Heavenward

Perpetually Coming to Jesus

Scotty Smith — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 12:17:42 +0000

“As you came and continue to come to Jesus—a living stone rejected by men, but chosen and precious in God’s sight—you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1Pet.2:4-5)

Lord Jesus, the question, “Have you come to Jesus?” remains the most critical, glorious, and grace-filled question for any of us to answer—even for those who already know and love you. For “coming to Jesus” describes the whole Christian life, not just its beginning. It’s like asking our lungs, “Have you come to oxygen today?”; for by you “we live, move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

The more time we spend in rich fellowship and heart communion with you, Jesus, the less we look to people, things, and approval to fill the Jesus-shaped vacuum in our hearts. How many times are we going to have to return to Gospel-summer-school to be convinced that people make lousy Jesus-substitutes?

The more we abide in you and linger in your love (Jn.15:4-5), the more precious you become to us, Jesus—and that that changes everything. Our chains break, our shame melts, and our self-absorption shrinks. We get freer, our peace grows deeper, and we become “sweeter”—for we cannot spend time with you without your gentleness, humility, and kindness becoming ours.

Indeed, the better we know you, Jesus, the more we understand why the Apostle Paul spoke of death as gain and “better by far” than anything we can imagine or have this side of heaven (Phil.1:23). O for the Day we will know you fully and forever as our treasure, life, and everything. Hallelujah, and So Very Amen.

A Total Grace-“Beatdown”

Scotty Smith — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 11:46:58 +0000

Behold, absorb, ponder, be in awe of “what great love the Father has lavished on us.” (1Jn.3:1). Abba “is working in you both to will and accomplish his good pleasure.” (Phil.2:13). Therefore we joyfully say, “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.” (Ps.138:8).

Heavenly Father, on this last Friday of February 2026, it’s a huge gift to live with no doubts, fear, or having to guess what you think about us. Because of what you’ve done for us in Jesus, we live in your 100% favor 100% of the time with 0% exceptions. No more “He loves me, He loves me not.”

No need to “should-all-over-ourselves”—I should do more, try harder. I should work harder to make God smile bigger and frown less.”

No need to feast on the rotting fruit of regrets. “Why did I ever …?” “How could I have ever…?””If only I hadn’t …”

Hallelujah, the burden of our guilt, shame, and failures has been lifted, and replaced with your unwavering delight. Posing and pretending have been crushed under the weight of your eternal welcome and lavish love. What relief… what freedom… what peace we have in Christ. Thank you, Abba. Your currency is grace and your “pockets are full.” Abba, you are eternally generous, including today. You will remain on a grace-riches spending spree all the way Home.

Hallelujah… Jesus’ saving work is finished for us and the Spirit’s transforming work continues in us until the Day of all things new and beautiful (Rev.21:5, Eccl.3:11). Your heart and hard rule sovereignly over us and everything else. Therefore, we want to invest the rest of our days by …

Faith expressing itself in love. (Gal.5:6)
Hope expressing itself in mission. (Rom.16:20)
Grace expressing itself in kindness. (Lk.6:35-36)
Peace expressing itself in faith and trust. (Prov.3:5-6)
Humility expressing itself in quick repentances. (1Pet.5:5-6)
We are loved, grateful, and destined for Christlikeness. (1Jn.3:2)

Hallelujah and SO Very Amen.

The Grace-Gift of Redemptive Frustration

Scotty Smith — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 11:24:21 +0000

“I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’” Hosea 2:6-7

Lord Jesus, I love spring wildflowers in Montana, sea oats on any beach, honey suckle vines in aromatic bloom, and Heather in the Highlands of Scotland. Today, however, I praise you for the grace-gift of “thornbushes.” They aren’t pretty, but they are priceless. When we drift or jump into “prone to wander” mode, you shift into “committed to frustrate mode.” Thank you.

When our lust for satisfaction is stronger than our love for you, we run after a variety of “lovers.” Not all of them are people, and the impulse isn’t only sexual. ANYTHING that promises to satisfy our cravings, medicate our pain, bloat our ego, give us control, or tame our shame can become a “lover.”

