see these two words interchangeable: mercy, compassion, and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Now, it’s an amazing scripture. It captures or rather it encapsulates this one aspect of God’s character. If you look into the original language and the background of it, it’s really rooted in the Hebrew language and, of course, the tradition. So I want to break this verse down a bit to describe God’s nature and help us move in our journey with God. Number one, God is merciful, He’s compassionate. He says, “I desire mercy,” isn’t it? Oh man, what does the Lord require of you? Now, if He doesn’t, if what He asks us, He shows us.

Interestingly, don’t change the slide until I say the word. When I was studying for this, I was just reading through all the background of the words. This word used here, merciful and compassionate, is where we get our English word womb from. This is where we get the word womb. Mercy, compassionate, yeah, that’s where we get the word womb. Maybe the women can relate to this more. So jantan, help out, okay? What does it imply? It implies this visceral, very deep, intuitive, instinctive. It expresses such a deep emotion towards us. God is

compassionate, merciful, and the expression is it’s a womb. How does this come about? It also conveys God as very tender, compassionate, very deep empathy for us. It reflects a very deep-felt nurturing. A mother nurtures a child, right? You nurture a little one, whatever it is. You look how a mother would nurture a newborn. That is the understanding here. Now, this word from the Hebrew is translated merciful, expressing deep emotion. That’s how God looks at you. There’s no one English word that can capture this. This insight, this profound insight into God’s mercy, compassion.

Now, if I show you these two pictures, and you have probably seen, what does this picture mean to you? The sheep looks really happy, isn’t it? Contentment. What does it speak to you? Come on, I want you to think with me here. What does this picture, if it’s a personal thing, what does it speak to you? Love? Safe? It says a lot, isn’t it?

Next, please. A bit of real life, huh? The sheep almost looks like it’s laughing, isn’t it? Smiling. So I don’t know whether it’s an engineered, doctored picture. Can I ask you a question? Do you

feel that way in God’s arms? Do we know how to be resting in God’s love? Or is it always, “Chief, what have you done for me lately?” See, we don’t know this sometimes because our growing up, we also may have had harsh mothers and difficult dads. And maybe we are harsh dads and mothers. So this component of God’s nurturing nature is absent. We don’t know how to be quiet and be rested in God’s love. We don’t know. And we China man, Punjabi men, whatever, we think we know how to be a father or a mother. I think we have missed God by a few miles.

“I am merciful. I am compassionate.” And then this word comes about. It’s a womb. Then we have these tiger mothers. Where do we get all this from? It’s not God. You have ladies who struggle, they’re boisterous. We forget what it is, and we carry this. And I see it even in young adults, different ones. I can see it. I can say, “This one definitely got daddy issues,” you know, because of how they will relate with whether it’s me or different authority. You can see it. The cracks are all over. Can you clear your throat at least with something like that, please? The womb. What does it represent? And isn’t it odd, most of the gynecologists are male. Okay, remember the first time when a wife walked in, I’m like, “Male doctor checking my wife out? Bad, but no female there? What is this?” Anyway, let me come back to this. The womb represents the very essence of what? Nurturing and protection.

Do I see God as nurturing, protective? Now all of a sudden, this personal, very personal, close element comes in, isn’t it? If we look at it biologically, the womb is the first environment the baby is introduced into, isn’t it? First environment. And what’s this environment? It’s sustaining, it’s nurturing. And that seed, that little embryo is at a very vulnerable stage. And the womb is supposed to be the one that says, “I’m taking care of you.” So it provides everything. The womb is supposed to protect, provide what? Sustenance. It feeds the baby, right? So whenever there’s a pregnant lady, eat more, you’re eating for two, isn’t it? We say those things, isn’t it? Warmth, protection, constant connection. Why? The baby never leaves the womb, right? Unless it’s time, right? Yes. Do I feel when Jesus says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” so where’s the disconnect? God of me. Where’s the disconnect? Where does it break? Where does the bridge snap? So in this context, mercy, compassion, it’s not a passive feeling. It’s not a passive feeling

of pity. It’s not a reluctant forgiveness. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It’s not a reluctant forgiveness. Instead, dear friends, this is what it is. It’s an active, passionate commitment to nurture, protect, and sustain life at its most vulnerable condition and position. Our problem is when we have challenges, often we run the other way rather than towards God. And then we look for surrogate mothers, other ways to help us out.

