​The Gap Nobody Talks About

There’s a particular kind of frustration that doesn’t announce itself as impatience. It just feels like a bad day… the morning that didn’t go as planned, the project that stalled, the person who didn’t come through, the conversation that went sideways. We rarely step back and ask what actually went wrong. But if we did, we would often find the same culprit waiting quietly at the scene: an expectation that reality declined to honor.

Impatience is almost always born in a gap, that space between what we assumed would happen and what actually did. It’s the “child of a disappointed assumption.” And until we look honestly at the expectations we carry into our days, we’ll keep treating the symptoms while the root goes untouched.

Hope Deferred

The book of Proverbs cuts straight to it: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12). This is one of the most honest sentences in all of Scripture. When what we hoped for doesn’t arrive on the schedule we imagined, something sickens in us. We dress it up in different language such as stress, frustration, a short fuse, but the ancient writer saw it plainly: the ache of deferred hope is real, and it has consequences.

Notice, though, what Proverbs does not say. It doesn’t say that hope itself is the problem, or that having expectations is foolish. The same verse ends with a tree of life when longing is fulfilled. We were made to hope. The question isn’t whether we’ll carry expectations, but whether those expectations are tethered to reality, and more importantly, whether they’re submitted to the one who actually governs reality.

Learning, Not Arriving

The apostle Paul wrote from a Roman prison, which is not, by any reasonable measure, where he had planned to spend his time. Yet it was in that setting that he wrote these words: “I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content” (Philippians 4:11). Notice that word: learned. Contentment wasn’t Paul’s natural condition. It was not a gift that arrived gift-wrapped. It was the hard-won fruit of a man who had been through shipwreck, rejection, and long stretches of waiting, and who discovered, on the other side of all of it, that Christ was enough. He didn’t get there by lowering his expectations of God. He got there by lifting his trust in God above his expectations of circumstances.

That distinction matters. The goal isn’t to stop caring or to drift through life without desire; that isn’t patience, that’s closer to spiritual numbness. Real patience holds genuine hopes and legitimate desires with an open hand before a God who orders all things well.

Wisdom Moves Slowly

Proverbs 19:11 draws a line we often miss: “A person’s wisdom makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” Patience and wisdom, the writer tells us, are neighbors. The wise person is not someone with no expectations, they’re someone who has learned to hold them rightly. They have built enough margin into their thinking, enough genuine trust in God’s gracious providence, that when the day doesn’t cooperate, they aren’t undone by it. They bend rather than break. And in that bending, the writer says, there’s something called glory, not weakness, but a kind of spiritual steadiness that’s worth far more than getting what you wanted on time. How I wish that described me more!

Thomas Watson, the Puritan pastor, wrote that patience is “the ballast of the soul.” Ballast keeps a ship upright when the wind shifts. It doesn’t prevent the storm, but it keeps you from capsizing in it. Patience functions exactly this way. Not by eliminating the gap between what we expected and what is, but by giving us the stability to navigate that gap without being wrecked by it.

Where the Pursuit Begins

And that patience is not something we manufacture by trying harder. It’s a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23), grown in the soil of a surrendered life, cultivated by the very tests that feel, in the moment, like nothing but inconvenience.

We begin here: not with the difficult people or the long seasons of waiting, but with the expectations we carry, often without knowing it, into every single day. The pursuit of patience starts with an honest look under the hood and understanding (and naming) those expectations for what they are.

Study Questions

1. Read Proverbs 13:12: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” This verse was likely written with deep, long-term hopes in mind, but its principle spreads broadly across ordinary days. What does it reveal about how God understands the human experience of waiting and disappointment? And where in your own life do you feel the particular ache of a hope that hasn’t yet arrived, something you expected or longed for that reality hasn’t yet delivered?
2. Read Philippians 4:11-13 in full, paying close attention to the word learned. Paul frames contentment not as a feeling or a gift but as something acquired through experience, including difficult experience. What does it say about God’s methods that even Paul had to learn this the hard way? How does that reframe the way you think about the seasons and circumstances in which contentment has felt hardest for you?
3. Read Proverbs 19:11 again: “A person’s wisdom makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” Wisdom here is directly connected to patience, specifically to a slowed and sober response when things don’t go as expected. In a situation where you typically react with frustration or irritation, what would it look like practically for wisdom to arrive before your emotional response does? What would you need to believe in that moment for wisdom to have that kind of traction?
4. Read James 1:2-4. James tells his readers to consider it “pure joy” when they fall into various trials, because the testing of faith produces perseverance - and perseverance, allowed to finish its work, produces maturity and completeness. James presents the trial, not as a detour around spiritual growth, but as the road itself. Where does that land with you, honestly? Is there a frustrating or slow season in your life right now that James might reframe not as an obstacle to formation, but as the primary means of it?
5. Think honestly about the expectations you carried into this past week, about how your days would unfold, how people would treat you, how quickly things would move. Where did reality fall short of those expectations, and what was your instinctive response? What does that response reveal about what you were quietly assuming, and how tightly you were holding it?
6. Unmet expectations often carry a hidden belief underneath them, that we deserved something different. Where do you think your most persistent expectations come from? Consider upbringing, personality, past experience, and cultural assumptions about pace and convenience. How might some of those expectations be setting you up for impatience before the day has even had a chance to surprise you?
7. Paul learned contentment “in all circumstances,” which implies he was regularly in circumstances not naturally suited to it. Consider your current circumstances: where is there the sharpest tension between how things are and how you believe they ought to be? What would it look like to bring that specific tension to God, not demanding that he change it immediately, but genuinely asking him to begin teaching you something in the middle of it?
8. Read Galatians 5:22-23. Patience, or longsuffering, appears in the list of the fruit of the Spirit, which means it isn’t primarily a personality trait or the product of good self-management. It’s something the Spirit grows. How does that change the way you approach your own impatience? Instead of simply resolving to do better, what would it mean to treat your impatience first as a spiritual and prayerful matter, something to bring to the Spirit’s work rather than to your own willpower?
9. Consider the rhythm of a typical day. Are there places where your expectations consistently outrun what is realistic, in your schedule, your relationships, your pace of work? This is not only a planning question; it’s a discipleship question. How might building more realistic margin into your ordinary days become a small but genuine act of spiritual surrender, a way of functionally releasing the belief that you are in control of how the day must go?
10. 1Think about one specific relationship in your life where your expectations of that person regularly produce frustration. What are you expecting from them that they aren’t delivering, and have you ever named those expectations clearly, either to yourself or to God? What would it mean to hold your expectations of that person more loosely, not by caring less, but by demanding less?
11. Read Isaiah 40:31: “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles.” The Hebrew word translated “hope” here carries the sense of expectant waiting directed toward a person, the Lord himself, rather than toward an outcome. What’s the difference between hoping in the Lord and hoping in what you want the Lord to do? How might that distinction change the quality of your waiting in a situation where you are currently asking God to act?
12. At the deepest level, what does your relationship with unmet expectations reveal about your actual trust in God, not your stated trust, but the functional kind, visible in how you respond when the day does not go your way? Where do you see a quiet distrust of his timing or his goodness operating in your own heart? And what would it look like to bring that honestly before him, not as a confession that disqualifies you from grace, but as the very thing that opens the door to a deeper and more genuine surrender to God’s will?

