The Gospel of John-19 – The True God

John 3:31–36

“The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” Amen.

 

The Essence of Christian Faith Belonging to Heaven

The passage from John 3:31 to 4:3 marks the practical conclusion of the conversation between John the Baptist and his disciples after they heard news regarding Jesus. Among these verses, the passage from 3:31 to 36, which we contemplate together today, contains profound theological implications and spiritual insights in every single verse. From my aspiration as a pastor, I would wish to share each verse deeply week by week; however, what I have realized in the field of ministry is that the passion of the preacher and the interests of the congregation do not always coincide. Since a sermon is never for the preacher alone, I intend to provide an overview of this passage today and address the remaining important themes as we continue our expository series on the Gospel of John. Specifically, we will contemplate the spiritual meaning centered on verses 31, 32, and 33.

 

Verse 31 begins by stating, "The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth." This verse is a truly remarkable declaration that expresses the essence of the Christian faith. John the Baptist makes it clear that the essence of Christian faith is something that "belongs to heaven." This also means that the revealed Word of God cannot be fully explained through the ways of this earth. It emphasizes that the Gospel is a mystery of a dimension that cannot be measured by the common sense or ways of thinking we possess on this earth. The greatest obstacle we encounter when looking closely at these words is the fact that we ourselves are beings who belong entirely to the earth. Because all of us—myself and all of you—were born of the earth, we are very familiar with hearing, speaking, and understanding the things of the earth, but we are inevitably ignorant of the things of heaven. John the Baptist also deeply recognized the fact that he himself was one who belonged to the earth.

 

Repentance of the Earth and the Gospel from Heaven

If we look at the characteristics of those belonging to the earth from the perspective of John the Baptist, it can be seen as referring to those belonging to the Old Testament within the context of Israel. This is because John was the last prophet of the Old Testament. This implies that John the Baptist came to this earth and, in the form of one belonging to the earth, cried out for repentance to the people of Israel. His cry, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near," differs in nature from the repentance spoken of by Jesus. John the Baptist was one who communicated in a language of a dimension that humans could understand. That is, he urged repentance based on the commandments of the Law familiar to Israel. Just as the people of Israel prepared themselves by washing and becoming pure through Moses before the presence of God at Mount Sinai in the past, John’s baptism also possessed the character of such a rite of purification.

 

This was a ministry that emphasized that humans must rightly prepare themselves in holiness before the presence of God. This proclamation by John caused a tremendous sensation among the people of Israel. It was because the entire concern of the Jews at that time was focused on how to stand purely before God and worship Him correctly. One reason John’s message resonated so deeply was that it resided within the Jews' sphere of understanding. To verify this, let us look at the passage in Luke 3:10–14.

 

In Luke 3, a scene appears where the crowd asks John the Baptist, "What should we do then?" Later, Jesus receives the same question in the Gospel of John, but while the question is the same, the answer is quite different. John teaches that anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same. He urges tax collectors not to collect more than the required tax and soldiers not to extort money but to be content with their pay. How is it? Is this not a moral teaching that we can fully understand? These are lessons that can be clearly realized in daily life, such as warning against greed for tax collectors and prohibiting the abuse of force for soldiers.

 

Jesus Christ, the Source of Life

The way of sharing and moderation taught by John was entirely based on the commandments of the Law. Upon hearing these words, the people of Israel were pricked in their hearts and strove to observe them. Because the Jews accepted this message as a commandment, they were able to understand it; thus, many looked up to John as a prophet and even wondered if he might be the Messiah. However, the fundamental limitation was that John the Baptist himself was not a being who could provide salvation. He was not one who possessed life within himself, nor was he the source of life that could be shared with others. Therefore, John testified that one who is essentially superior to himself—the True Source of Life—would come. The Apostle John, who recorded this Gospel, also repeatedly emphasizes this fact throughout the entire Gospel of John.

 

By mentioning that while there was already wine at the wedding in Cana, a "better wine" would come, he proclaims that Jesus Christ would come as a more spiritual wine. Furthermore, he testifies to Jesus Christ as the "better temple" than the existing one. John the Baptist was in the same context. Because he approached using the Law and commandments as tools, the people were able to understand and follow him. However, today’s text testifies, "The one who comes from above is above all." In the following verse 32, a truly remarkable word is recorded: "He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony." Those who had been enthusiastic about John the Baptist's words failed to accept the words of Jesus Christ when they heard them. This is the paradoxical characteristic of the Gospel. The Gospel proclaimed by Jesus is of a different dimension from the logic of the world. It is because He did not come to persuade or convince us through some commandment or Old Testament regulation.

