When Our Faith is Not Enough but Jesus’s is Plenty

When I first started drafting this, I wanted to write an analysis of Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 2:1-10 because there’s some really good stuff there, but as I got going on writing it, the lesson morphed to something I’ve been learning recently from an excellent podcast called “40 Minutes in the Old Testament.” I recommend it if you want to see how the Old Testament connects to the New. This new learning comes in the idea of faith and how you and I really don’t have any, which sounds like a sacrilegious statement, but it really isn’t, and I’ll explain.

The Appetizer of Trial

We say our God works in mysterious ways, but that’s really not true if we peruse the annals of history; He has worked largely the same exact way throughout all time, following pattern after pattern of faithfulness toward His chosen people and judgment toward the wicked from Adam and Eve until now. The Bible details these patterns if only we look closely enough to find God in them instead of ourselves (which is incredibly important when studying Scripture). It’s the reason Israel had to make sacrifices and even the reason Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac; further, the how of Isaac’s almost-sacrifice is important in painting an early picture of the cross.

I could give a thousand examples, but I wouldn’t be able to flesh any of them out, so to make a long story short, suffice it to say that, though God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours, He tends to do things in the same way through each generation almost as though nothing truly changes (Ecclesiastes 1:9-11). God does not change; nor do His ways. It is why His commands have lasted from Adam and Eve onward and remain relevant. He does and expects the same things form the beginning of time until the end. That is also why we can see trial after trial that refines and tests our faith just as Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc. experienced.

Scripture states thoroughly that trials are to refine faith (Proverbs 17:13, Isaiah 48:10, 1 Peter 1:6-7, etc.). Its purpose is to bring us to an obstacle we cannot overcome, to ask us to walk on water,, wait on God to make life from a barren womb, sacrifice a son, wage a siege with voices rather than weapons, and give up the things God has given us (as Hannah did Samuel). And because we are the same sinful beings as our forefathers, we tend to follow the patterns of faith in ourselves before we realize our faith is nothing.

As Abraham and Sarah laughed and then schemed to give themselves children with the help of Hagar, so, too, do we hear God’s promise and covenant and then seek to get ourselves to the end of the line, the blessing we so earnestly seek. Interestingly, all we do is create more hardship and trial for ourselves. Sarah and Hagar didn’t get along. Elkanah’s second wife, Peninnah, constantly berated Hannah. Eventually, Abraham and Sarah came to the end of their rope, realizing none of their options gave them the son that was to come from Sarah’s womb. Hannah poured out her heart before the Lord so intensely that Eli thought she was drunk. Then, and only then, did God finally act because, at the end of the day, trials are to refine us into purity, and that purity only comes from less of us and more of God. As John 3:30 says, God must increase, and we must decrease.

The Entrée of Grace

I want to first be clear that, as I’ve written before, coming to the end of our abilities does not necessarily preclude God will then move. I have few better examples for this than my own life. I’ve been at the end of my abilities for almost a year now; still, God has not blessed me with what I have been asking for in promise. We cannot allow a works-based theology to drift into our suffering in trial. God will move when He is ready because He is in heaven and does whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3). We can reference the entire book of Job for that.

Though grace comes when God is good and ready, at the exact right time, its meaning cannot be understated because God is a God who desires to give good gifts to His children (James 1:17, Romans 8:32, Luke 11:13). The interesting dilemma, then, is trying to understand why we must wait for grace, oftentimes until after the worst pain we have ever experienced. I have many examples in my life of this again, but I think the Israelites will do well also.

Multiple times, God commands Israel to mark down places and events and to tell the stories of what He has done to generation after generation. Sometimes the Israelites follow through. Sometimes they don’t. But what changes when they do? Not a ton, really. They still sin; they still fall away; they still turn to idols. At the end of the day, no matter what good God did for them, when suffering came, it didn’t help them hold on to God bar a few extraordinary people (usually the prophets). Even Elijah fell victim to this innately human reaction when He called down fire to consume an offering, routed the servants of Baal, and then ran for his life to ask God to kill him. All this in the matter of weeks at most.

“ My heart rejoices in the Lord; my horn is lifted up by the Lord. My mouth boasts over enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides you! And there is no rock like our God.”

— 1 Samuel 2: 1-2

Grace is best after a trial because that is when we truly recognize God’s goodness; personally speaking, I’m far too much of a human to really recognize and attribute goodness to God when I’m suffering so heavily, even though I can look back on specific moments of God’s grace before the trial. And I think we’d all be lying to ourselves if we said otherwise. The uniqueness of grace after trial is that it leads to joyous exultation. Note Hannah’s first lines of prayer in 1 Samuel 2:1-2 “My heart rejoices in the Lord; my horn is lifted up by the Lord. My mouth boasts over enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides you! And there is no rock like our God.” Personally, I’m not praying that in struggle; but when God blesses me, you can bet that’s going to be the first line out of my lips. See, we don’t appreciate grace until it comes after we’ve seen discipline; that’s why it comes after the refining trial.

The Side of Pain

I don’t want to take away from what I’m getting at, but as a short aside, I do want to mention that sometimes God’s grace comes with pain. Abraham, after raising Isaac until he was a young man, was told to walk him up a mountain after a multiple week journey and sacrifice him. Hannah gave up Samuel to the temple and likely only saw him once a year. Sure, Abraham believed God would resurrect Isaac after he killed his son, but that doesn’t take away the pain he would have felt. Hannah was blessed with more children, but her firstborn still lived in the temple from the moment he was weaned. Some of that pain might be in realizing that God’s grace doesn’t make things perfect. As I wrote about for the on February 9th and 16th, we assume God’s grace is going to mean a flawless situation, a perfect relationship, whatever we need grace for. But God’s grace is meant to sanctify us just as much as His discipline is.