Money, ministry, society’s smile or sexual fantasy; looking 40 at 60 or 20 at 40; having children who call us or drugs that numb us, a higher place in the org chart or a longer drive on the golf course—the list is endless. For good reason you call them “worthless idols” (Jer. 2:5) and “broken cisterns” (Jer. 2:13), and graceless lovers. They cannot and will not satisfy.

Your love exposes then mocks the insanity of our sin, Jesus. You give us many good gifts in life but none are meant to supplant you. Only your love is better than life. Only you can fulfill the very longings you have given us. Keep the thornbushes coming and growing, Lord. But especially, free us to find our greatest delight in you. So Very Amen.

Who Are We in Christ? How Do We Become More Like Christ?

Scotty Smith — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 09:39:12 +0000

Dear friends, what is true of us as believers? A glorious ton! According to Colossians 3:1-4. We’ve been raised to newness of life in Christ. Jesus’ death and righteousness are now counted as ours. We are united to Christ and Christ has become our life—not an add-on. When Jesus returns in glory we will glorified—made completely like Jesus. Wow!

How then shall we live till then? We are to “set our minds and hearts on things above,” and “put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry” (Col.3:5). This is called Gospel-mortification—dealing seriously with remaining sin in our lives. How then shall we pray?

Today’s Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you… 10,000 thanks as we ponder what you have already done for us. Because of all these wonderful grace-realities, teach us how to “put to death” things which contradict your beauty and goodness.

We won’t be sin-free until you return, but we can be more grace-smitten and sin-serious before that glorious Day. Grant us deeper conviction and quicker repentances, Jesus. What Christless thoughts do we indulge, deadly words do we speak, and anti-grace habits do we practice? You have forgiven us, now free us, Lord.

If we discovered a scorpion in our workout bag, a small fire in the back seat of our car, or a coiled snake in our workspace—we’d take quick and radical action. Jesus, may we be just as quick and radical about our sin. It’s not about getting you to love us more—because you can’t and won’t. It’s about revealing more of your truth, goodness, and beauty to our family, friends, and neighbors. There’s no condemnation left for us, but there’s a bunch of transformation. Hallelujah and may it be so. So Very Amen.

Our Joy-Igniting, Fear-Sabotaging, Mission-Fueling Hope

Scotty Smith — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 11:17:29 +0000

“In keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells” (2Pet.3:13). It will be a place and eternity of perfect everything, redeemed pain, shalom, beauty, and all things unbreakable—”no more harm and harming” (Isa.11:9). From his enthronement in heaven, Jesus proclaimed, “Behold, I am making all things new”—not all new things. (Rev.21:5)

Lord Jesus, I’m grateful to live in the era of cars having satellite positioning, in-time maps, digital screens, and calm voices to get us to our desired destination. But 10,000 times over I’m grateful you are the architect and guarantor of our final destination. You speak to us through the Scriptures with the most calming imaginable, as you lead us safely and surely Home.

So, where is our final destination? It’s not measured in miles but in magnificence. At your return you will usher in “the new heaven and new earth.” It will be the Garden of Eden on Gospel Steroids—a worldwide “grace-garden.” Your glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. There will be no more death and dying only living and thriving.

Indeed, this very planet and place will overflow with your beauty, goodness, and truth, Jesus. Familiar places will still exist, but they will become as they were always meant to be—void of every evidence of sin and death. Your impossible to count, every-nation Bride will be complete, gathered, and glorified (Rev.7:1-17).

Each of us will be made perfect in love. We will be as much like you as glorified creatures can possibly be (Rm.8:29). We will finally and fully love you as you deserve and love each other as you intend. In fact, it will be impossible for us not to love and we’ll never sin again. Until then, Jesus, free us to revel and rejoice in you, and live and love to your glory all the way Home. So Very, VERY Amen.

We’re Not Called to Deny Reality but to Delight in Jesus

Scotty Smith — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 11:28:21 +0000

Jesus, “you will keep in perfect peace all who set their gaze on you and fill their thoughts with you” (Heb.12:2 + Isa.26:3)

Lord Jesus, you haven’t promised us a storm-less, hassle-free, pain-void life. But you have promised something that transcends our fears, vulnerability, and hurts. You promise to keep us in perfect peace in the midst of anything and everything. As we love to sing, “he will hold me fast”; and your embrace is the most settling and centering power on earth.