 

Heavenly Testimony Beyond Human Understanding

Friends, the Gospel was not sent to be explained so that you might understand, nor did it come to make you agree with an "Ah, is that so?" after hearing a logical explanation. Jesus Christ is not one who came to explain the Gospel, but one who came to personally die. If the Gospel could have convinced humans through explanation, Jesus would not have needed to bear the cross. To put it another way, Jesus spoke what He had seen and heard in heaven when He came to this earth, but because the content was of heavenly things, no one among the people of the earth accepted it. Preaching is the same. The reason we sometimes encounter passages difficult to understand while listening to a sermon may be due to the preacher's lack of competence, but fundamentally, it is because it deals with heavenly things. Since language from heaven—which is difficult to capture from an earthly perspective—is being conveyed, it is common to run into the limits of understanding.

 

Commonly, while living a life of faith, people confess, "I gained great realization through today's sermon and I believe because I understood it well." Such an expression is not wrong in itself. However, when making such a confession, one needs to organize for oneself with what intention those words are being spoken. When saying, "I understood today's sermon well, so it was a blessing," one must discern whether that "understanding" means a complete intellectual mastery of the sermon's content or whether there was a spiritual encounter beyond it. Let us examine the true meaning through verse 33 of today's text.

 

The preceding verse 32 ends with the declaration, "no one accepts his testimony." It is a verdict that there is no one who receives the testimony Jesus gives. However, looking at the following verse 33, it says, "Whoever has accepted it," showing that there are those who receive that testimony. But the confession such a person utters is very unique. It is the fact that they say, "has certified that God is truthful." We usually like to express ourselves when we come to have faith by saying, "I realized that word" or "I have finally decided to believe." These are excellent responses of faith. However, Scripture does not record "I believed" or "I understood," but testifies, "God is truthful." If one received testimony, it would be humanly natural to confess, "This word is so good and I understand it in my heart," but why does Scripture specifically use the expression "God is truthful"?

 

God is Truthful: Acknowledgment, Not Understanding

What would be the reason for that? It is precisely because of the difference between "understanding" and "acknowledgment." To say "I know" or "I realized" means that I have understood subjectively. It means that I have grasped the meaning of the biblical word heard today through human reason. On the other hand, to say "God is truthful" means "God is right." Do you see the difference between these two? While the former is a self-centered confession that "I understood all the words I read and heard today," the latter is an ontological confession that "God is always right." We usually tend to pursue this "understanding." Because we are beings with reason, we feel frustrated if we do not understand, and we feel satisfied only when we understand everything. However, there is a fact we must know. Human understanding can never be perfect. We must always realize the limits of human understanding. No matter how deeply one studies the Bible and prides oneself on knowing God's Word well, it is impossible for a finite human to fully understand God's vast will and providence. How can one dare to say "I know everything" without fully understanding?

 

That is why John the Baptist proclaims, "God is truthful." This point is important. Scripture does not try to make you understand by proving God's existence. It means it does not attempt to persuade you or make you believe by logically explaining God's existence. Instead of making us understand, Scripture declares, "God is." For example, suppose all mankind gathered to decide God's existence by a majority vote. If 5.9 billion out of 6 billion people raised their hands saying God does not exist and 100 million abstained, would God truly disappear? No. God still exists. It is because God's existence is not determined by whether we believe or not, or whether we understand or not.

 

God’s Faithfulness Sustaining Us

God's existence is not swayed by whether we serve Him or not. God is the Self-Existent One and does not seek to logically prove His existence to us. During the past century, one of the most heated issues was likely the sharp confrontation between creationism and evolution. In that process, evolution has repeatedly changed and modified its theory little by little. Before the Bible, which is the unchanging truth, evolution has essentially been in constant flux, putting forward various views and theories. But there is an important fact here. Even if we suppose we have perfectly and logically proclaimed and proved the fact that evolution is completely wrong so that every scientist could know it for certain—if that were to happen, would all those scientists come to believe in Jesus? What do you think? Not at all.

