You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's epistle reading is here.
Those who follow Christ as Lord, who seek to receive and share his life with the world, are not called to settle. We are to be people on the move; the original name for Christ-followers was “People of the Way.” As a person who has never owned a home, always living in church-owned housing or rentals, I sometimes have to remind myself, “This is not yours. Some day you will have to leave this house.”
The same is true of our life in this world. As we learn to live this way, settling in for the day yet ready to move tomorrow, we’re much more open to the Life with which God wants to fill and surround us. This is a quality the writer of Hebrews ascribes to the heroes of faith he lists – people who are moving toward their promised future in God, aware that they are not yet Home: They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.
When I baptize people, I remind them that they now have dual citizenship, passports in this world and in that realm we will enjoy for eternity with God. We already gain access to that land in this life. Choosing to live there intentionally can help us avoid getting too settled in the loves and joys with which we are blessed in this world. The goal of the spiritual life is to learn to hold those people and things and jobs we love, yet hold them lightly, ready to move when called.
Few of us want to consider ourselves strangers and foreigners on the earth, as the magnitude of our global refugee crisis acutely reminds us. But strangers we are to be, on the move, accepting hospitality where offered, getting by where it is not, expecting blessing in the famines as in the feasts. We do not go back to the places – or people – we think of as home; we move forward by faith into the future God has prepared for us.
Whenever I’ve had to leave one beloved house, I’ve found God has prepared an equally delightful home in the next place. But even these charming homes are as nothing compared to the city God has prepared for us. I intend to enjoy every moment of my life here, always remembering it is not mine to keep.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Showing posts with label God's promises. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God's promises. Show all posts
8-7-25 - Greeting God's Promises
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's epistle reading is here.
The writer of Hebrews defines faith for us in a particular way: the assurance of things hoped for; the conviction of things not seen. To illustrate his view he cites various parts of Abraham’s story, as well as a list of other biblical heroines and heroes of faith (read the whole chapter…) What makes these people exemplars of faith is not their “victories” – it is that they believed even though they never saw the full fruit of their longing manifest in their lifetimes. “All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them.”
What a beautiful way of conceiving faith: seeing the promises of God in our mind and heart and spirit, and greeting those promises ahead on the road. I'm put in mind of the father of the prodigal son, “But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.” What if we personified the promises of God? Would that help us anticipate them with more hope and faith?
We do get to see and taste the goodness of God right here and now, in many ways. I am struck by how, in every place I move to, God provides a house for me with blessings I could not have anticipated, at a price I can afford. In my first week in Halifax I see God has done it again – a sweet, historic house in a lovely neighborhood, a block from a fabulous multi-acre park with water on three sides. This is a small example that also exemplifies my social privilege, but it is a consistent form of blessing and a huge reminder to me that God is faithful in greater things too.
Our invitation is to believe in God’s promise of Life, here and now and then and later; in God’s promise of peace and provision and presence and power; to believe that God’s reign of justice will emerge, and more quickly as we engage in God’s work of bringing it into being; to believe that refugees will find homes and wars will cease and evildoers be converted and everyone will “sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.” (Micah 4:1-5) That is God’s great promise.
Just as God regards us from a distance as already fully righteous in Christ, so we are invited to pray and work and believe in God’s promises in the conviction that they are approaching, close enough to call out to on the road: “Hello there! I see you coming, and I can’t wait to see you up close!” These promises are moving toward us all the time – and we can run to them and embrace them and live them.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
The writer of Hebrews defines faith for us in a particular way: the assurance of things hoped for; the conviction of things not seen. To illustrate his view he cites various parts of Abraham’s story, as well as a list of other biblical heroines and heroes of faith (read the whole chapter…) What makes these people exemplars of faith is not their “victories” – it is that they believed even though they never saw the full fruit of their longing manifest in their lifetimes. “All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them.”
What a beautiful way of conceiving faith: seeing the promises of God in our mind and heart and spirit, and greeting those promises ahead on the road. I'm put in mind of the father of the prodigal son, “But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.” What if we personified the promises of God? Would that help us anticipate them with more hope and faith?