The Dessert of Faith

1 Samuel 2:9 says, “He guards the steps of his faithful ones, but the wicked perish in darkness, for a person does not prevail by his own strength.” This is an incredibly rich theological statement that seems simple and straightforward (and the best theological statements are just like this). God guarding the steps of His faithful ones is evident in Abraham’s story, when he does stupid things like offer his wife up to a king’s harem twice. Still, God reached out through these unbelieving kings to preserve Abraham and Sarah. Moreover, it is evident in His getting His Son to the cross to die so that we do not perish in darkness because, were it up to our strength and faith, we would all perish in darkness.

Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that we are saved by grace through faith, and this not from ourselves. Instead, it is a gift from God so that no one can boast. Most of us read this wrong. It is not just grace and salvation that are God’s gift but the faith itself, for if we were able to act by our own faith, we could still boast in something. The point of all of this is that we can boast in nothing. Abraham and Sarah did nothing for God to choose them or bless them. Plenty of people pray like Hannah and don’t receive what they ask for. Jesus tells us of the mustard seed of faith not to say that a little bit of our faith can do great things but to point out that we don’t have even enough to do the smallest things.

The thing about faith is that if we had our own to rely on, we’d have none. We’d have no desserts, and that would be plenty just. Yet God is righteous and just, and, as Hannah prayed, a person does not prevail by his own strength but by God’s, which is credited to us in faith and righteousness as it was to Abraham.

I’ll leave you with God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 to drive my point home. In covenants wherein both parties are to uphold a promise in contract, it was typical to split some animals in half and pass through them to acknowledge both parties will fulfill their promises. In this case, however, God passes through the animals alone because Abraham could not hold to his side of the covenant. Instead, God declares that His goodness and faith in Himself will be sufficient, and at the end, He credited it to Abraham for salvation, just as He does for us through Christ.

To Fast or Not to Fast? That is Not the Question

Fasting is an interesting topic for the Christian. I think this is for two reasons: first, it’s not often taught about as a practice but rather as a thing people did in Biblical times. The most talked about passage for fasting comes from Jesus’s time in the wilderness. Second, when it is taught, we’re not overly clear on what the focus of the fast is. Many times, I see people preach fasting as an action to take before making a big decision or to hear God’s voice, and while I think those are valid positions to take, I believe they take away from what fasting truly is.

What Should Fasting Not Be?

It’s easier to define what we shouldn’t make fasting out to be than what we should, as I believe is typical when it comes to biblical commands and practices. Fasting should not be a way to force God to do something. In other words, we can’t say to God, “I am going to fast until you answer me.” I tend to believe this falls under the statement “Do not test the Lord your God” from Deuteronomy 6:16. Trying to make the omniscient God of the universe do what we want on our timeline is a futile effort. Trust me. I’ve experienced the frustration of these efforts.

Furthermore, fasting should not just be a physical experience. Fasting is not merely denying the body of something it craves, or at least it shouldn’t be; it should also reach to the mind. Even more, it should reach to our souls. When God makes a command of His people, He does not ask us to do these things in part, just as He does not expect us to do these in part. In a similar manner to the description of the Church Body Paul makes in various epistles, God expects us to act in concert with all parts of ourselves. His command to “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” in Matthew 22:37 speaks to the totality with which God expects us to do things.

And just in case you doubt, let me point you to Paul’s letter to the Colossians. In Chapter 2:16-19, Paul writes, “Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is Christ. Let no one condemn you by delighting in ascetic practices and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm. Such people are inflated by empty notions of their unspiritual mind. They don’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with growth from God.”

Obviously, Paul is not talking about fasting here, but he is talking about the substance of it, which is Christ. In the Old Testament, we’re told of the many festivals and events the Israelites are to remember for what God has done for them. Some of those involve feasts, and some of them involve fasts. These are all meant to point to God, to Christ, in celebration, mourning, and remembrance what God did and what Jesus would eventually do. What Paul is confronting here is a message that invoked these festivals, and other actions besides, that were meant to harm the body in order to reach an enlightenment not reached by those who did not participate. This is an “ascetic practice,” an action taken that causes the body pain in order to deny it and self for a higher purpose.

This is not the goal of fasting. The goal of fasting is not to destroy the temple God gave us to care for. Fasting is not truly about what is being emptied or denied at all. What we see here is something we can see in the Church now where some claim access to a higher visionary realm, a closer relationship with God that gives them special knowledge. Paul somewhat laughs at this statement, claiming it’s an inflation by empty notions and an unspiritual mind. If he were writing another letter, he would have said, “empty notions of a mind not transformed and renewed by Christ” a la Romans 12:2. If you want my opinion on these things, suffice it to say that every major heresy that had its roots in Christianity began with someone who claimed access to a visionary realm or spiritual awakening not achievable by other Christians.

What, Then, is Fasting?

Paul gets to the idea in verse 19 of Colossians 2. Fasting is a holding on to the head, to Christ. Earlier I said that fasting was not about what is being emptied or denied. Rather, it is about what we are filling the opened space with. In the same way we partake of the Lord’s Supper, doing so in remembrance of Christ (Luke 19:22), we partake in fasting in order to remember God, to focus on Him. This is why Paul denies ascetic practices; their only goal is to deny the body, to beat it and break it, to say that it doesn’t matter. Fasting, denying the body of food and/or water (or other things) is not about separating mind from body and beating one into submission but about aligning both with the head, Christ, to be nourished and held together by Him, to gain growth from God. Fasting is about saying that your body needs something but it needs God more.

When Jesus is in the wilderness, He says what fasting is all about, “’It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God,’” Matthew 4:4. It is not about denying needs but what truly satisfies our needs, what can actually do good work in us. I find Psalm 115 to be more than adequate to touch on why this is the case. When it comes right down to it, our goal is to avoid idolizing things, to make sure our growth comes from God, not things He’s made or given us. If we idolize these things, we make gods that can do nothing as Psalm 115 says. But our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases. This is the focus.

How, Then, Should We Fast?

The effort, as I’ve said, is not merely to deny ourselves, for our bodies are temples, not the “flesh” that the Scriptures say we are to deny. It’s not about hurting or inconveniencing ourselves in order to look good. In fact, when we fast, the Bible is clear no one should know (Matthew 6:16-18). It is also not about what we are giving up. The things we are giving up are vehicles to clear space for us to seek God.