 

The world does not take God's side no matter what happens, and that is the very essence of the world. In the past, there was a theory in the scientific community that when the Earth was formed, it broke away from the Sun, and then a part of the Earth broke away to become the Moon and the Pacific Ocean. However, upon examining the lunar soil, it was revealed that its composition is completely different from that of the Earth. Then, just because the scientific fact was proven that "the Moon did not break away from the Earth," would that scientist believe that God created the heavens and the earth? No. Right now, Mars rovers are looking for traces of life; if some theory comes out or is reversed later, will they believe in God? Certainly not. The world does not stand on God's side under any circumstances. And we are also not people who possess perfect answers to all the world's questions.

 

The Life of a Believer Surrendering to God

Friends, there is a problem we face every day. It is the concern over what I should do if God governs and rules everything. Where exactly do God's sovereignty and human responsibility meet? Can you explain this clearly? If there is anyone who can explain it clearly, I would even want to step down from the pulpit for a moment and listen to that explanation. We live today while agonizing and repenting within that tension, without knowing where that boundary is. The life of faith is precisely this process of concern, repeatedly discovering God's will in the journey of life while simultaneously realizing my own weakness and having my responsibility checked again before God. It is not something that can be divided like cutting a radish, saying, "Up to here is God's sovereignty, and from here is human free will." We cannot explain it all. It is natural not to know. But just because we cannot understand, we cannot abandon God, can we?

 

It may be a very difficult problem because it is not all explained logically, but the characteristic of those who have received the testimony of Christ is that they confess at this very point, "God is right." This is not the arrogance of saying "I can understand and explain everything." It does not mean seeing through all the problems of the world either. If that were so, it would be Buddhism, not Christianity. Does not Buddhism aim to understand and transcend all the principles of the world one day through enlightenment? Their path is for all the world's doubts to become clear and pure before them, reaching 'Great Awakening' (Dae-gak). But Christianity is different. Christianity is a faith that believes not because it has understood all the principles of the world, but because it confesses, as recorded in the text, "God is right." It is our reality that we cannot help but lament, "I really don't know why my life is so tangled and difficult. I don't understand why I have to go through this when I've done nothing wrong."

 

The True Blessing of Delighting in God

Not knowing how the path ahead will unfold and being at a loss, yet knowing one thing for certain—that is what we call a person of faith. What is that? It is the confession: "God is right. God is truthful. God is alive, and He is surely holding my life with mercy and compassion." The one who knows this is a person of faith. You and I cannot understand all the principles of the universe, and the Bible does not explain them one by one. Such knowledge might be better known by scientists. We cannot explain everything, but we can know the fact that the stars in the night sky are beautiful better than scientists can. Between an astronomer who observes the stars every day, finding their positions and naming them, and our lives where we look up at the sky and exclaim in awe, "Look at those pouring stars, how truly beautiful they are"—whose life is more wonderful? For us to say "God is right" even without understanding everything is never a matter of just stubbornly insisting.

 

Insisting blindly is merely being headstrong. Faith is not like that; it means knowing who God is and what kind of person He is. That is, because we know how gracious He is, how fair He is, how much He loves me, and what amazing things He is doing within me, we confess, "I surrender to God." This is the true expression of faith, not something that ends simply with a resolution of "I believe." Friends, now the things of heaven have come down to this earth. How can we believe that perfectly? As a being of an essentially different dimension, He who consulted with God in heaven has personally descended. How can we fully comprehend that? We, who do not even properly know the stars in the sky and do not understand all that is visible to our eyes—how could we fathom the mystery of heaven that has descended? As the book of Romans says, it is natural that there is no one who believes, no one who seeks, and no one who knows and follows. But here, something called grace appears.

 

Humble Obedience Responding to God’s Love

We confess like this: "There are truly many things I do not know among all these matters, yet I can willingly surrender to God. It is because I know Him as my personal Lord." Through my life, I know how God's hand has been at work, and the fact that He loved us to the point of sending His Son is deeply engraved in my heart. Because I believe that He is the one who will never let go of me and will lead me no matter what situation my life falls into, you can confess before God, "If God does it, it is right." I sometimes think that the reason our faith hesitates and fails to move forward is at this very point. Usually, we think, "If I understand everything and learn enough to know it all, I will be able to follow the Lord better, obey Him, and serve Him deeply." But that is often a strange misunderstanding. Faith does not work exactly in that way.