Walking Points

1. Before the week is out, take fifteen minutes to write down the expectations you most regularly carry into your days: about time, people, pace, and outcomes. Don’t evaluate them yet; just name them. This is grounded in a basic principle of spiritual formation: you cannot address what you haven’t first honestly acknowledged. What you name, you can bring to God. Ask the Spirit to show you which expectations are realistic and surrendered, and which ones are quietly setting you up for frustration. Then pray through the list.
2. Identify one recurring context where your expectations consistently outrun reality - the morning routine, the drive to work, a regular appointment - and intentionally add fifteen minutes of margin this week. Do this not primarily as a time-management adjustment, but as an act of discipleship. The person who leaves with no room for delay has already decided, functionally, that disruptions are unacceptable. Building margin is, in a small but real way, the practice of releasing control.
3. Begin this week with a brief, intentional morning practice: name your expectations for the day and surrender them to God before you carry them into it. Not asking him to fulfill them, asking him to hold them. “Lord, here is what I’m hoping for today. I hold it loosely. I trust you with the gap between my plan and yours.” This may be a small thing, but over time, kept faithfully, it slowly rewires the posture of the heart from demanding to receiving.

Closing Prayer
​
Lord, we confess that we carry more expectations into our days than we usually realize, about our time, our relationships, and how things ought to go, and that much of our impatience is simply the gap between those assumptions and what you have actually seen fit to give us, which is always, even when it doesn’t feel like it, exactly what we need. Forgive us for the times we’ve mistaken our preferences for your plans. Teach us to hold our expectations with open hands before you, trusting that what feels like disruption is often your design. Give us the wisdom that Proverbs describes: slow to anger, steady under pressure, and free enough from our own agendas to overlook what doesn’t ultimately matter. May the patience you call us to be the fruit of a life surrendered to your Spirit, not the product of gritted teeth and good intentions. We ask this in the name of Christ, our peace and our portion. Amen.

The Dilemma

No one fails on purpose. Yet spiritual and moral failures abound. A few years ago I taught a lesson to my church which focused on temptations we face. The workbook we were using quoted C.S. Lewis on this subject, and it was a turning point for many in the group. Lewis wrote,

“It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the person away from the light and out into the nothing… Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

The truth communicated by Lewis rang true. It reminded me of something a former mentor of mine once said. He emphasized repeatedly that compromise comes through the smallness of our daily surrenders.

It’s giving up that little bit of personal conviction each day. It’s the little piece of candy no one will ever know you ate. It’s watching that program or visiting that website when you’re all alone. You get the picture.

Usually the first surrender to “small, insignificant sins” makes it easier to fall prey to them again and again. The damage comes from the “cumulative effect” Lewis was pointing to. Few people wake up in the morning planning to sin spectacularly later in the day. Yet those daily surrenders build up over time. Give a little ground here and there and before you know it, you’re in trouble. In fact, you become practically unrecognizable, even to yourself. You didn’t plan for this to happen, but those daily surrenders were enough to do the trick.

The Solution

Therefore, we must be vigilant. We need to work from the foundation of knowing who we are in Christ. We need to count ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11). Those “daily surrenders” needn’t reign over us. The same Spirit who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead dwells in us as well.

Yet, we also need to exercise the self-awareness that recognizes those areas in our lives wherein we are weak. Each of us ought to ask ourselves: Am I being less watchful in some areas of my life than others? Even the small, seemingly insignificant areas? Am I overly confident I would never again fall prey to that particular temptation? A member of my church used to remind me often, “To be forewarned is to be forearmed.”

If you want to avoid those small daily surrenders, then pray for God to deliver you from temptation. But don’t forget to do your part. Name those temptations in advance. Talk with a godly person you trust and ask them to hold you accountable. Renew your mind daily in God’s Word. The Apostle Paul shared God’s wisdom on this point when he wrote in Philippians 4:8-9,
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

What are you thinking on?

