November 5, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“‘Their leader will be one of their own; their ruler will arise from among them. I will bring him near and he will come close to me— for who is he who will devote himself to be close to me?’ declares the Lord. ‘So you will be my people, and I will be your God.’”

(Jeremiah 30.21-22)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Have you ever had someone scoff at you for believing God, Jesus and Heaven are real? I have had that happen a couple of times. I fortunately stand there for a second and do not immediately respond. I don’t try to defend my beliefs. I don’t attempt to debate the point for fear that my emotions would get the better of me. After all, I am confident of my beliefs. God has revealed Himself to me just as He has to the entire world many times over. It is just matter of perspective. All it takes is to alter the place from which I see things and the perspective could change. I have to ask myself “How would you feel if you lived life in their shoes? What if you had walked their journey instead of your own? Would you see things differently than you do your own life? Would you wonder if there is a God or Jesus or Heaven given their circumstances and not your own?” It is a sobering thought, or thoughts. But it might be as simple for them to investigate a different perspective. The mind is strong enough to consider, even incompletely so, a different reality based on a few facts. In most cases, when I am “asked” or “questioned” about those beliefs and why I continue to honor them, I respond this way, “If I am wrong about all of this but lived my life as if they were true, then what have I lost when my dying breath comes to pass?”

You see, mighty ones of God, we are promised an eternal tomorrow because we put our faith in the God who has created it with us in mind. We are also told not to worry about, or more aptly- consider, tomorrow because tomorrow has enough in it already without us adding our needs, wants and agenda to it. What are we to do instead? We are to live today in the midst of the confidence of God’s promise of tomorrow which is already waiting for us who believe as much as there is a tomorrow for those who don’t. That walk and life of faith we are called to live out daily in loving God, self, others, one another and even our enemies to the point of willingness to “lay down our own lives that they might have life” has a reward all of its own. It creates a perspective for others they may not ever see without us. It should humble us to think about that kind of responsibility given to us. Think of the One whose perspective on life sees us as worthy of the effort to present life as it is meant to be to a world that refuses or simply cannot see it. Do we dare live according to their perspective of a world without God, Jesus and the promise of Heaven to come on earth as it is in Heaven now? Do we surrender the opportunity to be light and salt to the world and instead stew in our own kettles waiting for that “just right moment” when Jesus comes and we show ourselves ready to serve Him our “dinner.” Jesus told a story that emphasizes that perspective in the “Parable of the Talents” or some would say, “The Parable of the Pounds.”

In Matthew 25, we can read this parable and feel the pace of thought Jesus presents. The part I am alluding to is the third servant who was given one portion of the master’s estate to attend to. It was commensurate with the servant’s ability and capability and the master’s trusting perspective. Sadly, the servant did not share that perspective. Instead, he allowed himself to be overwhelmed by the fact that he did not have the same life arsenal as the other servants. He interpreted his own “talent,” or potential for success, to be a call to survive. He was so afraid of losing that he could not see winning. He looked at himself as least of these and not grasping the fullness of the matter entrusted to him for success. The master was saying to the servant “You can do this, I believe in you.” The servant ended up saying to himself, “Don’t lose. Don’t lose. Don’t lose.” So what did he do? He buried the investment of trust in the ground. Yes, he buried a “living trust” in a grave, of sorts, and left it there to return to the master when it was called for. Imagine if the servant had died during that time and he himself was buried in the grave. Neither he nor the “living trust” could be of use to the master for both were lost. At that point, the master would have suffered a double loss. All because the servant accepted the perspective of fear about tomorrow to overwhelm the confidence of being trusted today.

Mighty ones of God, consider that perspective as you read Jeremiah 29 and 30. The failure of Israel was to live for a tomorrow it imagined instead of living today in what God had shown was theirs. They lived in the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. It was a land richly blessed by God which they hid in graves of fear with the hope that one day they would be able to come back and reclaim it after the enemy was defeated. They knew the enemy was coming but they forgot they were like David before Goliath. They took on that false sense of “singularity” which said “I am on my own.” The true sense of “singularity” remains, “I AM (Yahweh Elohim) is mine and I am His.” Assuming the wrong perspective as the only course of survival in the world forfeited the blessing of abundance which God has purposed for them. Instead of living as if the Word of God was an ever-present help in times of trouble as in times of blessing, they lived as if He wasn’t. They fear losing more than believing they could be victorious. They looked for a leader when they were intended to be leaders themselves. They lived for tomorrow instead of living today.

So, when it comes to being questioned about why do I believe in God, Jesus and Heaven, I say: If I have lived every day believing the promise of tomorrow is true according to God and Jesus on earth as it is in Heaven, and there is not, then what have I lost. I have lived a better life making life better for others putting them first and trusting myself to the rest. But: if there is a God, Jesus and Heaven and I did not live out that hope and promise daily, then I have lost everything and gained nothing. In truth, I will suffer a double loss because my certain tomorrow without God today will be a tomorrow without God forever. This was the call extended to the Jerusalem exiles. They were challenged to repent and live differently than they had before. They were called to live today knowing that tomorrow was secured for them already. Anyone who said different and lived different was going to be disappointed and suffer far more than they could possible imagine.

Application of this perspective? I wish our own leaders, in every arena of life, would take on the God perspective and live using what has been entrusted to them for God’s glory and the welfare of others. To live as if God is optional and an aside is tantamount to burying the “living trust” in the ground only to have it lost and those who buried it as well.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.