 

If we are not careful, we fall into a great error while having such thoughts. Namely, trying to stand at the same level as God and walk with Him while completely understanding Him. This is truly an immense pride. How could we possibly walk while fully understanding Him from the same position as God? The path of faith we walk is never such a path. There is one certain fact. Friends, we know God a little. But we must not speak as if that little we know is the entirety of God. The love of God we know is actually only a tiny fraction. It is not the whole. So there is no need to pretend to know everything. Rather, if we think about this fact in reverse, we reach an amazing conclusion. If even the meager fragment I know is such a tremendous love, what would it be like if we considered His "entirety"? It is truly a wondrous thing. Just seeing the hand that has led this meager life this far makes the heart overflow; if inexhaustible storehouses of grace remain with God, how truly great must He be?

 

A Heavenly Perspective Beyond Earthly Standards

If that God becomes our Father and our God, it is as if you already know what kind of path our lives are currently on. Going one step further, we discover another important fact in the text. It is the fundamental weakness possessed by those belonging to the earth. The reason we cannot fully understand heavenly things, or even if we do know, we keep falling into error, is that we look at everything by "earthly standards." Because we also live with our feet planted on this earth and maintain life with the produce of the earth, we inadvertently pride ourselves, saying, "Even by the standards of this earth, we are living quite well." We think, "Am I not living diligently enough? I go to the workplace faithfully every morning, raise my children with devotion, and am making my own efforts on this earth." But one day, Jesus comes from heaven and says to us:

 

"You are all patients." The moment we hear this, we feel wronged. It is because we have believed until now that we are something like volunteers caring for patients in a hospital. We thought we were healthy and were standing at a distance helping those who suffer, but the Lord comes and declares, "In my eyes, the one pushing the wheelchair and the one sitting in the wheelchair are both just patients." We cannot hide our bewilderment at these shocking words. In fact, we might have wished for God, or Jesus Christ, to come and rather say things like this: "Do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not lie." If He had given such moral guidelines, we would have tried to keep them somehow to stand before God in a slightly cleaner state. However, the Lord defies our expectations and flatly states, "You cannot keep all these laws at all." We protest indignantly, "When did I commit adultery?" but the Lord says through the Sermon on the Mount, "Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." In the end, we are left with nothing to say before Him.

 

God’s Blessing, Faithful Even in Suffering

Ultimately, we do not fully understand the Gospel. It is because we think of everything only from an earthly perspective. Because we absolutize earthly standards and stand upon them, we misunderstand that we are doing well in our own way. Is not Paul's confession, "as for righteousness based on the law, faultless," also meaning that he was without defect by earthly standards? The rich young man who came to Jesus, boasting, "I am keeping everything well; I have never even broken the Ten Commandments," was in this same category. Friends, these problems appear very frequently and seriously even among believers. Let us look at 3 John 2. It is a familiar verse that you know very well.

 

"Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well." It is a truly famous verse. It is a word so loved that it is hung as a frame in every household. Usually, we see this verse and think: 'Yes, just as my soul has been saved and is doing well, I hope that my business and everything I do will also go well and my body will be healthy.' Since the Apostle John prayed so, we also naturally expect to receive such blessings. However, this is exactly the interpretation that clearly shows we are beings belonging to the earth. Because we belong to the earth, we instantly substitute the Word of God that came from heaven with earthly values and understand it as such. Then, what is the true meaning of "all may go well" (prospering in all things) that God speaks of?

 

True Prosperity in Walking within the Truth

God says in the following verses 3 and 4, "I am very glad to hear that you are walking in the truth." Thus, the life of walking within the truth itself is what it means for all to go well. However, "all going well" as spoken of in the Bible does not only mean our businesses flourishing or our bodies being comfortable. Rather, the Bible paradoxically says that the toil, frustration, disappointment, pain, as well as the suffocation and persecution experienced in the process of striving to live within the truth, are all part of "all going well." This is a concept quite different from the success we commonly think of. We too often fall into the danger of interpreting God's Word with an earthly values system. This can be called a chronic tendency we possess. Whenever the concept of 'blessing' comes up, we substitute everything with earthly standards to interpret it. A bigger problem is that we interpret by earthly standards not only when things go well, but even when they do not.