Walking Points

1. What are those areas in your life that tempt you the most?
2. How do they usually “sneak up” on you?
3. What are some ways you can see such temptations before they get to you?
4. What are some practical things you can do to resist them once you’re confronted with them?
5. Set an appointment today with a Christian brother or sister and ask them to pray for you and to help keep you accountable.

Prayer
​
Merciful and patient Lord, I don’t want to sin. I don’t want to “fail on purpose.” Yet I confess to you that I have not always put in place or practiced those wise spiritual disciplines that would draw me ever closer to you and protect me from the snares of the devil and my own fleshly weaknesses. Please forgive me and renew me. As David cried out, put a right spirit within me. Give me such a desire for you that turning away from you would be the last thing on my mind. Give me greater Spirit-enabled self-discipline and self-control to practice those means of grace you have given to your children to help us conform more and more to the likeness of your Son, our Lord and Savior. For it’s in his name and for his sake I pray. Amen.

Scripture

Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ ... ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’ (John 3:3, 6)

From the Journal of John Wesley (May 24, 1738)

“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

I began to pray with all my might for those who had in a more especial manner despitefully used me and persecuted me. I then testified openly to all there what I now first felt in my heart.”

(John Wesley’s Journal, the Aldersgate experience)

A Prayer by Augustine of Hippo

“Too late have I loved You, O Beauty so ancient and so new, too late have I loved You! Behold, You were within me, while I was outside: it was there that I sought You, and, a deformed creature, rushed headlong upon these things of beauty which You have made. You were with me, but I was not with You. They kept me far from You, those fair things which, if they were not in You, would not exist at all.

You called, You cried, and You broke through my deafness. You flashed, You shone, and You dispelled my blindness. You breathed fragrance upon me, and I drew in my breath and now do pant for You. I tasted You, and now I hunger and thirst for You. You touched me, and I have burned for Your peace.”

(Augustine, Confessions, Book X)

Reflection

John Wesley was already an ordained minister, a missionary, a man of prayer and discipline, yet he hadn’t been born again. On that May evening in 1738, Wesley experienced what Jesus described to Nicodemus: spiritual rebirth. It wasn’t emotional manipulation or religious excitement; it was the work of the Holy Spirit bringing him from death to life.

Augustine’s prayer captures the same reality from a different angle. For years, he sought satisfaction in created things - philosophy, pleasure, ambition - while God was calling him home. When the Spirit finally opened his eyes, Augustine realized he had been searching outside himself for what could only be found within: God himself, dwelling in the regenerate heart.

The new birth is not reformation but regeneration. It isn’t becoming a better version of yourself; it’s becoming a new creation in Christ. As Paul declares, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

This is the foundation of the Christian life. Without the new birth, we’re merely religious. With it, we’re children of God, indwelt by the Spirit, alive to righteousness. Wesley’s heart was “strangely warmed” because the Spirit bore witness with his spirit that he was a child of God (Romans 8:16). Augustine’s soul finally found rest because God had made him for himself, and his heart was restless until it rested in God.

Have you been born again? Not: have you attended church, been baptized, or grown up in a Christian home, but have you personally trusted in Christ alone for salvation? Has the Spirit brought you from death to life?

This is where the journey begins.

Questions for Reflection

1. When you reflect on your spiritual journey, can you identify a specific moment or period when you believe you were “born again”? How did this experience change you? If you did not have this type of experience, how did you come to know Christ and how has your relationship with him deepened over time?
2. How often do you feel a sense of assurance about your salvation? What contributes to or detracts from this assurance? What scriptural promises do you cling to for certainty of your eternal life with God?
   
3. In what ways do you see the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) manifesting in your life as evidence of your new birth? Which aspects do you feel need more development?

Closing Prayer

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
You have brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see You in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Your glory.

Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells, the brighter Your stars shine.
Let me find Your light in my darkness,
Your life in my death,
Your joy in my sorrow,
Your grace in my sin,
Your riches in my poverty,
Your glory in my valley.

Amen.
​
(Adapted from The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers)

The Urgency We’ve Lost

You’re sitting in a coffee shop, catching up with an old college friend. You haven’t seen him in years. The conversation flows easily: work, family, hobbies, the usual catching up. He mentions he’s going through a rough patch. His marriage is struggling. He’s questioning a lot of things he used to be certain about. He’s searching.

And there it is. The opening. The moment when you could say something about Jesus, about the hope you have, about the Gospel that’s changed everything for you.

But you don’t.

You sympathize. You offer some generic encouragement. You tell him you hope things get better. And then you change the subject, relieved that the awkward moment passed without you having to “go there.”

Later, driving home, you feel it. That nagging sense that you missed something. That maybe God orchestrated that whole conversation to give you an opportunity to share Christ. But you let fear win. Fear of being weird. Fear of damaging the friendship. Fear of not having the right words.

And then you rationalize it: He knows I’m a Christian. If he wanted to talk about faith, he would have brought it up. I don’t want to be pushy. There will be other opportunities.

But what if there aren’t?

This is the question that haunted Richard Baxter, the 17th-century English pastor whose urgency in evangelism shaped generations of Christians after him. And it’s the question that should haunt us: What if people are perishing while we stay silent?

The Line That Changed Everything

Richard Baxter is best known for a single, searing sentence that has echoed through church history for over three centuries:

“I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.”

Read that slowly. Let it sink in.

As never sure to preach again. Every sermon might be his last. Every conversation might be the final opportunity. He preached with the urgency of a man who didn’t know if he’d have tomorrow.

And as a dying man to dying men. He wasn’t speaking from a position of superiority or security. He was a sinner addressing sinners. A mortal speaking to mortals. A man on his way to eternity addressing others on the same journey. And he knew, deeply, viscerally knew, that eternity was real, that judgment was coming, and that where people spent forever mattered infinitely more than anything else.