We can never lose our relationship with you, but we can most definitely lose its experiential power and sweetness. We never earned the gift of your calming presence, so we don’t have to stress about re-earning it. How then can we re-enter the experience of your perfect peace? You have taught us that it’s a “fix-and-fill” issue. Where we fix out gaze and what we fill our thoughts with has enormous impact on our lives.

It’s not mind over matter; it’s you over all things, Jesus. It’s not denying reality but delighting in you. Indeed, the more we fix our gaze on you—the Author and Perfecter of our faith, and the more we “set our minds on things above” (Col.3:2), the quicker we will return to Gospel-sanity and heart-peace. And perhaps like Paul and Silas, even singing hymns in whatever “prison” we may be in” (Acts 16:25-26). O to know you that well, Jesus. O to be that free… grant it Lord.

Today, tomorrow, and forever—Jesus keep bringing us back this glorious state of heart: “Whom or what do I have in heaven but you, Jesus? You make heaven ‘heavenly.’ And being with you, there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Ps.73:25). So Very Amen.

An Earnest Prayer for a Fresh Work of the Spirit in Our Churches

Scotty Smith — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 11:34:09 +0000

“Your faith in Jesus and love for all believers are a powerful testimony to the work of the Spirit in your midst. By heaven’s hope and the grace of the Gospel, we are praying for more of the same fruit in your hearts and midst. To God’s glory, this Gospel is bearing fruit all over the world.” (Paraphrase Col.1:3-6)

Heavenly Father, do it again and again and again. Awaken, renew, revive our church families—and each of our hearts. We pray for thriving churches, lukewarm and dying ones—new church plants and century-old ones. For all of us equally need the riches of your grace all the time.

By the glorious Gospel, buckle our knees, grace our hearts, fuel our joy. Deepen and strengthen our faith in Jesus. Stun and dazzle us afresh with Jesus’ beauty, goodness, and truth. Take us out of our comfort zone into your “Spirit’s zone” of unabated, non-domesticated, compelling love for Jesus.

By the power of the Gospel, Father, make us great lovers or all of your image bearers—including our enemies. And give us fresh love for all believers—not just our “tribe.” Tear down our divisions, rescue us from our prejudices, eradicate our pettiness. Help us demonstrate the difference the Gospel of your grace makes in our worship, conflicts, and suffering. Keep us from biting and devouring one another. Supersize our humility and gentleness. May the Gospel become beautiful and believable to our neighbors and the nations by the way we love.

By the hope of the Gospel, liberate our hands, hearts, and resources for the work of your kingdom in our cities and among the nations. Forgive us for making more of our earthly citizenship than our citizenship in heaven—more of our own nation than the every-nation Story you have given us in the Gospel. Make us a generous servant people. Father, free us for your sovereign and saving purposes. So VERY, VERY Amen!

100% Prime Protein Spirit-Refreshers and Heart-Nourishers

Scotty Smith — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 11:17:00 +0000

“I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus… for they refresh my spirit.” (1Cor.16:17-18). Jesus, our faithful, loving Good Shepherd… “restores, refreshes, renews my soul” (Psalm 23:3).

Lord Jesus, these three brothers, “Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus” and these three sisters, “Phoebe, Euodia, and Syntyche” (Rm.16:1-2, (Phil.4:2-3) … names we usually “race through” to get to the “meat of your Word.” But actually, they were 100% prime protein spirit-refreshers, heart-nourishers, and soul-renewers. Increase their tribe, Lord, and multiply their progeny.

The Apostle Paul could say of them, “I am always glad to see these friends come through the front door—or any door. They have a “knack,” way, and heart for giving me encouragement and perspective, and care laughs when I need those things the most.”

Jesus, thank you for our sisters and brothers who play that treasured and essential role in our lives. Like Paul to the Thessalonians, they don’t just give us the Gospel (which we always need), but their very lives as well (1Thess.2:8). More like a nursing mother (1Thess.2:7) than a harsh dad, (Eph.6:4), they love us well. Make us increasingly like them. Instead of pressure, critique, and agenda, they are conduits of YOUR kindness, presence, and joy. Jesus, you are the headwater, river, and fountain of the sweetest and most deeply satisfying refreshment.