Fasting, then, should be fairly simple: find the things that get in the way of you seeking God. Sometimes it’s food and water; in this case, make it your goal to pray and read the Bible when you would otherwise eat and drink. In other cases, it’s the Internet, TV, sports, or a variety of other things. But don’t just give these things up because you’ll fill that space with something. Instead, use the times you would be pursuing these fasted things to pursue God. That is how we should fast. It’s not about pain or inconvenience but about trying to know God more deeply, to remember what He’s done, and to discover what He is doing.

Oh, and just to answer the question I posed at the beginning—even though it should be obvious from the last sentence of the previous paragraph—yes, we should be fasting. It should be a consistent part of our Christian lives.

Stop Looking for the Perfect Spouse. They Don’t Exist.

The Idolatry of Marriage

If we want to talk about a sin that is constantly running rampant, it’s idolatry. If we want to talk about the form that is most prevalent among today’s younger (and some older) Christians, it’s marriage. A wife. A husband. A family. (I’m writing this because I’m guilty—just to get that out of the way).

Idolatry has existed since the first sin. One could make an argument that pride, which had its heavy-handed nature all over Adam and Eve’s first transgression, is one of the worst forms of idolatry—if it could be argued that one idol is worse than another—that is, self-idolatry, making oneself above God in importance. If I were to hazard a guess, it is my belief that every person on the planet commits this sin perhaps once a day if not even more often. The most popular story of idolatry is probably the Israelites at Mount Sinai, but I’m going to take us through this in a bit of a different manner here.

The Problem of a “Perfect” Spouse

The issue I’m tackling isn’t just the idolatry of marriage. That’s a well-documented struggle among everyone for all time. What I want to tackle is an issue I see on social media a lot (go figure) and has to do with a specificity for idolatry that I’m sure has come up before, but I have personally never seen this widespread. It might be because of trends, and it might be because we, as a Church, have slipped farther into a Christianity-tangential spirituality, but regardless, it’s dangerous. I’m talking about the type of idolatry that causes people to believe their spouse is going to be perfect.

It seems like I’m lambasting women and young ladies, but that’s not my goal; I’m a single guy, so I’m more likely to come across social media feeds of single women, so that’s just what I see (and I have absolutely seen guys falling into a similar heretical idolatry, and I will touch on it). Still, I see frequently posts online along the lines of, “A man of God will not…” and they’re always statements that look like really good things—some of them are—but a lot are pure idolatry.

We have two examples: 1) “A man of God will not make excuses for his faults but will seek God to renew him.”

2) “A man of God will not lead you into sin.”

You might be thinking to yourself, “Wow, both of those seem pretty fair, actually.” And you would be wrong. Point in fact, we have one man of God who did the exact opposite of both of those things in the father of all Israel. In Romans 4:2-3, it says, “If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness.” This is clear evidence of the tenet of Christianity that we are justified by faith, not by works.

Imperfect People Cannot be Justified or Approved by Works

Because if we were approved by works, Abraham would have never been chosen as the father of Israel. If we read closely enough, we can see exactly how Abraham fails on both the accounts of the statements above, specifically with his wife Sarah. Genesis 12 gives us the account of Abram and Sarai traveling to Egypt because of famine. There, Abram fears death because Sarai is beautiful and the Egyptians could kill him and take her. So he has her lie (leads her into sin) to say she’s his sister (not his wife). Technically, Sarai was Abram’s half-sister, but as the story goes, we find that God doesn’t care about this little half truth. What He does care about is Abram forcing Sarai into adultery with Pharaoh in order to save his own skin, as seen by God striking Pharaoh with plagues. So he leads her into two sins.

And then he does it again in Genesis 20. Granted, Sarah is not forced into adultery this time; God saves her from that, but she is to lie yet again for Abraham’s sake—something that he asked her to do. Right after, however, Abraham commits the first of these offenses a man of God will not commit. In Genesis 20:11-13, it says, “Abraham replied, ‘I thought, “There is absolutely no fear of God in this place. They will kill me because of my wife.” Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. So when God had me wander from my father’s house, I said to her: Show your loyalty to me wherever we go and say about me, “He’s my brother.”’” Here is Abraham, a man made righteous, a husband, giving excuses instead of just accepting his fault.

Not to say Sarah is perfect, either. We’re talking about the woman who gave her servant woman to her husband, most likely unwillingly, because she didn’t trust God to give her a child as He said He would. Sarah forced Hagar to procreate with Abraham and then hated Hagar from then on.

How Does This Relate to Marriage and the Social Media Trend?

Okay, let me wrap this up. The problem I see here is that we (both men and women) are forcing each other into situations where it’s impossible to please one another because we’ve turned marriage into an idolatrous transaction of works-based perfection. I have been on the receiving end of this myself—perhaps not because I was expected to be perfect by her but because I expected that she expected me to be perfect. Furthermore, I expected out of her things that I could have only gotten from God. We made mistakes, just as every person makes mistakes. It’s not the work that gets us to marriage but the grace of God to show off the relationship of Christ and His Church—an imperfect showing off.

The problem, as I see it, is that we’re expecting potential spouses to be perfect, and it’s just not possible. At the shallowest end of this, we’re expecting the person we marry to check off all the boxes in the beginning that ought to be checked off after 50 years of marriage. At the most egregious, men and women are literally expecting their wives and husbands to be as perfect as Christ from the onset. We forget that marriage is not a works-based gift. You don’t get it because you’re good enough or no one would be married. God gifts spouses to teach us about who He, Christ, and the Church are and to sanctify us more fully. Consequently, this is why a lot of marriage hopefuls never get married; their bar is so high it’s impossible to reach because the second someone makes a mistake, the relationship is over. There’s not enough grace in relationships, especially among the single population.