This wasn’t rhetorical flourish. This was Baxter’s actual lived reality.

He suffered from chronic illness his entire adult life. Kidney stones. Tuberculosis. Bleeding. Constant pain. He wrote in his autobiography, Reliquiae Baxterianae, that he lived for decades convinced each year would be his last. Death wasn’t theoretical for Baxter. It was his constant companion.

And this shaped everything about how he did ministry.

When he arrived in Kidderminster in 1641 as a young pastor of twenty-six, he found a town of about 800 families, most of them spiritually dead. They were baptized, they attended church occasionally, they knew the Lord’s Prayer. But they didn’t know Christ. They were, in Baxter’s assessment, unconverted, going through religious motions while their souls remained untouched by saving grace.

Baxter could have been content with preaching solid sermons on Sundays, maintaining the machinery of parish life, collecting his salary, and living quietly. Most pastors did exactly that.
But Baxter couldn’t. Because he believed that unconverted people were headed for hell. And he loved them too much to let them go there without warning.

So he preached. With tears. With urgency. With power. Not to manipulate, but because he genuinely believed that eternity hung in the balance and that God had appointed him as a watchman to warn the people.

Why Hell Matters in Gospel Proclamation

Here’s where modern Christians get squeamish, I know I do. We don’t like talking about hell. It feels medieval, fire-and-brimstone, manipulative. We’ve seen too many street preachers with “Turn or Burn” signs. We’ve heard about too many hellfire sermons seemingly designed to terrify rather than convert. So we’ve swung the other direction: we talk about Jesus as friend, life coach, the one who makes you whole and gives you purpose. We emphasize God’s love and grace.

All of which is true. But it’s not the whole truth.

Jesus talked about hell more than anyone else in the New Testament. More than Paul. More than Peter. More than John. Read the Gospels honestly, and you can’t avoid it. Gehenna. Outer darkness. Weeping and gnashing of teeth. The fire that never goes out. Eternal punishment. Jesus spoke these words. Not gleefully. Not to scare people into obedience. But truthfully, because he was describing reality.

And if hell is real, and Jesus said it is, then it changes (or ought to change) everything about evangelism.

Baxter understood this. In his massive work A Call to the Unconverted, which sold 30,000 copies in its first printing (in 1657, when the population of England was only about 5 million), Baxter wrote with aching urgency to those who claimed Christianity but showed no evidence of genuine conversion:

“Do you not believe that there is a Heaven and a Hell? That all the unconverted shall be damned, and all the sanctified only shall be saved? Why then do you delay? Are these not matters of everlasting consequence?... O sirs, what should I say to you, or what should I do for you? Shall I come to you with tears, or shall I come with a rod of correction?”

Notice the pastoral heart here. Baxter isn’t threatening. He’s pleading. He’s asking: Don’t you believe what Scripture says? Don’t you understand what’s at stake? If you knew a building was on fire and people were inside, would you calmly suggest they consider leaving, or would you shout with urgency?

Hell is the fire. And far too many people don’t appear to believe the building’s burning.

The Biblical Foundation for Evangelistic Urgency

Baxter didn’t invent this urgency. He found it in Scripture.

Look at how the Apostle Paul describes his own ministry in 2 Corinthians 5:11: “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.”

Paul’s evangelistic zeal wasn’t rooted merely in love for people (though it included that). It was rooted in the fear of the Lord, a holy awe before the reality of God’s judgment. Paul knew what awaited those who rejected Christ, and that knowledge drove him to persuade, to plead, to argue, to warn.

Romans 9:1-3 shows the depth of Paul’s anguish: “I am speaking the truth in Christ - I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit - that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”

Read that again. Paul says he would be willing to be damned if it meant his fellow Jews would be saved. That’s not casual concern. That’s soul-wrenching agony over people headed for destruction.

Or consider Jude 22-23: “And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.”
Snatching them out of the fire. Not gently suggesting they reconsider. Not offering helpful advice for better living. Snatching. With urgency. Because fire doesn’t wait.

Ezekiel 33:7-9 gives us the watchman imagery that Baxter took so seriously:

“So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.”

Their blood on your hands if you don’t warn them. That’s sobering language. And Baxter took it literally. He believed that if he failed to warn the unconverted in Kidderminster, God would hold him accountable for their damnation.

This is the biblical foundation for evangelistic urgency: people are perishing, eternity is real, judgment is coming, and God has appointed us as ambassadors to plead with them to be reconciled to him (2 Corinthians 5:20).

Wesley’s Urgency: “You Have Nothing to Do But Save Souls”

John Wesley came at this from a slightly different angle but with the same burning conviction.
Wesley famously told his Methodist preachers: “You have nothing to do but save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work.”

Nothing to do but save souls. Not “among other things, try to save souls.” Not “when you have time, save souls.” But: this is your primary calling, your consuming passion, your life’s work.
Wesley preached with tears. Eyewitness accounts describe him weeping in the pulpit as he pleaded with people to turn to Christ. He rode over 250,000 miles on horseback across England, Scotland, and Ireland, often preaching three times a day, because he couldn’t bear the thought of people dying without hearing the Gospel.

In his journal entry for June 6, 1772, Wesley writes of preaching to a crowd of miners: “I enforced those awful words, ‘It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.’ Many of the wild beasts of the people were presente; but the Lion of the tribe of Judah had them all in chains.”

Notice the language: “awful words.” Not awful in the sense of terrible, but awful in the old sense: awe-full, striking the heart with holy fear. Wesley preached judgment not to terrify but to awaken, to shake people out of their spiritual slumber before it was too late.