“Flickering wicks and crushed reeds” love it when you show up. When you “come through the door,” nobody feels they need to tidy the desk, feign okay-ness, or “present well.” You are near and dear to the brokenhearted, weary, heavily burdened, thirsty, and restless. Hallelujah, and thank you, Jesus. Be all of that to us and emit all of that grace through us. So Very Amen.

Friendship As a Rope of Grace

Scotty Smith — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 09:34:29 +0000

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return and reward for their love-labors. If one falls, the other lifts. Woe to him who falls alone and has no lifter. Again, if two lie together, they stay warm, but aloneness makes for coldness. A friend with one good friend is powerful, but a three-friend rope of grace isn’t easily broken.” Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 4:9–12

Lord Jesus, I’ve been thinking lately about friendship, and especially friends woven together as a rope of grace. It’s a gift to have friends who bring lifting power to our burdens, warmth in a world of coldness, and companionship in our every-season, highs-and-lows journey Home. Indeed, thank you for …

Friends who laugh and play, and weep and lament with us.
Friends who identify with our pain, struggles, and confusion.
Friends who remind us of the Gospel, Jesus’ love, and the Bigger Story.
Friends who offer unrushed presence, hot tears, and comic relief.
Friends who pray in the moment, because they know they’ll forget later.
Friends who remind us to wait upon you—and to wait a little longer.
Friends who would rather be kind than right.
Friends who trust us with their hearts and work for our joy.

Jesus, these cherished friendships turn our hearts to you. For you are the foundation and fountain of all good friendship. It’s stunning, settling, and sweet to hear you say to us, “I no longer call you servants, I call you friends” (Jn15:15).

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn.15:13)—and that’s exactly what you did for us. And now, you’ll never leave us and ever live for us. When we fall down, you’re right there—right here today. Thank you Jesus, and So Very Amen.

Jesus Is Our Home and He Will Take Us Home

Scotty Smith — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 10:30:52 +0000

Jesus to us: “Abide in me—abide in my love“ (Jn.15:4, 9).

Dear Jesus, a great song from a dear friend greeted me as I awoke today: “Though you are homeless, though you’re alone, I will be your home. Whatever’s the matter, whatever’s been done. I will be your home. In this fearful fallen place, I will be your home. When time reaches fullness, when I move My hand, I will bring you home … I will be your home.” (Michael Card) Wet eyes and grateful heart—what a way to start this Thursday.

I’ve lived on Melville Street, Oakwood Lane, Rosewood Vally Drive, and Highgrove Circle—meaning I’ve lived in houses on those various streets. But more than ever I am so grateful to be able to say you are my Home, Jesus—my heart habitat, permanent address, domicile of delight, happy place, grace-sanctuary, and residence of rest. Hallelujah, and thank you.

A house has an address; a home has a heart. “Home is where the heart is”; much more so, our home is where your heart is, Jesus. Wherever you are, that’s where we want to be. By the riches of the Gospel, our most permanent, glorious, welcoming, peaceful, safe, and joyful address is “in Christ.”

However, sometimes good friends say to us out of concern: “Your lights are on, but nobody’s home.” Meaning, “I know you’re present, but you seem 10,000 miles away—distant and disconnected. Jesus, when you have to say that to us, “bring us home”—by whatever means necessary. We know you will never leave or forsake us, but we’re prone to wander. Bring us home, Jesus. Reignite our fellowship and intimacy with you. Teach us afresh about a life of abiding in you and in your love. Nothing matters more. So Very Amen.

When Does Saying Nothing Speak Volumes?

Scotty Smith — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 11:33:02 +0000

“In the last days, there will be many whose words and forms seem like godliness, but their lives are void of the power of true spirituality. Don’t have anything to do with them.” (2Tim.3:5). “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, instead expose them.” (Eph.5:11). “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness to light and light to darkness.” (Isa.5:20).

Lord Jesus, you know this tapestry of Scriptures I’ve chosen to meditate on and pray through today is born from actual, not theoretical, circumstances. I need your wisdom and courage, and I know I’m not alone.