So this whole thing here, so God’s mercy and compassion as a mother’s love, it’s almost like, huh? Because we pray the Lord’s prayer, “Our Father.” And God has the audacity here to bring something. So what is He expressing to all of us? What is He speaking to His children, to His creation, to you and me, to you personally? In this whole lightening of His mercy, in this womb’s protection, Scripture paints this picture of God’s compassion of a mother’s womb. What is it? It’s intense, it’s intimate, it’s profoundly connected to what? To the well-being of the child. When you’re caring, and if you or mother-in-law somebody says, you get scolded, isn’t it? “Sit down, what are you doing? You’re pregnant.” Why? Care for the life you are caring. This analogy actually helps us with a few things. One is this: God’s mercy is not distant or abstract. It’s not distant, it’s not abstract, but it’s very close and it’s essential to our wellbeing and living. It is so close that it’s as a mother’s love for her child in the womb, in her womb.

So what are the implications of this? When we look at the word, yeah, whether you want to say it’s logical terms, whatever, it describes one thing: mercy and compassion equals to the understanding of womb. It underscores these few key attributes. Number one, empathy. God’s sympathy, God’s identification. He identifies with our sins, with our frailty. Why does He love us? Why? Because He knows we are dust. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This amazing grace. So when we sing “Amazing Love,” “Oh God, Amazing Grace,” how could it be? So when that begins to just erupt in our hearts, in our minds, imagine the sense of self-worth, identity that comes in. People looking for what? Significance, self-worth, identity. Look at our society today. So if as a believer I’m struggling, how can I now bring this and say, “Do you know the Savior?” So I often tell people, just don’t say, “If you died today, where would you go? Heaven, hell?” Stop that. I mean, I think introduce an amazing Savior. So when you sing “Jesus, lover of my soul,” what does that mean to me? Empathy. Empathy for human frailty, our suffering, just like a mother intuitively, isn’t it? So I remember different times my wife will say, “I know, I’m the mother.” I’m thinking, “I have something to do with it too.” You know, like, “I am the…” Okay, “I’m the mother.” But as you go on, you read, you look at Scripture, you understand, you say, “Hey, okay, I understand something more.” But you see, we often see the flip side. We see the God of power and thunder, and that’s why, church, at least I think so, we struggle to be quiet before God. We struggle to have communion because we come before God, His word is so boring. You want me to read 20, you want me to do 21 days of devotion? But when I understand His immense love and how He draws me in, changes. Changes. Then you see everything from a different lens.

Just as a mother feels the pain, the needs of the child, so God intensely, I use this word very intentionally, intensely perceives and responds to our pains and our needs on our humanity. Protection. The womb is a protective space, is it not? Protective place. God’s mercy encompasses a protective impulse, shielding us from often what we cannot bear ourselves. Provision. Again, the womb is a place where the necessary nutrients come to the baby, and the

unborn child. God’s mercy involves providing for us. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Yeah. Even before we are even aware of it. Intimacy. This relationship really highlights one of the most profound ideas of closeness. Most profound idea of closeness. I want you to switch to the mother for a while. The mother is so ever aware that she is carrying a child, right? Yeah. That’s how God is aware of you. His awareness of you. His consciousness of you. Be it pain, hurt, but He is there. He’s not a Savior. Hebrews talks, He is not somebody who doesn’t understand where we are, who we are, our frailty, our brokenness, our sin. He’s not one who doesn’t understand that closeness. It’s so profound, isn’t it, when you think of it?