And like Baxter, Wesley believed that the fear of hell was a legitimate motivation for evangelism. Not the only motivation - love for God and love for neighbor were primary - but a real one. If you truly love someone, you don’t let them walk off a cliff while you stand silent.
Wesley wrote in his sermon “The Way to the Kingdom”: “First, repent; that is, know yourselves. This is the first repentance, previous to faith; even conviction, or self-knowledge. Awake, then, thou that sleepest... God calleth thee now by my mouth; and bids thee know thyself, a sinner; yea, a guilty, helpless sinner, though thou feel it not.”

Awake. Know yourself a sinner. These aren’t soft, therapeutic words. These are urgent, life-or-death words. Because Wesley, like Baxter, believed the stakes were eternal.

The Danger of Casual Christianity

Here’s what Baxter and Wesley both saw clearly, and what we’ve largely lost: casual Christianity kills evangelistic urgency.

If you believe that most people are basically good and will probably make it to Heaven somehow, then there’s no urgency. If you believe that hell is either non-existent or that a loving God would never send anyone there, then there’s no urgency. If you believe that people have endless opportunities to respond to the Gospel even after death, then there’s no urgency.

But if you believe what Scripture actually teaches, that all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), that there is no other name under heaven by which people can be saved (Acts 4:12), that whoever doesn’t believe is condemned already (John 3:18), and that it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27), then urgency is the only appropriate response.

Baxter saw nominal Christians all around him in 17th-century England. People who were baptized, who attended church, who knew the creeds and prayers, but who showed no evidence of genuine spiritual life. They were, in his assessment, unconverted. And unconverted people, no matter how religious, are lost.

So he pleaded with them. He warned them. He wept over them. Not because he was cruel or enjoyed scaring people, but because he loved them and believed the truth.

In A Call to the Unconverted, Baxter writes:

“I confess I am in a strait what course to take with you. I know not what to say, or what to do, to save you. But surely it belongs to me to seek your salvation, and I must do my best, and leave the success to God.”

Do you hear the pastoral heart there? The agony? He’s willing to do whatever it takes - plead, warn, reason, beg - if it might be the means God uses to awaken someone from spiritual death.

What This Means for You Right Now

So what does Baxter’s urgency mean for you in 2026?

It doesn’t mean you stand on street corners with megaphones shouting at people. It doesn’t mean you manipulate or coerce or use fear tactics to pressure people into decisions. Baxter himself rejected that approach. He wrote, “Win them by love, and you win them indeed.”
But it does mean you take evangelism seriously. Really seriously.

It means you stop making excuses for your silence. You stop hiding behind “I don’t want to be pushy” or “I’m not good with words” or “They already know I’m a Christian” or “I’ll let my actions do all the talking.”

It means you actually believe what you say you believe. If hell is real, if people are truly perishing without Christ, if there really is no other name by which people can be saved, then how can you stay silent?

Baxter put it bluntly: “If you believed that your neighbor’s house was on fire, would you not wake him? And yet you can let your neighbor’s soul perish and never warn him of his danger?”
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: our lack of evangelistic urgency reveals our actual beliefs, not our stated beliefs. If we really believed that people without Christ are headed for eternal separation from God, we wouldn’t casually let weeks, months, years pass without ever sharing the Gospel with those around us.

But most of us do exactly that. We live as functional universalists, acting as though everyone will be fine in the end, as though eternity doesn’t really hang in the balance, as though our silence doesn’t matter.

It does matter. Desperately.

Love Compels Us to Speak

But here’s the crucial balance: urgency must be rooted in love, not fear. Not our fear of being held accountable (though Baxter took that seriously). Not our fear of judgment. But love for God and love for neighbor.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15: “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”

The love of Christ controls us. Compels us. Drives us. This is the engine of evangelism - not guilt, not duty, but love. Love for the Christ who died for us. Love for the people he died for.
Baxter understood this. Listen to his pastoral heart in The Reformed Pastor:

“O what a joy will it be to meet so many in heaven who shall there bless God for your labors! What a comfort to think that you have turned many to righteousness, and that they shall shine as the stars for ever and ever!”

This is the positive vision: the joy of heaven, the glory of seeing people reconciled to God, the privilege of being used by God to snatch souls from destruction and bring them into eternal life.

Yes, hell is real. Yes, judgment is coming. Yes, people are perishing. But the Gospel isn’t just bad news about sin and death. It’s gloriously good news about Jesus: his life, his death, his resurrection, his offer of forgiveness and new life to all who believe.

We share this news not primarily because we’re afraid of what happens if we don’t, but because we love people enough to tell them the truth, the whole truth, both the bad news that makes the good news so good.

Key Principle

Evangelistic urgency flows from believing that eternity is real, that people are truly lost without Christ, and that God has appointed us as ambassadors to proclaim the Gospel with both love and honesty about the stakes involved.

This isn’t about manipulation or fear tactics. It’s about taking God’s Word seriously when it says that all have sinned, that the wages of sin is death, that Jesus is the only way to the Father, and that judgment is coming.

Baxter preached as a dying man to dying men because he knew it was true. We’re all dying. We’re all headed for eternity. And where we spend eternity depends on whether we’ve been reconciled to God through faith in Christ.

If you believe that, really believe it, then everything changes. Your conversations with coworkers change. Your relationships with family members change. Your prayers change. Your priorities change.

Because you can’t genuinely believe people are perishing and remain silent.

