Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, August 2, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
We are in him who is true. While we may be subject—willingly or unwillingly—to “the world” and its insatiable obsession with self and its gloom-and-doom messaging designed to keep us at a level of despair which further drives us into self, at our core, at the center of our wholeness of being, we are, in fact, in Jesus, and this makes us entirely free.
The work of spiritual growth, of “sanctification,” if you will, is in letting go of all the things that keep us in bondage to self and allowing God to open our hearts to reality, rather than fantasy. This is the “understanding” God gives us in Jesus, though sometimes it might seem clear as mud. As with everything in a spiritual life, it’s an ongoing process. Some days we might feel like it all makes sense, and we know our call and our place. Other days we might be mired in fear about the future—not just ours, but the whole world’s—and completely unable to drum up even a mustard seed’s worth of faith.
No matter what we feel in a given moment, we are still “in him who is true.” God, in Christ Jesus, is with us, holding us, loving us, teaching us, and calling us back into our right minds.
How do I handle my fears about the state of our world?