We do get to see and taste the goodness of God right here and now, in many ways. I am struck by how, in every place I move to, God provides a house for me with blessings I could not have anticipated, at a price I can afford. In my first week in Halifax I see God has done it again – a sweet, historic house in a lovely neighborhood, a block from a fabulous multi-acre park with water on three sides. This is a small example that also exemplifies my social privilege, but it is a consistent form of blessing and a huge reminder to me that God is faithful in greater things too.
Our invitation is to believe in God’s promise of Life, here and now and then and later; in God’s promise of peace and provision and presence and power; to believe that God’s reign of justice will emerge, and more quickly as we engage in God’s work of bringing it into being; to believe that refugees will find homes and wars will cease and evildoers be converted and everyone will “sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.” (Micah 4:1-5) That is God’s great promise.
Just as God regards us from a distance as already fully righteous in Christ, so we are invited to pray and work and believe in God’s promises in the conviction that they are approaching, close enough to call out to on the road: “Hello there! I see you coming, and I can’t wait to see you up close!” These promises are moving toward us all the time – and we can run to them and embrace them and live them.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
8-4-25 - Promises, Promises
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's reading from the Hebrew Bible is here.
I believe you can find some gold in any gospel passage, but this week two of the other readings set for Sunday are calling to me instead of our appointed Gospel reading. Each in its way is a foundational text for followers of Christ. Let’s spend a few days with the first, a reading from Genesis:
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.”
This encounter between God and Abram takes place after Abram has won a great battle and been blessed by the great Melchizedek, the King of Salem (or “peace”). Abram is on a personal and professional high – and here comes the word of the Lord, promising protection and reward. Is Abram grateful for this divine communication? No; he replies, “So what? You’re blessing me right and left – but the one thing I want most in the world I cannot have: a child and an heir. This schmuck Eliezer, my distant cousin, is to inherit all the wealth I’m amassing. What good are your promises?”
And God does not say, “You want a glass for that whine?” God goes on to make him a promise that changes the course of human history – more on that tomorrow. Today let’s stay with Abram’s lament. Have you ever felt that way? Able to enumerate many blessings, but bereft in the areas that mean most to you? Sometimes I wonder if too deeply wanting certain things can keep us from being open to receiving them. We’re looking so hard for blessings in certain areas and get stuck in anxiety. In areas I don’t worry about, like finances, I do fine; in other aspects of life I feel God has overlooked me.
One day, as I was awaiting word on whether or not I’d been selected for a new job I really wanted, I was praying and sensed God say, “You can’t take this. It has to be given to you. Keep your hands open.” On one level, this was obvious – the decision was out of my hands. But this was a deeper word for my spirit – not to always think I have to make things happen; to let go and watch what God can do when I’m just open to blessings wherever they come. At no point did I know I was going to get the job – I only knew I would be blessed, one way or the other. After that, I was unable to locate any anxiety about it. It was the weirdest thing.
God has a timetable we cannot program or mess with, and often can only discern in hindsight. God had promises for Abram. God has promises for you. Whine all you want – and then open your hands in joyful expectation.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
I believe you can find some gold in any gospel passage, but this week two of the other readings set for Sunday are calling to me instead of our appointed Gospel reading. Each in its way is a foundational text for followers of Christ. Let’s spend a few days with the first, a reading from Genesis:
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.”
This encounter between God and Abram takes place after Abram has won a great battle and been blessed by the great Melchizedek, the King of Salem (or “peace”). Abram is on a personal and professional high – and here comes the word of the Lord, promising protection and reward. Is Abram grateful for this divine communication? No; he replies, “So what? You’re blessing me right and left – but the one thing I want most in the world I cannot have: a child and an heir. This schmuck Eliezer, my distant cousin, is to inherit all the wealth I’m amassing. What good are your promises?”
And God does not say, “You want a glass for that whine?” God goes on to make him a promise that changes the course of human history – more on that tomorrow. Today let’s stay with Abram’s lament. Have you ever felt that way? Able to enumerate many blessings, but bereft in the areas that mean most to you? Sometimes I wonder if too deeply wanting certain things can keep us from being open to receiving them. We’re looking so hard for blessings in certain areas and get stuck in anxiety. In areas I don’t worry about, like finances, I do fine; in other aspects of life I feel God has overlooked me.