 

When difficult things happen, we interpret them from an earthly perspective and conclude, "I have failed" or "I am frustrated." To feel easily discouraged, saying, "I am falling behind compared to others" or "I should have achieved at least this much but failed," is also evidence of interpreting life through the same earthly structure. The thought that regards it as failure when worldly things do not go as intended is the same. When a desired task goes awry or a child does not grow as expected, we tend to regard it as if we have failed in life or have not received God's blessing. However, friends, the testimony of Scripture is entirely different from the judgment of the world. Please listen to what the true blessing is that the Bible tells us. In Psalm 73:28, the Bible expresses what the true blessing is like this:

 

But as for Me, It Is Good to Be Near God

The Psalmist confesses, "But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds." Before this confession came out, he was in a state of desperate conflict. He lamented in frustration, "Why do the wicked prosper so? They have no struggles even in their death; God, how can this be? Why must the righteous rather suffer? Why is it that my work is so unsuccessful and keeps getting tangled even though I strive to live according to the Word?" The conclusion God gave at the end of that agony is this: "God, even if I am poor, work does not go well, and every situation is tangled—if I have come closer to God through those events, that itself is a blessing."

 

Of course, I did not expect a loud "Amen" from you at this point. The response you desire is probably, "It is a blessing when worldly affairs also prosper and, in addition, one becomes closer to God." Because we live deeply rooted in the things of the earth, it is truly difficult to overcome this nature. So when things do not go well, we always conclude that it is a failure. However, friends, true success and failure do not depend on worldly conditions. Do you not know this well? No matter how much one succeeds in this world, how much can it be? In the end, one can only succeed as much as what cannot be taken when leaving the world. No success exists beyond that. Yet why do people cling to it as if it were the entirety of life? It is because we are possessed by worldly values. That is why the Bible constantly speaks of heavenly things. True success and failure in life depend solely on "Am I currently drawing closer to God?"

 

Faith Hoping in God in Any Circumstance

The reason we should truly rejoice and gain hope does not lie in things proceeding smoothly and successfully. Whether things are prosperous or not, whether wealthy or poor, or whether lying in a hospital bed or active in health—in all those circumstances, the only standard for blessing must be "Am I indeed drawing closer to God?" If we have come to love Jesus Christ more, that is an undeniable blessing. However, if we are submerged in the problems at hand and forget God, floundering in self-pity, then it is not a blessing but rather becomes a trial and temptation. Even if we have much wealth or are very healthy, we can receive the same temptation. I believe that the fact that even a very healthy person sometimes experiences pain is God's way of making us realize that the human body is inherently weak.

 

No matter how much a person is riding high in the world, they are bound to taste frustration. I believe this is God's precious providence. Therefore, we should not be intoxicated by things going excessively well, nor should we despair because things do not work out. Above all, the perspective of looking at how God's blessing comes to us through all those situations is important. Meanwhile, within the church, we also frequently face similar issues. Because obeying God is more important than anything else, we ask various questions about the method of obedience. We ask, "I have come to believe in Jesus; what should I do about alcohol and cigarettes?" or "Is it okay to buy food outside on the Lord's Day? If rice isn't okay, is Jajangmyeon (black bean noodles) alright?" Regarding hymns, people ask, "Must we only sing Psalms, or are Gospel songs also possible?" These are concerns arising from the zeal to love and serve God correctly.

 

A Heart That Loves God More Than Form

Sometimes we worry about issues such as "Is it okay to use a piano during worship, or must it be an organ? Are drums or guitars alright?" To give the conclusion first: some issues have clear answers, but in other cases, we often do not get the perfect answer we expect. Of course, we must have zeal for these matters and examine God's Word, and we must study and strive with all our might to live according to that Word. However, friends, when we pour all our spirit only into getting perfect answers to peripheral issues, we sometimes miss the truly important essence. For example, in our church, the place I can speak most comfortably is the choir. Whenever the bass part is lacking, they ask me for help, so for me, it is a very comfortable place. I am worried about the aftermath of saying this, but there is no room for argument in the fact that the choir must practice with all its heart and praise God with the very best.