The Refined Gold Blessing’s “Miraculous” Transformation

I want to round out my points by bringing things back to the statement I made earlier about Israel’s idolatry at Mount Sinai because I believe it gives a fantastic illustration of what kind of relationship a lot of people expect nowadays. In this case of idolatry, Aaron makes a golden calf for Israel to worship while God gives Moses the Ten Commandments. Most people know that story, but most don’t really pay attention to what happens after because it’s a single-line excuse from Aaron in Exodus 32:24, “So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off,’ and they gave it to me. When I threw it into the fire, out came this calf!”

We know that Aaron meticulously crafted this calf out of the gold he received. We also know that gold doesn’t just come out of a fire in the perfect image of a calf. What we have is a perfect example of what people do with relationships. That gold was a gift from God, perfectly provided to Israel by God through the people of Egypt as they escaped into the wilderness. It was provision from God for knowing who He is. Moses had just received the commands on turning that very same gold into the fittings of the tabernacle and the holy instruments to worship God. If they had allowed God to use and refine the gold as He saw fit, they would have grown and been blessed with His presence among them at all times in the tabernacle. They would have been set for life.

Instead, rather than accepting this blessing and allowing God to work in the time He desires, they sought to refine the gold themselves. They set its boundaries and limits, and they expected it to do things it could never have done all while claiming it was a miracle. The Israelites worshiped the golden calf as the god that brought them out of Egypt, and they made an image that was perfect to them. But it could do nothing.

This is the perfect image of creating a characteristic list that can’t be fulfilled. We’re taking the qualities God says a husband and leader should have (or a wife and follower should have) and adding to them, shaping them, coercing them to be what they weren’t meant to be because of our impatience and lack of refining ourselves. If God says a person should follow after him, we turn it into a person should be perfect. This is like saying, “whoever has gold, take it off.” Then, we put that in the fire and shape it into the perfect idol, the perfect husband or spouse (which doesn’t exist). And when someone asks us what we expect in a relationship, we claim our hand-shaped calf is the godly person, the one who will be perfect for us, and, furthermore, that we didn’t command it but that God did, knowing, deep down, that we made it our own god.

What it really comes down to is stop expecting people to be perfect. They will always fail. Always. As you’re looking for a spouse, don’t settle for someone evil, but don’t expect them to be perfect either. Throw away your expectations and trust God to give you someone who will help refine you. Throw away your expectations and work on letting God refine you as you are now. We get marriage incredibly wrong; it’s not just for your enjoyment, it’s to make you a better believer, a more faithful child. So stop throwing away perfectly good men and women because they don’t meet your absurd expectations of perfection; your golden calf is doing you no good at all. And until you let God take that down, you’ll always be disappointed by the person He brings you to marry.

Fear Not, Your Soul is Not Tied to That Person You Kissed

To be quite honest, I could tackle this issue in two paragraphs with ease. The most used Scriptures to defend this erroneous belief are easily debunked for deliberate misinterpretation. The only other Scripture that could be used to defend this idea comes from a one-line statement about Jonathan and David in 1 Samuel and is also deliberately misinterpreted, just like it is by the crowd that uses it to defend homosexual relationships.

Where Does the Idea of a Soul Tie Come From?

But I won’t do that. Instead, let’s go to the source of this current that is gaining quite a lot of steam today, especially among women and young girls looking to be married, like a number of other poor beliefs about relationships that likely spawned from a misappropriated purity culture, which, in itself has numerous issues. A lot of sources also contribute this belief to the New Age Spirituality that is running rampant through the Church. New Age Spirituality is a combination of numerous belief systems, which essentially means that those who practice it believe whatever makes their own lives and inner thoughts easier, although it largely combines eastern religions like Buddhism with metaphysical thought practices and esotericism. I liken it to Gnosticism, but to give an example, it’s the same belief system that gives us statements like manifesting and asking the universe things, which is to say it’s prayer to self and rampant idolatry.

Another basis for this belief comes from an innate human desire to believe things that make life easier on us in combination with very real physiological processes. The fact of the matter is there are physiological and emotional processes that cause people to come together;  a number of hormones create connections in the brain and cause pleasure from physical and emotional acts that two people perform when they’re together: sharing fears, desires, planning a future, hugging, kissing, and sexual intercourse. You can go find the studies that prove these things. They’re literally all over the place.

 My point is that, knowing this, it’s easier to believe that you’re permanently tied to a person in a way you can’t touch/influence than it is to do the work of detaching yourself from someone who did not choose to love you. It’s easier to believe your soul is attached to someone who made you happy than it is to believe that, eventually, you’ll be able to move on to love and be loved again. It’s easier to live in a fantasy, a knight’s tale, than it is to believe life doesn’t work out like the princess stories all the time, and sometimes you have to grieve and move on.

What Does Scripture say?

I won’t touch the passage on Jonathan and David in 1 Samuel 18:1. It’s clear to me that you have to apply Scripture incredibly liberally, such that you must conclude a falsity about homosexuality being approved by Scripture before you ever append that passage to the soul tie argument, and that’s not a can of something incredibly straightforward and simplistic I’m going to open.

Instead, let’s look at the other two passages: one in the Old Testament and one in the New. Genesis 2:24 says, “This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.” Proponents of the soul tie will argue this passage explicitly states that the two become one while conveniently ignoring the very next word, “flesh.” This passage is repeated in 1 Corinthians 6:16. In both cases, the operative word here is “flesh.” And in the original languages of Hebrew and Greek, both verses also clearly state “flesh,” and there is no way to mistake the words for “soul,” “spirit,” or any approximation of something that is not bodily in nature.

The Scripture, actually, is quite clear abut this in other places, too. For the Pharisees once confronted Jesus, attempting to trap Him, and He told us exactly why souls cannot be tied to each other in Matthew 22:20, which says, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven.” If soul ties are legitimate, then marriage should be an insitution in heaven simply because it is the soul, the spirit, that resides there until we receive new bodies. Furthermore, it should be an institution in the new heaven and new earth, but this is also not the case so far as Scripture determines by Jesus’s own statement. This is because it is not the soul of two who are tied together but the flesh, the bodies, and we will receive new bodies in the resurrection.