One day, as I was awaiting word on whether or not I’d been selected for a new job I really wanted, I was praying and sensed God say, “You can’t take this. It has to be given to you. Keep your hands open.” On one level, this was obvious – the decision was out of my hands. But this was a deeper word for my spirit – not to always think I have to make things happen; to let go and watch what God can do when I’m just open to blessings wherever they come. At no point did I know I was going to get the job – I only knew I would be blessed, one way or the other. After that, I was unable to locate any anxiety about it. It was the weirdest thing.
God has a timetable we cannot program or mess with, and often can only discern in hindsight. God had promises for Abram. God has promises for you. Whine all you want – and then open your hands in joyful expectation.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
6-2-25 - Forever
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
"I'm gonna love you for forever," that's what he used to say,
Then you found out that forever ended last Tuesday …
So sings Carolyn Arends on a great song called “Life Is Long.” Don’t we want, more than anything, a love that will never go away, never diminish, never end? That human longing makes poignant even our sweetest relationships. Knowing that our beloved will grow up and maybe away, or will one day depart this life or our life, is what puts the bitter into bittersweet.
Next Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, that great day when the Holy Spirit came in power upon Jesus’ unsuspecting disciples and turned them into apostles. This great event is not reported in any of the four Gospels; they concern themselves with the Jesus-in-the-world story, which more or less concludes with his Ascension. The Pentecost account, which we might say launches the Jesus-in-us story, appears in Acts. The Gospel reading appointed for Sunday is from John, and shows us Jesus trying to explain to his followers the gift of Holy Spirit that God will send: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”
Is Jesus saying this great gift will come only if they keep his commandments? Is the Holy Spirit a reward for good behavior? No, I believe he is saying, “If you love me, keeping my commandments will come naturally to you. And as you live in my truth and walk in my ways, you will be open to receiving this gift the Father will send.” Jesus says this Spirit of truth is an advocate, someone who will stand by them in times of trial and equip them for ministry the way he did – only this one will not be limited by time or space. “He will be with you forever.”
The promise of a love that is forever – that fulfills our deep-seated longing. And it gets even better: we don’t have to go looking for this love, this power, this presence. Jesus said the Spirit of God will abide with us, even in us. We won’t be taken over, ala “invasion of the body snatchers," not possessed by God’s Spirit in a way that invalidates our unique selves, but we will be abided with, walked with, held close, counseled and consoled by God, right here within us. Always.
That is a gift worthy of eternity. And we already have it. How does that change how we live and love?
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
"I'm gonna love you for forever," that's what he used to say,
Then you found out that forever ended last Tuesday …
So sings Carolyn Arends on a great song called “Life Is Long.” Don’t we want, more than anything, a love that will never go away, never diminish, never end? That human longing makes poignant even our sweetest relationships. Knowing that our beloved will grow up and maybe away, or will one day depart this life or our life, is what puts the bitter into bittersweet.
Next Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, that great day when the Holy Spirit came in power upon Jesus’ unsuspecting disciples and turned them into apostles. This great event is not reported in any of the four Gospels; they concern themselves with the Jesus-in-the-world story, which more or less concludes with his Ascension. The Pentecost account, which we might say launches the Jesus-in-us story, appears in Acts. The Gospel reading appointed for Sunday is from John, and shows us Jesus trying to explain to his followers the gift of Holy Spirit that God will send: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”
Is Jesus saying this great gift will come only if they keep his commandments? Is the Holy Spirit a reward for good behavior? No, I believe he is saying, “If you love me, keeping my commandments will come naturally to you. And as you live in my truth and walk in my ways, you will be open to receiving this gift the Father will send.” Jesus says this Spirit of truth is an advocate, someone who will stand by them in times of trial and equip them for ministry the way he did – only this one will not be limited by time or space. “He will be with you forever.”
The promise of a love that is forever – that fulfills our deep-seated longing. And it gets even better: we don’t have to go looking for this love, this power, this presence. Jesus said the Spirit of God will abide with us, even in us. We won’t be taken over, ala “invasion of the body snatchers," not possessed by God’s Spirit in a way that invalidates our unique selves, but we will be abided with, walked with, held close, counseled and consoled by God, right here within us. Always.