So when you were in your mother’s womb, you were always with her, isn’t it? Okay, don’t go let me worry here, get me more. You were always with her, right? You were feeding off her, so to speak. She carried you every moment of the time. So how can we apply this? So let’s look at this word, merciful, compassionate. God is merciful. God is compassionate. It’s this understanding of God inviting us into this deep, nurturing sense to what? To trust in His goodness more fully. And I say this often enough, and I think that’s why this whole prosperity thing, if I can use a carnal term, screws it up so badly, because God is the ATM machine on demand. You have Estra on demand, you have God on demand. Broken relationship. We don’t understand. Disjointed. God is there to meet my needs only, and that’s it. “Where are you, God?” It’s like the baby shaking its fist in the womb. “Where are you? Come on. Why no steak juice today?” You know, some silly thing like that. You know, come on. And yet God draws us constantly, wooing us into His presence, a mother’s heart longing for the kid to come home, isn’t it?

So it challenges us to rely on His mercy, knowing that it’s essential for our livelihood. It models how we are to extend mercy to others. We have received, we give. Come, look at me, dear friends. I think we cannot extend mercy because we’ve never embraced His mercy. They cut and dry. I had asked the team to read a book long ago, and I at least liked it very much, “The Wounded Healer” by Henri Nouwen. Amazing book. We were not just forgiving, but we are actively nurturing love, seeking the genuine well-being of another person’s success. So hence, God’s mercy is deeply rooted in this imagery of the womb. It reveals His desire not only to forgive us, but to enrich us, sustain us, develop us, intimately engaging with us in our lives all the time.

Now, this picture, this portrayal of who He is, it invites us to have a more relational walk with Him, isn’t it? More relational, isn’t it? And that we trust Him, we trust Him, we draw closer to Him. I want to read, and I’ll probably read it again. I don’t have it on the slide for you. This is Isaiah 49, verse 15-16. So some of you ahead of me in your mind, you know what I’m going to read already. Lord have mercy, come on. Isaiah 49, verses 15-16. He says here, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast?” Moms, can you forget the baby when you just gave birth and the baby is still getting nourishment of milk from you? Moms, hello? Okay. Can you forget and have no compassion on the child she has born? Though she may forget, you know, earlier this year, I came across one of the students. I don’t normally deal with a lot of issues, too many of them. But this one kid, something happened and I noticed something, and I said, “Hey, I dropped a message to the teachers, and I said, ‘Who is this kid and why does he behave like this in class as well?'” And the teacher responded to me, “Yeah, Pastor, sometimes he said, okay.” I said, “What I saw today, I would really like that to be addressed.” I said, “Because he also personally turned around and was very disrespectful to something that I was doing.” And I said, “That’s not acceptable here.” So I said, “Why don’t you all come and see me?” So for them, it was a death sentence to come to my office. So I saw him. I said, “Hey, tell me what was happening today.” And at the next point, I said, “I would like to catch up with your mom and dad.” This boy instantly, it’s like a demon possessed him. I kid you not. He went into this violent movement, and I’m just looking at him, and I’m thinking, which one, mom or dad, has messed this boy up? At birth, the mother chucked him away because she was expecting a girl. And sometimes our culture, yeah, no boy or girl, and then you have nine girls, then still want to try. Asian culture, bordo sometimes, you know. Sorry, I just say it straight. We too much. We come on. I hope we don’t get stuck. You know, this is the favorite daughter-in-law. Why? She got four boys. This daughter-in-law, so got girls. Like, what is this? And God says, “Hey, I relate with you more than you can imagine.” He said, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born? Though she may forget.” Now look at this. Look at what He says now. “I will not forget you.” He’s literally stepping in and saying, “I am more than a mother.” And the next verse gets even more amazing. “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are ever before me.” Wow. “See, I have engraved you.” Then we have all this al-ittihad in the… “Oh, I don’t… I see this one.” No, please. You know, God has engraved you on the palm of His hand. He carries you everywhere. And the expression is not of a father.

The expression is from the very nurture of a womb and a mother.