If it were the case that souls are tied, then, effectively, God would have to divorce each believing couple (or, even worse, a believer and non-believer couple) upon their deaths in order for this Scripture to remain true. And not only do we know that God hates divorce (Matthew 19:8-9) and only allowed it because of the hardness of human hearts, but we also know that he’s not going to allow His people to be tied and sealed by Spirit to any but Himself. If that were the case, then He would allow room in a saved person, sealed by the Holy Spirit, for other spirits to reside, and the Scripture is also clear that this is not the case.

So How are People Tied?

There is a reason death parts the married couple; it is because they will no longer be tied together after death. It is the flesh of this body that is tied to the flesh of another body because the two are to become one entity. As Paul writes, the mystery of marriage is of Christ and the Church, the bride and bridegroom becoming one in work and purpose (Ephesians 5:31-32). So just as our relationship with Christ is a covenant as His bride, so, too is marriage a covenant; a promise. We are held together by the idea that our yes should be yes and our no should be no.

As we reside as spirit in heaven until the resurrection and then gain new bodies as well as a clear understanding of Christ and the Church as His bride, we no longer need the institution given to us to procreate and understand how the Son relates to us. So, no, soul ties are not a real thing. Rest in that truth. Your sin and mistakes will not haunt you for this life, nor ever, unless you let them. You are forgiven and whole in Christ, not half tied to a man or woman you once slept with.

Delighting in the Lord when Little Feels Delightful

This has been a rough two weeks, and I have had numerous losses in the spiritual space since I last posted. Although, quite honestly, I have been in what seems to be a state of loss since March of 2024 despite many situations people would label as wins coming my way: a steady job, a new house, a newer car, progress on personal goals. I count most of them as highly insignificant. And while this one loss has waterfalled into a place of desperation, it isn’t really the heartbreak that is causing me to wrestle with God, for, indeed, I am wrestling even as Jacob wrestled. The only difference is that I sometimes feel like I have no God to wrestle with, as I admitted to some friends a bit over a week ago.

I give you this incredibly general understanding of my spiritual, knowledgeable, and emotional state to tell you this: I spent some time really fighting my faith, highly doubting that God was real—or, if He was, if He cared about me. See, I have never doubted His goodness toward others, but even today, I wonder how good He is being toward me. Suffice it to say, serving Him does not feel delightful in the slightest, and this is why I wrestle. As Jacob did, I am bound and determined to fight with God until He blesses me.

The Benefit of Good Friends

As I noted earlier, I admitted my lack of faith to some friends late one Thursday night, and all I can say is that it is a blessing to have good, godly friends. They spent some time speaking some harsh truths at me while also being gentle and understanding of the lowly place I have been dragged to kicking and screaming. And then they prayed for me, offering up to God the words I couldn’t speak out of anger and fear. I told them that night that I was grateful I had better friends than Job, especially as I am not nearly as righteous.

Their encouragement affected me deeply, and I was able to pray a simple prayer that night as I came back across a passage of Scripture I had been fighting with for weeks: Psalm 37, specifically verse 4, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.” I was angry because I spent most of my life delighting in the Lord without true difficulty, I thought, and even when I was, everything was ripped away from me, yet now I do not know how to delight in Him to gain it back because I didn’t want to delight in Him at all, yet I knew I had to. So, I took my lack of faith and paired it with the faith of my friends, who believed so wholeheartedly that I couldn’t comprehend it, and I asked God to tell me how the heck to delight in Him.

There are No Coincidences

Lo and behold, God answered not only that prayer but also an unspoken one I had been throwing up in my declaration of wrestling with Him as Jacob. On Friday, my faith was dead, but on Sunday, I was reborn just a little bit stronger as I first attended a sermon preached by my aforementioned good friend (his first). His message? The blessings of Jacob on his children, of course. The wrestler himself, after having been blessed, got to give out blessings of his own.

This message spoke particularly to my anger at God for seemingly taunting me with the very blessings I have been fighting Him for on other people. I’ve been forced to watch with joy and no small amount of anger and hurt as quite literally everyone around me is receiving everything I have asked God for, and while I won’t get into specifics, I will say the hurt this has caused me has been immense. And then I hurt because I can’t just be happy for others; it’s a vicious cycle. But the key takeaway (there are many good ones) from this message was the specificity of blessings: for each son, Jacob had a different blessing, and for each son or daughter of His, God has a specific blessing that He doles out as appropriate. (In all honesty, this hurts almost as much as it helps because I feel quite strongly that I would like my blessing now, thank you very much!)

Taking Delight is far Simpler than We Imagine

Since I had attended this service so early in the morning, I visited another local church that had piqued my interest. And, of course, the pastor was delivering a sermon on Psalm 37:1-8. My prayer uttered in near faithlessness was answered. And how great and simple an answer I received. I won’t delay it any longer, but I will run through the Scripture in order from verse 3 because I think it’s all helpful to my point. Trusting in the Lord is far simpler than imaginary, insubstantial faith. It doesn’t have to be some metaphysical thing. Instead, it means doing the good things we’re supposed to be doing and asking the Father to assist us in believing that God rewards those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). It means dwelling exactly where we are in the security of His future promises, which cannot be touched.

Taking delight, again, is simple: it’s doing things that cause us to be thankful to God and then thanking Him for those things. While Peter and James state we should rejoice in suffering, we don’t have to rejoice because we are suffering. In fact, though Paul boasted about his affliction, he rejoiced about the good things God was doing because of it, not enjoying his pain. We don’t have to enjoy the hard times, but we can enjoy the God we have in the hard times by looking at the good things He’s given us. In practicality, this means I can enjoy my home, car, job, hobbies, and friends and be thankful to have them while hoping, praying, trusting, and wrestling for the blessings that come at the end of suffering (1 Peter 5:10).

Committing our way to the Lord, from verse 5, is just like Paul later writes, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” Do the things you’re doing like Christ would do them and trust that God will act in those things for goodness, and that He will make righteousness and justice shine.