Reflect

• Head (Understanding): Do I truly believe what Scripture teaches about heaven, hell, sin, judgment, and salvation? If I really believed that people without Christ are lost, how would that change the way I live and speak?
• Heart (Examination): When I’m honest with myself, what keeps me from sharing the Gospel? Is it fear of rejection? Embarrassment? Apathy? Unbelief? What does my silence reveal about what I actually believe?
• Hands (Application): Who in my life needs to hear the Gospel? What specific opportunity might God be giving me this week to share Christ with them? What would it look like to speak with both urgency and love?

This Week

Identify three people in your life who, as far as you know, do not know Christ. Write their names down. Commit to praying for them every day this week.

But don’t just pray vague prayers like “Bless them, Lord.” Pray with Baxter’s urgency. Pray believing that eternity is real, that they’re lost without Christ, and that God can use you to reach them.

Pray something like this:

“Father, you love [Name] more than I ever could. You sent your Son to die for them. But they don’t know you. They’re heading toward judgment, and I can’t bear the thought of them spending eternity separated from you. Open their eyes. Soften their heart. Give me an opportunity to share the Gospel with them. Give me courage to speak. And use my words, however inadequate, to draw them to Christ. Save them, Lord. Please save them. In Jesus’s name, Amen.”

Pray this way every day this week. Notice what happens in your own heart as you do.
Prepare your Gospel presentation. Can you clearly articulate the Gospel in 2-3 minutes? Right now, out loud, could you explain:
​

• Why Jesus had to die?
• What the resurrection means?
• How someone is saved?

If you can’t, this week is the time to learn.

Use a simple framework like the Romans Road:

1. Romans 3:23 - All have sinned
2. Romans 6:23 - The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
3. Romans 5:8 - God demonstrates his love: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us
4. Romans 10:9-10 - If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, you will be saved

Or use the Gospel outline from 1 Corinthians 15:3-4:

• Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures
• He was buried
• He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures

Memorize one of these frameworks. Practice saying it out loud to yourself. Then practice sharing it with a Christian friend. And don’t forget to include your story of how you came to know the Lord and what he has done in your life.

The goal: be ready when God gives you the opportunity.

This Month

Step out in faith. Don’t just pray and prepare. Actually share the Gospel with someone this month.

Start with someone you know who’s spiritually curious or going through a hard time. Invite them to coffee. Ask them how they’re doing. Listen well. Then, when the moment comes, don’t chicken out.

You could say something like:

“Can I share something with you that’s made all the difference in my life? I don’t want to be pushy, but if you’re open to it, I’d love to tell you what I believe and why it matters.”

Then share. Simply. Clearly. From your heart.

Don’t worry about having perfect words. Don’t worry about answering every objection. Just tell them about Jesus - who he is, what he did, why it matters, and how they can respond.
And trust that God, who is sovereign over salvation, can use your imperfect words to accomplish his perfect purposes.

Baxter would say: better to stumble through sharing the Gospel than to stay eloquently silent while people perish.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, you are the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through you. Forgive me for living as though this truth doesn’t matter, for staying silent when I should speak, for caring more about comfort than about the souls of those around me.
Give me Baxter’s urgency. Help me believe, really believe, that eternity is real, that Heaven and hell are real, that people without you are truly lost. Break my heart for what breaks yours.
But don’t let my urgency become manipulation. Let it flow from love. Love for you, who died for me. Love for my neighbor, who needs to know you.

Give me courage to speak. Give me wisdom to know when and how. Give me clarity to present the Gospel simply and truthfully. And give me faith to trust that you are the one who saves, not my eloquence or my effort.

Use me, Lord. Even with all my fears and inadequacies, use me to point someone toward you. Let my life and my words bear witness to the hope I have in Christ. For your glory and their salvation. Amen.

Remember:

Christianity is practical because Christianity is true.
Christianity is practical because Christianity works.
Christianity is practical because Christianity was meant to be put into practice.
​
Soli Deo Gloria

Based on Luke 9:28-36

Opening Scripture

Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white... And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” (Luke 9:28-29, 35)

Where We Are in the Story

Yesterday was Transfiguration Sunday, the last day of Epiphany before we enter Lent on Ash Wednesday. For the past seven weeks, we’ve watched the light of Christ break into the darkness - revealed to the Magi, proclaimed at his baptism, demonstrated in his first miracle, extended to Samaritans and Gentiles.

Now, on a mountain, three disciples get a glimpse behind the veil. They see Jesus as he truly is: glorified, radiant, conversing with Moses and Elijah about his coming “departure” in Jerusalem. This is the summit of Epiphany, the brightest revelation of Christ’s glory before the darkness of the cross.

This is the hinge. The turning point. The moment when glory meets suffering, when revelation gives way to crucifixion, when the light prepares to be swallowed by darkness - but only for a time.

Why This Moment Matters

Peter, James, and John have just heard Jesus predict his death for the first time (Luke 9:22). He told them plainly: “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

But they didn’t want to hear it. I know I wouldn’t. Peter tried to rebuke him (Matthew 16:22). The idea of a suffering Messiah didn’t fit their categories. They wanted a conquering king, not a crucified servant.

So Jesus takes them up the mountain. He lets them see who he really is. For just a moment, the glory he laid aside to become human blazes through. His face shines like the sun. His clothes become dazzling white.

Moses and Elijah appear, representing the Law and the Prophets, and they’re talking with Jesus about his “exodus” - his departure, his death - in Jerusalem. What a conversation that must have been!

This is Jesus saying to his bewildered disciples: “I know what I’m walking into. And I’m going willingly. But don’t forget who I am. When you see me hanging on a cross, remember this mountain. Remember that the one who suffers is the one who is glorious.”

The Voice from the Cloud

Then the Father speaks: “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” Not just “believe in him” or “admire him” or “study him.” Listen to him.

