1. While midnight might seem long, the mercy of God assures us that the morning will come.
  2. This is an excerpt from “Finding God in the Darkness: Hopeful Reflections from the Pits of Depression, Despair, and Disappointment” by Bradley Gray (1517 Publishing, 2023).
  3. A pastor is sent to proclaim the unconditional grace of God, reminding us again and again that it is our Heavenly Father who reaches out to us in love through his Christ-won forgiveness, and not the other way around.
  4. We may not all be mass-murdering Nazis. But we all have the same root sin that causes the most egregious criminal activity on the face of the earth. We all have the desire to be our own God.
  5. The Bible not only calls us to remember God’s past acts of deliverance; it also invites us to recognize that God in Christ is still in the business of delivering sinners from bondage.
  6. One word from one God says it all to our tired hearts.
  7. It’s not our eloquence or persuasive rhetoric that changes hearts, but the Word of God that pierces through the hardened shells of unbelief and breathes life into the dead bones of sinners.
  8. We live for the most part, on the strength of our moral fiber, under the law, by our zeal for God and all that which tickles our proud fancy.
  9. The Lord’s Prayer is liturgy and catechism, action and instruction, praxis and theology.
  10. Prayer is not just about asking for things. It's about receiving what has already been given to us in Christ.
  11. God cares about our real life where we actually are. He is present in the everyday.
  12. Praying the Word of God back to God carries didactic import. It teaches us.