Everything is Still in God’s Timing

Finally, recognize that doing all these right things does not change the necessity of waiting silently and expectantly on God. Doing these things will not speed up His work or His blessings; He will give them in His time. I know it’s not what I wanted to hear, and I know it’s not what most of us want to hear, but this belief that doing certain things or letting go of them will cause God to act faster or slower is a works-based theology. We cannot alter His plans.

In the meantime, give up your anger, even at God, because we all want to be angry at Him when He takes longer than we want Him to, but let it go. Let go of the anger that comes when you’re forced to watch Him give everything you’ve ever wanted to your friends. Let go of the anger that comes when the wicked get easy lives or good gifts. That can only bring harm, but in the time God makes it beautiful (Ecclesiastes 3:11), God will bless you, me, us. And yes, that sometimes means only in death and the resurrection of our bodies for eternity with Him. Even though I really didn’t want to type that and want to believe He’ll not wait that long for me and for you.

When God Prepared a Way for Foreigners Centuries in Advance

As we all know, this is releasing almost a month after the Christmas festivities, but that’s okay. While God is able to work well ahead of the time He wants things to be finished, I work much later and pretend I’m early for next year. Point in fact, God does work things out for good, but sometimes He starts His good works years earlier than He needs them finished. One of the clearest cases is Joseph, who was sold into slavery and ended up saving God’s people, his own family, by working his way into Pharaoh’s good graces through the blessings of God.

Today, however, we’ll explore a case that is not near so clear. Matthew 2:1-12 tells us the story of the wise men, the magi from the east, who came to present gifts to Jesus, who they knew as king of the Jews (v. 2). When we listen to the Christmas story as often told in churches, we’re presented with this idea that the magi were practically Jewish tangential, as though they were coming to worship Jesus in full awareness that He was the Messiah, so perhaps we’ve never questioned the story. But as I was listening this Christmas season, something struck me: How did the wise men know?

Who Were the Magi and Where Did They Come From?

The wise men, unlike the stories we often hear from church, were not Gentiles who knew who God was. They weren’t coming to worship Jesus because they knew exactly who He was. These wise men most likely followed the ancient Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism, which focuses on mystical, shamanistic aspects of rituals in worship to Zoroaster. So believers they were not. In addition, they practiced astrology and witchcraft, likely in a similar manner to the Egyptian magicians mentioned during the ten plagues in Exodus. In fact, the word used to describe the magi here in the Greek is only used in one other passage in the New Testament, and it’s in Acts 13 when Paul describes a sorcerer.

The Bible describes the wise men as having come from the east. There’s no telling exactly where in the east, but we have some ideas. Church tradition indicates Persia, India, or Arabia and also that there were three, but Scripture does not give us an exact number. Based on the evidence of Scripture, it is my thought that they came from Babylonia or Assyria because what I actually questioned as this Scripture was preached is how they knew the words of the Prophet Micah.

How Did Micah’s Prophecy End up in the East?

In verse 6 of Matthew 2, the wise men say to Herod, “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah: Because out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.” This is from Micah 5:2, which reads, “Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah; one will come from you to be ruler over Israel for me. His origin is from antiquity of times.” This question, then, sent me into a furor of searching through the Bible to find out how a scroll of Micah’s words ended up in one of the most pagan places on earth, the heart of enemy territory for a Jewish person.

First, we have to learn of when Micah lived in order to know when he spoke those words. Micah’s ministry work occurred from around 740 to 670 BC. Interestingly, this puts him as alive and working at the same time as another of the most quoted Messianic prophets: Isaiah (739 to 681 BC). But that doesn’t really help much unless we know where Israel was at the time—or who was ruling one of the two kingdoms. For that, we have to go to Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 26:17-18 says, “Some of the elders of the land stood up and said to all the assembled people, ‘Micah the Moreshite prophesied in the days of King Hezekiah of Judah and said to all the people of Judah, “This is what the Lord of Armies says: Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become ruins, and the temple’s mountains will be a high thicket.”’” Hezekiah’s reign is documented in 2 Kings 18-20, and while Isaiah is mentioned as speaking to the king, Micah is not. Still, we have established the two were alive and working at the same time.

From here, we can determine how Micah’s words ended up in Babylon from Isaiah’s prophecy to Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20:17-18, “’Look, the days are coming when everything in your palace and all that your predecessors have stored up until today will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord. ‘Some of your descendants—who come from you, whom you father—will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

This eventually came to pass in 2 Kings 24:13, “He also carried off from there all the treasures of the king’s palace, and he cut into pieces all the gold articles that King Solomon of Israel had made for the Lord’s sanctuary, just as the Lord had predicted.” It was then completed in 2 Kings 25 when Nebuchadnezzar ransacked Jerusalem and took not only the valuables of the temple that remained but also the chief priest and his second-in-command.

And just in case there’s any doubt that enough time had passed to record Micah’s words and have them stored in the temple or the palace or anywhere else, at minimum, 86 years passed between Isaiah’s prophecy and Jerusalem’s destruction.

Prophecy to Pagans, a Timeline of God’s Hand, Even in Destruction

To bring this back around to the beginning, let’s put together the whole timeline. In 715 BC, Hezekiah became king, and he died in 686 BC. Around the end of his reign, both Micah and Isaiah prophesized about Jesus, and Isaiah prophesized about Babylon’s invasion. Babylon invaded Judah between 597 and 587 BC, around 100 years post-prophecy. And then around 580 years later, Jesus was born, the wise men followed the stars to Bethlehem, and they spoke the words of an Israelite prophet from 700 years earlier.

Now I made the point of the wise men being pagans really strongly early on, and that was for good reason because this entire thing reveals the majesty of God’s hand that he worked a good thing out of a bad thing not just on a small scale but on the scale of more than half a century. In this simple revelation, we can see not only God’s plan to provide for His Son as the child of a carpenter and a yet-to-be-married mother but also His desire to bring Gentiles into His people, as Paul writes about later in Ephesians 2 and 3.