 

However, if one emphasizes only skilled technique too much, there are cases where, having become an expert, one fails to delight in God. If you are so anxious about missing a single note that you cannot rejoice in or love God, then we are paying too much attention to the wrong place. It is only right that a heart that loves God and delights in Him should come first, even if there are mistakes due to a slight lack of skill. Of course, our choir is an instance where, rather than giving grace because the praise is so perfect and beautiful, they make the onlookers earnestly seek God's grace in anxiety because we do not know when they might make a mistake. In the tension of not knowing when a mistake might happen, we rather come to hope for God's help. It is like a 'bullet taxi' in Korea. If you ask a bullet taxi driver why he drives so fast, they say some answer, "Even so, I am better than a pastor."

 

The Spirit That Gives Life and the Letter That Kills

When asked for the reason, he replied, "Pastors put people to sleep with their sermons, but I drive a bullet taxi and make the people in the back pray earnestly to be saved." If there is anyone nodding off right now, I hope you wake up. In fact, all of us, including you and me, possess somewhat wrong views of faith or theological attitudes. It is because no one knows God perfectly or possesses doctrine without a single error. Friends, please remember: we do not know everything. And even if we have put forward a correct answer to a certain problem, that does not make us righteous. What makes us righteous is only the cross of Jesus Christ, His grace, and the love of God. Looking back at Christian history, we frequently see images of churches that lost their vitality and became trapped in dead traditions because they missed this essence and saw only the trees, failing to see the forest.

 

That is like creating another law under the pretext of obedience, much like the Pharisees in Jesus' time. There are cases where, in the name of loving God, human regulations are established, which ironically make people enslaved to that law. To understand this part more clearly, let us look at 2 Corinthians 3:6. "He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." Here, the 'letter' refers to the Law. The Law kills us, but the Spirit gives us life. Therefore, our primary concern should rightly be in this 'Spirit.' That is, we must pour our hearts into delighting in Christ, rejoicing in Him, and loving Him. As methods and paths to practice that love, we must humbly contemplate various spiritual issues. When we continue our concerns stemming from that love without forgetting the heart that loves Christ, we can walk the right path. Friends, obedience for the sake of obedience is merely the Law. Please remember only obedience for the sake of love—that is, faith expressing itself through love.

 

God Was Right: The Final Confession of Life

Wrongful obedience eventually makes us stiff-necked and pretend to know everything in the church, and it makes us judge others and cause them to stumble. However, obedience performed out of love for Christ leaves us with no choice but to infinitely confess our own weakness. It is because one knows that no matter how hard one strives to obey, it is so trivial compared to the obedience shown by Christ. Therefore, a person of true obedience confesses their weakness endlessly and delights only in Christ and relies only on Him. Through precisely such an attitude, they are the ones who achieve the obedience that God is pleased with. They cannot boast, nor can they stand confidently before God. They simply hope for God's grace and love, and the obedience they perform is not obedience for the sake of obedience, but the love of Christ. Thus, they become ones who rejoice only in Christ and delight only in Him. That is true obedience. Beloved ones, now the things of heaven have come to us.

 

We are standing before this person now. Friends, suppose the path of your life ahead is pitch black. Suppose it is as dark as ink so that not a single step can be seen. What will you do then? Will you go somewhere else to ask? Will you leaf through the newspaper to look at today's fortune? What will you do? At that moment, you must take a step. Believing what? "God is truthful. God is faithful. That God will never let me fail in my life. God never fails." Because we know that, even though it seems like a life that is pitch black where nothing can be seen, we can move forward before God. Friends, do not become those who take the spiritual blessings of heaven and turn them into things of the earth to enjoy them. Rather, I hope you take all the possessions and events of the earth, all the things you experience, and all the people you meet as your blessing by letting them lead you to love Christ and delight in Him. I hope you make the process of going to that place your blessing.

 

Let us pray.

 

Lord, we also confess together: God is right. In our lives, we sometimes look back and regret, thinking, "If only I had done this then." Lord, reflecting is good, but let us be able to say the same thing before God regarding our lives: "God was right." In the past, present, and future of my life, everything was God's faithfulness. If it were not so, how could we come before the Lord so humbly? If we had not tried being proud, how could we have known God's amazing glory and love? If we had not lived claiming our own righteousness, how could we have realized our sin? We do not understand everything, but God was right. May the beloved saints live knowing that God is truthful, that God is our joy, and that He is our love.

 

In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.