“So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:6-8

“Justification, like sanctification, is a gift of grace. The former is God’s gift of grace to the unsaved sinner, and the latter is God’s gift of grace to the saved saint. Both are accessed by faith, as demonstrated throughout Scripture. It was the constraining love of Christ that motivated Paul to proclaim the gospel of God and present the glory of the Christian faith to the people of his day. Paul needed these believers to understand the nature of the New Covenant. An unbeliever cannot earn his salvation through works of the Law, nor can a Christian live a God-honouring life through deeds of the flesh. We are saved by faith and not by works of the flesh… and we must walk by faith and not by sight.”  (https://dailyverse.knowing-jesus.com/2-corinthians-5-7)

I like going to the beach. I am not a sunbather, but there is something about hearing the waves crashing against the beach, and the wind blowing constantly that is soothing to my soul. Once I have covered up from the sun, I can lay upon the sand for hours. However, getting to the place where I plan to repose can be trying. Walking on hot sand is not a pleasant experience. And unless you have the dexterity of a college athlete, it is hard to run in sand.

Of course, this is how I often feel in the day to day gymnastics that I call my life. I often feel that I am walking along a hot beach (if not hot coals) and the more I walk, or run, the harder it is for me to get to the end of my journey. And each one of us has our share of hot sand — we cannot avoid it. But no matter how hot the “sand in our lives” gets, we know that each and every experience we have prepares us for the eternal weight of glory to come when we finally leave this earthly plain. Until then, we do walk as by faith, not by sight. But there is no harm in trying to avoid the hot spots if we can — because some of those hot spots are from our own bad choices. And when we cannot avoid them, we learn to walk into and through them by faith, trusting in and having the confidence that G-d will see us through.

Let us pray,

Lord Jesus, I trust you walk with me every day in my walk of faith. Keep me in your care today and every day. Amen.

Pastor Dave

“The Lord is slow to anger but great in power;
the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
and clouds are the dust of his feet.” Nahum 1:3

“Sometimes it is easy to think that God will never right the wrongs of this world, and that the wicked will get away with their wickedness, and that God is either too weak or too immoral to do anything about the horrors of our age. But it is not so. There is judgment coming, and it is only possible to escape from it by taking refuge in God. Take refuge then in him, hide yourself in him, trust in Christ, and receive the good news.” (Godcenteredlife.org commentary)

“I can see clearly now the rain is gone….” so goes the song by Johnny Nash. Nothing can make a day really gloomy like a rainy day. Clouds and misty rain can make even the cheeriest person a little sad. But the reality of life is we will not always have sunny days. Life is about accepting whatever comes our way – rain or sun, clouds or sunshine.

Bad days, trials, tribulations and losses teach us how to see our lives and our relationship with G-d more clearly. As the saying goes, without trouble, there would be little faith. When all is good, when life is happy and without a care in the world, it is not that long before we delude ourselves to believe that we can handle this world on our own. What reason or reasons do we find a need for G-d if nothing ever goes wrong in our lives? But how ridiculous this sounds from the beginning, because none of us will ever live a life where nothing ever goes wrong. Just being alive means we will have bad days and good days and mediocre days.

Whether it is pouring down rain or the clouds are just gathering, or the clouds are finally lifting, isn’t it comforting to think that the presence of clouds means that G-d is present — and that makes us thank G-d for cloudy days.

Let us pray,

Lord Jesus, help me see you in the good and the bad, in the cold and in the heat, in the sun and in the clouds of each day. Amen.

Pastor Dave