He used not only the prophecies of Micah and Isaiah but also the Babylon’s pagan conquests and the pagan astrology of the wise men to draw them hundreds of miles from their home to tiny Bethlehem and tiny Jesus who would eventually open up the way for them to forgo their pagan ways and come to the Way, the Truth, and the Life. God used Israel’s wickedness and disobedience to make not His people His people (Hosea 2:23) by captivity in Babylon, which not only drew His people back to Him at the time but also opened up the way for even Gentiles to show the love of Christ after the resurrection.

So if you ever doubt, like I have been doing recently, that Romans 8:28 is true, that God is really always doing good things for His people, that destruction and captivity aren’t the end, and things put in place now might have outcomes years, decades, centuries in the future—and even that things centuries, decades, and years in the past are having their outcomes now—then don’t. Look at what God did in this case and remind yourself that He truly does work all things for good, even if they’re painful and destructive. Trust Him.

Standing Firm in Contentment When God Feels Gone

“So then, my dearly loved and longed for brothers and sisters, my joy and crown, in this manner stand firm in the Lord, dear friends” (Philippians 4:1). What, then, are we to stand firm in? That Jesus has promised to transform us by the power that enables Him to subject everything to Himself (Philippians 3:20-21), in and by Jesus’s nature as savior and the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15-20).

Stand Firm in Biblical Truth

“I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I also ask you, true partner, to help these women who have contended for the gospel at my side, along with Clement and the rest of my coworkers whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

 There are a number of commands here. First, those in charge (or anyone in the body, if we’re to get specific) ought to agree by seeking the Lord first. If we disagree about anything, let God be the final decision maker and agree with His Scripture above all else. In addition, those being led ought to help their leaders. Be gracious and let everyone know how gracious you are, just as God does. Yet more than anything, Paul’s emphasis is on joy: rejoice in the Lord!

 And he makes no clarifications or qualifications on when rejoicing must occur. Rather, he declares that rejoicing should always be our state of mind—neither worry nor strife should cause us to abstain from rejoicing. Rather, when we are faced with circumstances that would necessarily induce anxiety, anger, and strife, we ought to thank God. And, as we thank Him, we petition Him with yet more thanks to intervene. And in this petition, God’s peace is given to guard us.

Abound in Every Spiritual Place

But what happens when you pray with thanksgiving, and, yet you feel no peace? A few verses down, Paul tells us two things that, on first glance, appear to be the same thing twice. Yet, it isn’t. Philippians 4:12 says, “I know how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need.” Paul is not just repeating the notion that he knows how to work while hungry or while full. Rather, he is speaking, in part, of spiritual hunger and spiritual fullness.

 Note that the gifts Paul mentions in later verses are not specifically described as financial gifts. Though they likely were financial gifts in part, they were also spiritual gifts of encouragement, for it is not simply money that is a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice pleasing to God (Philippians 4:18). Consider Paul’s statement in Romans 12:1-2.

 “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” Following this Scripture is one of Paul’s exhortations about the Body, its gifts, and its purpose in supporting one another. In essence, then, our sacrifice is to give of ourselves in exhortation for the body. What, then, does this have to do with Philippians 4:12?

Paul’s second declaration in verse 12 is about his physical fullness, but his first declaration is about his spiritual fullness—as we call it now, the spiritual valleys and mountain tops. Note how he leads into this statement with verses 8-9. Dwelling on the good, pure, and lovely things—the bread of life and living water that Jesus is and all of His nature—brings peace. This is essential in understanding how Paul is content and strengthened by Christ in every circumstance.

 Paul is speaking, in verse 12, about times when he has felt God far from him, when he feels discouraged. It is, as David writes in Psalm 23, when Paul walks through the valley of the shadow of death. He has learned that his emotions are a deception. When he cannot feel God’s presence because death is all around him, Paul is content. He lets God’s rod of discipline and staff of leadership be his comfort.

 He is also speaking about times when he can feel God right there with him, when He has been spiritually successful and is raised up in jubilance. These are the times it is easy to rejoice. Yet Paul’s disposition does not change in these times. Rather, he is simply content.

 And it is by this contentment that he is able to do all things through Christ’s strength (Philippians 4:13), for as he writes in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.’ Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.”

Making Do With Much and Little

How, then, do we find the comfort and contentment in God’s rod and staff to rejoice no matter our spiritual situation? For it is not about how we feel, as the heart and mind are deceptive (Jeremiah 17:9) and “whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom” (that being God’s wisdom) “will be delivered” (Proverbs 28:26). Instead, it is about abiding in the truth of Christ, as John writes, “Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”

 That teaching, as Paul writes in Philippians 4:8, is truth, honor, justice, purity, love, moral excellence, and praiseworthy and commendable things—the nature of God Himself. This is the secret. Paul’s teaching is not to worry about how you feel; your feelings mean nothing in the truth of God’s presence. Rather, rejoice in His goodness and do what He teaches, and the God of peace will be with you (4:9) and His peace, you won’t understand it because He still won’t feel near to you, but you’ll have it anyway.

In Plain Terms

The simple thing is when you are in the depths of the valley of the shadow of death, when you feel alone and afraid, remember the truth of who God is. Remember that His Spirit within you is not one of fear, but of power, love, and sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). Repeat to yourself the things of God that are good and pure. Your feelings may not change. You may not understand what God is doing. But you will know that He is good because His Spirit within you will transform you, renew your mind, and draw you to contentment even in the lowest valley, just as He does at the highest peak. Dwell on the good, honorable, true, just, pure, and lovely nature of the Father. Don’t trust your feelings; trust your Savior. Psalm 23 is a great place to start. Repeat it to yourself until your feelings bend to the truth of God. Know that He is good even when you can’t feel Him, because He can’t help but work all things out for His glory and your good.

What if I am not Poor in Spirit?

Welcome to Fathoms of the Word! This is my first post after rebranding. If you have questions about anything relating to the rebrand, check the home page! Now, before I start writing this thing, I just want to make it clear that I am not overly happy about writing it because the lesson stinks. It attacks my pride and my desires and my impatience. But in the end, that makes it far more valuable.