So this same word, womb, mercy, compassion, is used in various places in the Old Testament. I was going to give you a few examples, but I’ll just give you one, which my students in Thling got. But I’ve got about five here, but I also realize it’s 11. So I’ll just give you one from the book of Kings. 1 Kings chapter 3, verse 26. You may remember, Solomon is celebrated for his wisdom. So two prostitutes, the chapter starts with two prostitutes. They both have little children. One of course probably kills her own baby, sleeping over it. And when she realizes what has happened, in the middle of the night, she takes her dead child, puts it to the other one, takes her live child, and keeps it to herself. So in the morning, when they wake up, the lady realizes, “Oh, my child is dead.” But on further examination, realizes, “No, this is not my child.” And she says, “Hey, I think you did this.” This is the version according to me, okay? “Hey, I think… Hey, I know what you did. You must have slept over your kid, and you know what? You took my child.” She says, “Swear on my mother’s name.” I mean, no. I mean, if they were Asian, no? You know, he says, “Okay, we go to the king.” So everybody celebrates Solomon’s wisdom, missing the amazing heart of this mother. So Solomon said, “Oh, okay, very easy. Since I don’t know the whole issue, give me a sword. Let me cut this kid into two. This kid into two. You take half, you take half.” And everybody says, “Oh, bravo, Solomon, you’re so wise. Sure.” But think of the heart of that mother, who says, “Even though it pains me for my child to be with this really whatever kind of woman she is, but at least he will live.” Sometimes we think God is this abrupt judge, but God’s grace and mercy come so deep and nurturing. Often we are kids running around who don’t know how to sit down like that sheep and say, “I’m just going to rest in your arms, Lord.” He’s not a distant God. He’s a loving God. Yeah, father. He’s a father. He cares. He nurtures. But His love is so nurturing and sustaining that we begin to see this concept of God saying, “You’re

inscribed on the palms of my hand.” Lamentations 3:22 says this. We know the scripture. “Though He brings grief, He will show compassion. So great is His unfailing love.” His womb.

I want to end with this last few slides. God’s love knows no boundaries. It reaches us all the time. No boundaries. I think I missed the other part here. I said, “God’s love knows no boundaries. It reaches to the highest heavens,” we read in Psalms 103. And it encompasses what? The darkest depth of human experience. In every season of our life, dear church, in every circumstance, God’s love remains constant and unwavering. So when we start back with Psalms 103, “Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not His benefits.” But we park on things rather than relationship. We park on meeting our needs rather than the nurture and development. But God

is drawing and saying, “I long for your voice. Come, whether you’re grandparents, whatever. Hey, you know, you do over kids. Hey, just that. He’s an amazing lover of our soul.”

So church, be rest assured of God’s unwavering love and care for you. The second thing is seek intimacy with God, knowing He desires a deep and personal relationship with you. Seek intimacy, whether it’s in the morning you get up and you carve that time out or in the evening or the noon, whatever. Whatever. Don’t miss it. Like I said, some of us may not have had that experience with our parents. When I just had come to know the Lord, and I was starting to be in

church, and I would go every Monday morning and come back Sunday evening. Every Monday morning, Monday is off day, so I’ll go Tuesday morning. Every Monday morning, it’s breakfast with mom. Every Monday, just my mom and me. That’s it. Just breakfast every Monday morning. And one of the things that I would always think of is, like, which story can I bring to her in one way to sow the seed in her heart? In actual fact, my mother looked forward to that Monday morning more than I did. More than I did. God looks forward for us to just quiet our hearts, picking up His word, saying, “God, I come before you with… You love me, God. I want to rest in your love.” And it’s not like, “Hey, I’m off. Bless my work. Bless my business, Lord. Remember, come through in this thing.” Sure. But can you be still? Seek intimacy. Seek intimacy.

The third thing I would like us to think about or do is… That’s four. Give me three. Extend grace, love, forgiveness, and compassion to others. If I haven’t engaged it, I can’t give it. “Forgive me my debts, even as I forgive those who…” Amazing exchange, isn’t it? Extend grace. Oh man, what does the Lord require of you? Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. My utmost conviction, and I’m writing something on this. I just wrote a thing for MECF, but I postponed this particular writing. And I said, “If these three the church can get it, the believer can get it, the transformation will not be hyped. Transformation in society will be a reality because we see through the lens of God’s justice, not my pent-up anger. I see through the eyes of God’s mercy, not my arrogance. And I understand humility, knowing what it is to serve instead of wanting to be served.” Of course, it’s more than what I’m thinking. More of that. Anyway, what does the Lord require of you?

Four: Surrender to His love, allowing it to permeate every aspect of your being