And what has Jesus just said? He said he must suffer, be rejected, be killed, and rise again. He said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

The path to glory goes through suffering. The way to resurrection runs through death. The road to the Kingdom passes through Gethsemane and Golgotha.

This is what the disciples needed to understand. This is what we need to understand as we prepare to enter Lent.

The Christian life isn’t an escape from suffering. It’s not prosperity, health, and wealth. It’s not climbing the ladder of success while holding a Bible. It’s following a crucified King on the narrow road that leads through death to life.

The Glory That Sustains

But here’s the gift of Transfiguration Sunday: We enter Lent having seen the glory.
When the road gets hard, when the cross gets heavy, when Lent feels long and dark, we remember the mountain. We remember that the one we follow isn’t just a suffering servant, he’s the glorified Son of God. The one who sweated blood in Gethsemane is the same one whose face shone like the sun. The one who hung on the cross is the one Moses and Elijah bow before.

The suffering is real. But it’s not the end of the story.

The cross is coming. But so is the resurrection.

Lent is necessary. But Easter is guaranteed.

This is why the church gives us Transfiguration Sunday before Ash Wednesday. We need to see the glory before we walk into the darkness. We need to hear the Father’s voice, “This is my Son,” before we hear the crowd’s voice, “Crucify him!”

We need to know that the one we’re following knows where he’s going, and that the path through suffering leads to glory.

Preparing for Lent

So here’s what Transfiguration Sunday is calling us to do as we stand on the edge of Lent:
First, listen to Jesus. The Father’s command is clear: “Listen to him!” That means we don’t get to edit Jesus, to take the parts we like and ignore the parts that make us uncomfortable. We listen to all of it. The Sermon on the Mount and the predictions of suffering. The call to love enemies and the call to take up our cross. The promise of abundant life and the warning about the narrow gate.

Second, remember the glory. When Lent gets hard, and it will, when you’re confronted with your sin, when you’re called to repent, when you’re asked to let go of something you’ve been clinging to, remember: this is the path to glory. You’re not doing this to earn God’s favor. You’re doing it because God is making you like Christ, and the path to Christlikeness goes through the cross.

Third, follow him into the darkness. Jesus didn’t stay on the mountain. He came down. He set his face toward Jerusalem. He walked knowingly, willingly, into suffering and death. And he invites us to follow. Not to stay on the mountaintop of spiritual highs, but to come down into the valley, to walk the hard road, to embrace the cross.

Because on the other side of the cross is the empty tomb. On the other side of Lent is Easter. On the other side of death is resurrection.

The Road Ahead

On Sunday, we stood at the hinge between Epiphany and Lent, between glory and suffering, between light and darkness.

On Wednesday, we’ll hear the words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

For the next forty days, we’ll walk with Jesus toward Jerusalem. We’ll confront our sin. We’ll examine our hearts. We’ll practice repentance, fasting, prayer. We’ll feel the weight of the cross.

But we’ll do it knowing what Peter, James, and John knew after the Transfiguration: the one we follow is glorious, even when he’s suffering. The one who calls us to the cross is the one who conquered it. The one who leads us through death is the one who rose from the dead.

So don’t be afraid of Lent. Don’t shrink back from the hard work of repentance and self-examination. Don’t avoid the cross.

Instead, listen to Jesus. Follow him. Trust that he knows the way. And remember that the glory you’ve seen in Epiphany is the glory that’s coming in Easter, and the glory that will one day be revealed in you.

Reflection Questions

1. What has this Epiphany season revealed to you about who Jesus is? How will that sustain you through Lent?
2. Where in your life are you trying to have glory without suffering, resurrection without death, Easter without Good Friday?
3. What is one thing God is calling you to surrender, to let die, as you enter this season of Lent?

Prayer
(Based on 2 Corinthians 3:18 and Luke 9:35)

Lord Jesus, you who were transfigured in glory on the mountain, help me to see you rightly - not just as a suffering servant, but as the glorified Son of God. As I prepare to enter Lent, give me courage to follow you into the darkness, trusting that you know the way through death to life. Teach me to listen to you - to all of you, not just the comfortable parts. Transform me from one degree of glory to another as I behold you, even in the valley of the shadow of death. In your name, Amen.

Action Step

Today or tomorrow, before Ash Wednesday, spend 30 minutes in quiet reflection. Ask God:

• What do I need to see about who Jesus is before I enter Lent?
• What do I need to let go of this season?
• What cross am I being called to take up?

Write down what you sense, and carry it with you into Lent as your focus for the next forty days.

Benediction
(Based on 2 Peter 1:16-19)
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May you remember the glory you have seen. May you hold fast to the prophetic word as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. And may you follow the one who was transfigured in glory, trusting that he will lead you through the cross to the resurrection. Go in peace, and prepare your heart for the journey ahead.

​Welcome to the Week

We’re now well into the year, past the initial promises and into the proving ground of perseverance. This week, the prayers ahead invite you not to seek comfort, but capability - not easier circumstances, but stronger faith. Come honestly before the One who answers with awesome deeds, the God who knows both your limitations and his limitless power to work through them (and thank the Lord for that!).

“Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your task.” (Phillips Brooks)

This Week’s Scripture

• Joel 2:23-32
• Psalm 65
• 2 Timothy 4:6-18
• Luke 18:9-14

Adoration

Psalm 65:5

By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness,
O God of our salvation,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas;

O Worship the King (verse 1)

O worship the King, all glorious above,
O gratefully sing God’s power and God’s love;
our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.
(Robert Grant)

Take time now to offer God your praise and worship.