In the last year, my life has been flipped upside down, and in the midst of the turmoil, I lost God. Not that He wasn’t there, but I couldn’t find Him, and I had no idea what He wanted from me. I was much like a zombie, just going through the motions of living the “Christian life,” while slowly falling into a depression of decay in my faith. I doubted everything. The crazy part is, I have never pursued God as doggedly as I have these past seven months, yet I felt that He was purposefully eluding me and tormenting me on the few occasions He let Himself be found.

So I changed the way I prayed, and in this change from pride, fear, and anger to longing, desperation, and the tiniest particle of hope a human has ever produced, God spoke. He directed. And around three months ago, a new battle began in my mind, heart, and soul. I honestly thought God hated me for a while, that I was an object prepared for dishonor (Romans 9:21), and this whole experience was just another method of attack on a creation He meant to destroy. I went at God the same way Job did, demanding that He face off with me and tell me what was going on—which obviously did nothing but make me angrier.

Now, however, because of His answer to my prayers, because of His provision, I find myself facing a new problem: a question of His provision. Ironic, isn’t it? But it’s the case. See, in that time when the Lord answered me, He gave me a path forward. I was at point A, and He told me what point B was. But there were caveats. The first was that He put me on the path, established my steps, and said take pleasure in the way (Psalm 37:23) but then He said, “wait,” and refused to let me take a step on the path He placed before me.

Capability is the hard way to the kingdom

Because the second caveat was obedience, trusting in Him. One of the many characteristics I’ve had to confront in myself in this time of grief and anger is my pride. I found myself drawn to the Sermon on the Mount, specifically the passage Jesus leads off the Beatitudes with: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs” (Matthew 5:3). Well, to be quite honest, I don’t consider myself poor in spirit. I’ve been studying and teaching on spiritual gifts recently, and one of the things I’ve had to confront is that I’m blessed by the Spirit. I’m skilled. I’m smart. And more than anything, I’m capable of learning and doing pretty much anything I decide to tackle. Sometimes I’m so capable that I do things without obedience and deference to God. Sometimes I simply do them without Him entirely. In my life, I’ve learned I can disobey and still be successful because God made me capable of so much.

But being capable doesn’t help us in the kingdom of God; in fact, it’s a hindrance. Once I realized this, my favorite verse popped into my head: “For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; as knowledge increases, grief increases” (Ecclesiastes 1:18). And that’s when I realized this list of Beatitudes is in an important order. Notice how the end of Matthew 5:10 is the same as the end of verse 3. The poor in spirit, those who absolutely have no choice but to rely on God? In the Kingdom, they’ve got it easy, in a sense. For everyone else, it’s time to follow the path God lays out.

The first thing we must do is mourn our position and our knowledge and wisdom. Mourn our separation from God, our pride that keeps us away from obedience. Then He comforts. But our mourning must turn us to something: humility. We must lower ourselves from the pedestal our capability has put us on and place God there. He will take us on the path of life and give us all things we need on the earth (Psalm 16:11). But if we have all things on the earth, we must not build up on the earth where moth and rust destroy but make treasure for ourselves in heaven for our hearts will then be there (Matthew 6:19-21). We may, then, love God with all our heart (Matthew 22:37). This means a hunger and thirst for righteousness rather than whatever else we might chase. And He will fill us.

Another difficult thing for a prideful person is mercy; I know I struggle with giving grace and mercy to those who can’t do what I am capable of. And I also sometimes struggle with believing I even need it—there’s pride again. But just as the Lord’s prayer asks God to forgive us as we forgive others (Matthew 6:12), we receive mercy when we give it. So we must learn to be merciful toward those who don’t have the advantages we have. And once we grow in being merciful and receive the mercy of the Lord (recognizing that we do certainly need it) we allow God to purify our hearts, and we can see a glimpse of who He truly is—not just capable and skilled, love, just, good, honorable—but so much more and greater: a God who truly cares for every individual and is actively working everything to be beneficial to His servants (Romans 8:28).

And when we see God for who He truly is, we make peace with others, no longer waging war because of our differences but loving people because of their identity as creations of the one true God—and for those who are chosen and who choose Him in return, as sons and daughters of the Most High. Because it is possible to live at peace if we make it (Romans 12:18). And in that righteousness, because they also persecuted Christ for it, we will be persecuted and the Kingdom will be ours as well.

Humble yourself and give up control

I’ve written a lot to come around to ending my story with where I’m at now: I have fought God on His provision and goodness because I’m still in step three of this process: humbling myself. Eventually, God will let me step out on the path He made for me, but even now I keep insisting that God act on the promise He made me three months ago in my time. I want it now; I can’t even pretend I don’t. But as I was driving down the road recently, I started to really see the picture of what I’ve been calling detours but He’s been calling the way of my life.

The interesting thing about life is how good of a metaphor for life it is. See, in my car, I’ve got a gas pedal, which means I get to control how fast I go. But on the road, there are a lot of things slowing me down: speed limits, curves, stop lights, and other drivers. I’m impatient and prideful, and I often think I’m a better driver than others. And I definitely think I know a more appropriate speed limit than the government that set them.

I know point B, and I want to get there. And I can get mad when every stop light is red or drivers in front of me insist on going below the speed limit or someone cuts me off. I can even try to finagle my way through traffic to get ahead. But the thing I’ve found about the road, and about life, is that no matter how angry I get or how many things I attempt to speed around, I’m not getting to point B much faster, if at all. God knows where point B is, too. And even though I can’t see what’s up ahead, He can. And He has put the red lights, the slow cars, and the standstill traffic in place for a purpose.

Sometimes, I can not trust Him, act on my own, and get to point B a little quicker, and He may choose to bless it. But the thing about trust is that, if we can manage it, it’s a blessing in itself to watch His plans unfold. I still haven’t seen it; I’m still waiting on the promise. But if there’s one good thing about God (and everything about Him is good) it’s that He cannot lie. So if you can’t trust Him in your circumstances (like I struggle with) trust that He can’t lie, and that means He will take care of you because, in Him, we are sons and daughters.