That is a gift worthy of eternity. And we already have it. How does that change how we live and love?
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
5-28-25 - Waiting On a Promise
You can listen to this reflection here. An Ascension reading is here.
Sometimes playwrights (which I was, once upon a time…) have a problem: how to get a character off the stage. Did God face this dilemma with Jesus? After all, he’s risen from the dead, very much alive and embodied, if somewhat differently than before. Yet this embodied Jesus needs to exit the scene – his work is done, his mission accomplished, and it’s time for the Holy Spirit to be released upon all flesh. He can’t go into the earth or wander off. There’s only one way he can go: up. "…as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight."
Nice exit! For the rest of this week we turn to the story of Jesus’ ascension, which Luke tells in more detail in Acts than he does in his Gospel. Both accounts, though, begin with Jesus’ instructions to his disciples: While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
It is put even more urgently in Luke’s gospel: “And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
Promises are challenging – they require us to trust the person making them. They are by nature future events - they are only promises until they are fulfilled, at which time they become gifts. And we rarely know exactly when a promise will be fulfilled. It is often when we least expect it – for the disciples this one was met some ten days later, as they gathered to pray on the Jewish feast of Pentecost. And some promises come true over time.
We too have been promised the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we have already received this gift. We can feel the Spirit in prayer, in worship, in ministry. Yet we can also go through periods when we’re waiting for the Spirit’s life to be activated in and around us, for direction to appear, prompts to unfold laying out the way forward for what God has already intended to do through us. The waiting is hard!
In what areas of your life do you feel you are waiting on the Spirit? Waiting for a promise to unfold, a path to appear? Have you told God that you’re waiting? How you feel about the waiting? That doesn’t always shorten the wait, but it deepens the relationship.
The Spirit acts when the Spirit acts; our job is to wait with grace, keeping busy with what is already before us even as we wait to behold what wonders God will reveal in us next.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Here are the readings for Ascension Day. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Sometimes playwrights (which I was, once upon a time…) have a problem: how to get a character off the stage. Did God face this dilemma with Jesus? After all, he’s risen from the dead, very much alive and embodied, if somewhat differently than before. Yet this embodied Jesus needs to exit the scene – his work is done, his mission accomplished, and it’s time for the Holy Spirit to be released upon all flesh. He can’t go into the earth or wander off. There’s only one way he can go: up. "…as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight."
Nice exit! For the rest of this week we turn to the story of Jesus’ ascension, which Luke tells in more detail in Acts than he does in his Gospel. Both accounts, though, begin with Jesus’ instructions to his disciples: While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
It is put even more urgently in Luke’s gospel: “And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
Promises are challenging – they require us to trust the person making them. They are by nature future events - they are only promises until they are fulfilled, at which time they become gifts. And we rarely know exactly when a promise will be fulfilled. It is often when we least expect it – for the disciples this one was met some ten days later, as they gathered to pray on the Jewish feast of Pentecost. And some promises come true over time.
We too have been promised the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we have already received this gift. We can feel the Spirit in prayer, in worship, in ministry. Yet we can also go through periods when we’re waiting for the Spirit’s life to be activated in and around us, for direction to appear, prompts to unfold laying out the way forward for what God has already intended to do through us. The waiting is hard!
In what areas of your life do you feel you are waiting on the Spirit? Waiting for a promise to unfold, a path to appear? Have you told God that you’re waiting? How you feel about the waiting? That doesn’t always shorten the wait, but it deepens the relationship.
The Spirit acts when the Spirit acts; our job is to wait with grace, keeping busy with what is already before us even as we wait to behold what wonders God will reveal in us next.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Here are the readings for Ascension Day. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
2-20-24 - What Does God Really Promise?
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Most people walking the Christian path encounter times when we get disappointed or angry, maybe even say to God or someone we associate with God, like a clergyperson, “Hey, this is not what I signed on for.” It can happen when someone we love dies, or a relationship ends, or trust is broken, or we become ill or vulnerable in some way. Sometimes we even take a hike away from everything we connect with God. Those hikes can last days or decades.