Confession

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14)

Heavenly Father, blot out, we beseech thee, our past transgressions; forgive us our frequent negligence and ignorance; and lift us up to new energy of mind and devotion of heart, that we might have strength to persevere even to the end, through success and failure, through good report and evil report. This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ and for his sake. Amen. (The Book of Worship for Church and Home, 1965)

As David did in Psalm 139, ask the Lord to search you and know you through and through. Confess the sins God brings to mind, knowing you are forgiven and that he will cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Thanksgiving

Gracious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for your promises. You promise you will never leave us nor forsake us. You will help us fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith. We know that were we to go one day without your sovereign grace and strength undergirding us, we would fail miserably. And so, O Lord, we give you our deepest thanks. You have promised that there is a crown of righteousness awaiting us for seeking you in this life and desiring your appearance. This isn’t something you owe us, but another expression of your grace in our lives. O Lord, for this and more, we give you our thanks. In Christ we pray, Amen. (based on 2 Timothy 4:6-8)

Ask the Spirit to search your heart and mind and then spend some time thanking God for who he is and the many ways he has poured out his goodness and grace in your life.

Prayer Prompts

Use the following prayer prompts to encourage you to pray beyond your usual prayer requests. These prompts are included here to help get your own creative juices flowing and not to be regarded as strict and legalistic requirements. Use them or do not use them according to your need. May the Lord bless you as you go deeper with him in the holy communion of prayer.

Petition – prayers for yourself

• Lord, help me to faithfully participate in the life of my congregation and for the sake of my community…
  • By my prayers
  • By my presence
  • By my gifts
  • By my service
  • By my witness
• Today’s events and interactions with others, planned and unplanned
• Other needs

Intercession – prayers for others

• My family
• For those who serve in government, at the national, state, and local levels
• For those who serve in law enforcement
• For those who serve in fire and rescue
• For those who serve in our nation’s military
• Other needs

The kingdom of God does not mean food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Amen. (Romans 14:17)

A Word as You Go

The tax collector’s prayer still echoes across the centuries: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” This week, you’ve been reminded that strength comes not from self-sufficiency but from humble dependence on the One who answers with awesome deeds. As you return to your tasks and callings, carry this posture with you, the open hand, the honest heart, the recognition that every power you need flows from God’s grace. He who has begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. Go now in his strength, not your own.

​Welcome to the Week

The fifth week of a new year often arrives quietly, without fanfare or the weight of fresh resolutions. Yet here, in this ordinary (and cold) stretch of February days, God invites you into the extraordinary work of prayer not, as Andrew Murray puts it, bounded by what you think is possible, but opened wide to the limitless reach of God’s power and grace. This week, resist the temptation to pray small prayers to a big God. Come with your doubts and your certainties, your needs and your thanksgivings, and discover again that the One who hears you is far greater than anything you can ask or imagine.

“Beware in your prayer, above everything, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what he can do.” (Andrew Murray)

This Week’s Scripture

• Jeremiah 29:1-7
• Psalm 66
• 2 Timothy 2:8-15
• Luke 17:11-19

Adoration

Psalm 66:1-4

Shout for joy to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise! Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you. All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name.”

Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven (verse 1)

Praise, my soul, the King of heaven, to the throne by tribute bring; ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, ever more God’s praises sing. Alleluia! Alleluia! Praise the everlasting King. (Henry F. Lyte)

Take time now to offer God your praise and worship.

Confession

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself. (2 Timothy 2:8-13)

Have mercy upon us, O God, according to your lovingkindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot our transgressions. Wash us thoroughly from our iniquities, and cleanse us from our sins. For we acknowledge our transgressions, and our sin is ever before us. Create in us clean hearts, O God, and renew a right spirit within us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. (W.E. Orchard. The United Methodist Book of Worship)

As David did in Psalm 139, ask the Lord to search you and know you through and through. Confess the sins God brings to mind, knowing you are forgiven and that He will cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Thanksgiving

Mighty God of mercy, we thank you for the resurrection dawn bringing the glory of our risen Lord who makes every day new. Especially we thank you for the beauty of your creation, the new creation in Christ and all gifts of healing and forgiveness, the sustaining love of family and friends, and the fellowship of faith in your church. In Christ we pray, Amen. (from Daily Prayer)

Spend some time reflecting on the prayer of thanksgiving above and then thank God for who he is and the many ways he has poured out his goodness and grace in your life.

Prayer Prompts

Use the following prayer prompts to encourage you to pray beyond your usual prayer requests. These prompts are included here to help get your own creative juices flowing and not to be regarded as strict and legalistic requirements. Use them or do not use them according to your need. May the Lord bless you as you go deeper with him in the holy communion of prayer.

Petition – prayers for yourself

• Give me greater love for those who are hard to love.
• Help me to be compassionate and kind to those in need, even when it’s inconvenient.
• Pour upon me your courage and boldness to love those who do not know you and to share with them your Gospel, in word and deed.
• Today’s events and interactions with others, planned and unplanned
• Other needs

Intercession – prayers for others

• My family
• My family and friends who do not have a saving relationship with Christ
• For those in my other spheres of influence who do not know Christ
• For evangelists around our city, country, and world who risk much in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with those who are lost
• Other needs

“Send me now, my God, to accomplish all you have assigned to me. Let me live and work without fear and timidity. Amen.” (Reuben Job)

A Word as You Go

The God who called you to pray this week is the same God who remains faithful even when we are faithless, who cannot deny himself, whose word is never bound. As you step back into the world with its demands and distractions, carry with you the courage to love the unlovely and the boldness to speak truth to those who need it most. You have been ransomed, healed, restored, and forgiven; now go and live like it. The One who sends you goes with you, and that changes everything.