I hate to wait. As someone who hates to wait at red lights, you can imagine the distress I feel every time I’m required to go to the Pit of Waiting Despair known as the Department of Motor Vehicles. 

We groan when we hear that we need to visit the DMV, don’t we? Because we know we will have to wait. And the DMV is a minor inconvenience compared to the big waits in life. 

We’re all waiting for life to return to normal—to be with friends and family, to worship together, travel, gather, and celebrate occasions as we used to. Maybe you’re also waiting for healing, for reconciliation in a relationship, or for a prodigal child to return. Maybe you’re longing to be reunited with a loved one here or in heaven. 

When I go to the DMV, I know I’ll eventually leave with the renewed license I came for. But in the rest of life, we often don’t know when or how our waiting will end. What we do know is the character of the One we are waiting for.

“Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:14)

We can be strong and have courage as we wait, because we know the Lord is with us. Our hope isn’t in a particular outcome; our hope is in Him. His presence gives us peace as we wait. 

“And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.” (Psalm 39:7)

And as we wait, we can have peace because of the promises of God’s Word. The truth of His Word sustains us as we wait. 

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope.” (Psalm 130:5)

Waiting is hard, friends. But we are not left alone. We are waiting for the Lord, who gives us hope through the promises of His Word. 

No matter what you face this week, let your heart take courage as you wait for the Lord. 

Share

I love gifts. (Who doesn’t, right?) I love getting gifts, and I love giving gifts. But I wonder if any of us understand what a gift truly is. We know that a gift is different from an earned paycheck. But sometimes we think we actually deserve the gifts we receive. We lived another 365 days and we were a great wife/mom/daughter/friend, so we get a gift. We receive gifts from our friends and loved ones – people don’t typically give gifts without having any reason to do so. 

Can you imagine giving the most costly gift to someone who has done nothing to deserve it but has done everything to not deserve it? 

We’ve been looking at Ephesians 2:4-5 in recent weeks, and prior to these verses, Paul reminds us that we were dead in our sin, following after the “prince of the power of the air” and living in rebellion against God (Ephesians 2:1-3). And yet, God gave us the gift of His grace and mercy. 

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4–5)

By grace we have been saved. This is a gift freely given by God—we don’t deserve it, and we can’t earn it. Paul makes this abundantly clear a few verses later: 

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

This is the beauty and wonder of God’s grace—it’s a gift we couldn’t earn by being a good person or doing something to make ourselves stand out in God’s eyes. We didn’t have any way to save ourselves, and He sent His Son to rescue us. We were in bondage to sin and death, and He sacrificed His Son to set us free. We were sinners living in rebellion against Him, and He gave His Son to take the punishment our sin deserved and give us eternal life. 

No matter what you face this week, you’ve been saved by the gift of God’s grace. 

Share

Last week, we returned to talking about two of my favorite verses: Ephesians 2:4-5. We’ve seen these verses speak into our hopeless spiritual condition with a big “But God.” We’ve considered the riches of God’s mercy and how He loved us with a great love before we loved Him. Today we’ll see what God intervened to do because of His mercy and love. 

In the beginning of Ephesians 2, Paul described us as dead in our sin. Dead people can’t be helped by a life raft, a dose of medicine, an encouraging word, or a great example of how to be alive. The only hope for someone who’s spiritually dead is a miracle in which God brings them from death to life. And praise God! – that’s exactly what He’s done for us in Christ: 

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4–5)

The new life we have in Christ is a gift of God’s grace. We couldn’t earn this new life, and we don’t deserve it. But “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He accomplished all that is needed for us to receive the gift of life.

The new life we have in Christ is rooted in His resurrection. The night before His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples: “Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19). Because He lives and we are in Him, we also live.

The new life we have in Christ will never end. Because of our new life in Christ, we don’t have to fear death. As Jesus and His friend Martha stood outside the tomb of her brother Lazarus, Jesus told her: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). 

In a world plagued by disease, violence, and death, we have this living hope: even when we were dead in our sins, God made us alive together with Christ. 

No matter what you face this week, you’ve been made alive with Christ. 

Share

Back in early March BC (Before Covid), I shared two devotionals on Ephesians 2:4-5 with plans to write more on these verses that are some of my favorites in all of God’s Word. We saw how “But God” changes everything and wondered at the riches of God’s mercy. This week I’d like to pick up where we left off more than two months ago in these verses. Let’s bask in God’s great love for us.

Sometimes my son and I have an “I love you” contest. We go back and forth: I love you, I love you more, I love you most, I love you to infinity . . . But I always hold the trump card: “I loved you first.” 

What if I played this game with God? Who would win? Which came first, God’s love for me or my love for Him? 

The stakes are high with this question. If God’s love for me follows my love for Him, then His love for me depends on my faithfulness. If I stop loving God, He might stop loving me. 

But if God loved me first, before I had done anything to earn His love, then I am secure. I am loved no matter how many times I fail Him, forget Him, or falter in my faith. 

Thankfully, Ephesians 2 teaches us that God loved us first: 

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4–5)

God loved us with a great love when we were dead in our sin. Before we ever loved Him, God sent Jesus to die for us (Rom. 5:8, I John 4:10). 

God loved us with a great love because of His mercy. He made us alive with Christ and saved us by His grace. None of it depended on our love for Him—praise the Lord! 

God loves us with a great love that is secure. His love depends on His faithfulness, not ours. His love never fails. His love is guaranteed by His perfection, not our performance. 

When you feel unlovable, remember God’s unchanging, unfailing, unstoppable love for you. When you feel overwhelmed by your sin, remember that Christ overcame sin and gave you new life. When you feel like your faith isn’t enough, remember that God loved you even before you believed. 

No matter what you face this week, God loved you first. 

Share