Peter hit such a point when he heard Jesus talk about the suffering ahead for him: Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
“This will never happen to you!” Peter says. “How could it? You’re the most powerful person we’ve ever seen. I’ve just said that I believe you are the Son of God, the Messiah himself! How could the Son of God be killed?”
Though insubordinate, Peter’s rebuke was incredibly faithful. Our disappointment when we feel God has let us down is a measure of our faith; if we didn’t believe in God’s power and love, we wouldn’t be disappointed, right? Yet these letdowns offer an invitation to grow in our faith, to separate out the promises we think God made from the ones God really has made. My friend Peter calls these the “contracts” we think we have with God – such as, “I will serve you, and nobody I love will get hurt.” Only God never signed those contracts.
So what promises of God can we count on in this life? I count at least three P’s - Peace, Presence, Power.
Peace: “My peace I leave you, my peace I give you,” Jesus said to his followers. Paul reminds us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God, and the peace of Christ, which defies understanding, will guard your mind and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.” God never promised to change our circumstances but gives us peace within them…and sometimes that’s enough to change them.
Presence: “Lo, I am with you always,” Jesus said before ascending into heaven. “Even unto the end of the ages.” Hebrews quotes him as saying, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” That’s a promise we can live on, as his presence is not only with us but in us through his Holy Spirit, that living water that wells up within us to eternal life.
Power: “I have given you authority to… overcome all the power of the enemy,” Jesus said as he sent out 72 followers to proclaim the Good News and heal the sick. Paul reminded the Corinthians that, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”
Human wisdom and human strength and human vision will only get us so far. We have been given the gift of divine wisdom, divine strength, the eyes of God to see a reality that to the world does not appear to exist. We live already that eternal Life that transcends life. As we learn to rely more and more on these promises of God, we can find disappointment transformed to hope we did not dream possible.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Most people walking the Christian path encounter times when we get disappointed or angry, maybe even say to God or someone we associate with God, like a clergyperson, “Hey, this is not what I signed on for.” It can happen when someone we love dies, or a relationship ends, or trust is broken, or we become ill or vulnerable in some way. Sometimes we even take a hike away from everything we connect with God. Those hikes can last days or decades.
Peter hit such a point when he heard Jesus talk about the suffering ahead for him: Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
“This will never happen to you!” Peter says. “How could it? You’re the most powerful person we’ve ever seen. I’ve just said that I believe you are the Son of God, the Messiah himself! How could the Son of God be killed?”
Though insubordinate, Peter’s rebuke was incredibly faithful. Our disappointment when we feel God has let us down is a measure of our faith; if we didn’t believe in God’s power and love, we wouldn’t be disappointed, right? Yet these letdowns offer an invitation to grow in our faith, to separate out the promises we think God made from the ones God really has made. My friend Peter calls these the “contracts” we think we have with God – such as, “I will serve you, and nobody I love will get hurt.” Only God never signed those contracts.
So what promises of God can we count on in this life? I count at least three P’s - Peace, Presence, Power.
Peace: “My peace I leave you, my peace I give you,” Jesus said to his followers. Paul reminds us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God, and the peace of Christ, which defies understanding, will guard your mind and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.” God never promised to change our circumstances but gives us peace within them…and sometimes that’s enough to change them.
Presence: “Lo, I am with you always,” Jesus said before ascending into heaven. “Even unto the end of the ages.” Hebrews quotes him as saying, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” That’s a promise we can live on, as his presence is not only with us but in us through his Holy Spirit, that living water that wells up within us to eternal life.
Power: “I have given you authority to… overcome all the power of the enemy,” Jesus said as he sent out 72 followers to proclaim the Good News and heal the sick. Paul reminded the Corinthians that, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”
Human wisdom and human strength and human vision will only get us so far. We have been given the gift of divine wisdom, divine strength, the eyes of God to see a reality that to the world does not appear to exist. We live already that eternal Life that transcends life. As we learn to rely more and more on these promises of God, we can find disappointment transformed to hope we did not dream possible.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
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