As the distance between “religious speak” and true spirituality grows more and more obvious, blatant, and egregious in our culture—how are we to respond, Jesus? I know it must start with taking the log in our eyes more seriously than anyone else’s speck-infected eyes. So, show me the ways my thinking, speaking, and acting contradict the Gospel I treasure. Close the gap between my aspirational and actual godliness, Jesus. Secondly…

How do we honor you with friends who are making poor and dangerous choices? When is “giving a pass” not giving grace but enabling a fool? How do we confront friends in love, but firmly confront them?

How do we honor you when policies and practices of our company, community, or political party (Blue, Red, or Other) increasingly “call good evil, and evil good”? Convict us when our fear of man and hatred of “the other party” blind/numb us to darkness that needs to be exposed and repudiated.

How do those of us to whom you’ve given a platform steward the responsibility and privilege of being heard? When is our silence not niceness but compliance with evil? When does saying nothing speak volumes? How does our love of our reputation become greater than our love for you, Jesus? Forgive us, Help us, Lord. Have mercy on us all, Jesus. So Very Amen.

Including and Way Beyond All We Can Imagine

Scotty Smith — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 11:11:52 +0000

All praise, glory, and love “to him who is able to do exceedingly beyond ALL we ask or imagine” (Eph.3:20).

Dear Jesus, you’ve given me a great imagination, but you are a 10,000 times greater and gracious Savior. You can do WAY more than I can imagine, but I’ll “settle” for what I can imagine. In line with the truth of your Word, the promises you have made, and the riches of your grace …

I can imagine me coming more fully alive to your love, Jesus—beholding more of your beauty and having a more Gospel-saturated and shaped heart.

I can imagine a new, mighty, even greater outpouring of your Holy Spirit—similar to the Jesus Movement I experienced in the late 60’s and 70’s.

I can imagine people I love coming to know you, others coming back home to you, and still more entering a season of fresh Gospel-renewal bordering on revival.

I can imagine you patiently, tenderly, powerfully running towards me and my friends when we…

Grow disconnected from you like Asaph (Ps.73:22).
Forget the Gospel like the Galatians (Gal.4:15-17).
Laugh with unbelief like Sarah (Gen.18:12-15).
Are paralyzed with shame like Peter (Lk.22:61-62).
Doubt you like John the Baptist did (Lk.7:21-23).
Question your compassion like Martha (Lk10:40).
Make horrible choices like King David (2Sam.11-12).
Run away to party like the younger son (Lk15:11-32).
Stink with elder son self-righteousness (Lk15:25-32).
Sink into depression like Jeremiah (Jer.15:10; 20:14-18).
Simmer in anger and smugness like Jonah (Jonah 4:9).
Crave being with you in heaven like Paul (Phil.1:23).

Jesus, I can imagine our coming life with you in the new heaven and new earth (Rev.21:1-22:5)—when all evil is eradicated, your glory is everywhere, and all things will be eternally new and beautiful. I can imagine all this, and I am stoked, grateful, expectant, and ready. So VERY Amen.

Jesus Turns Our Whines into Worship and Our Frets into Faith

Scotty Smith — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 10:44:16 +0000

Lord Jesus your kingdom—the “the Kingdom of Heaven, is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.” Matt. 13:33

Bread from Heaven and Bread of Life (John 6:22-29)—starter, yeast, leaven … Jesus, we’re thankful for all the carbohydrate and bread images you chose to tell us more about yourself and your Kingdom. Irrespective of our personal gluten and wheat choices—this parable is powerful, timely, and hyper-encouraging.

A woman mixes a little yeast (sourdough starter) into a lot of flour—enough to yield 40-60 pounds of dough, which would yield 60-ish loaves of bread and about 480 hearty-slice sandwiches. This story is hope-filled on many levels. First, she was obviously thinking about providing bread for a lot of people.

Her heart was bigger than her bungalow, her vision bigger than her kitchen, and her “table” was as big as your Kingdom. She had confidence in the permeating, transforming presence of the right leaven.

She didn’t own a bread factory, but as the Bread of Life in this parable, you want us to see how belonging to you puts us in a bigger and better Story than we realize—a Story 10 months pregnant with hope, with no possibility of birth failure. No matter how fearful, stressful, woeful, or awful things seem in our world, on the perfectly timed Day the entire earth will be filled with your truth, goodness, and beauty, Jesus. Hallelujah!

The firstfruits of your Spirit, the yeast of your grace, the “starter” of your resurrection all guarantee that you will finish your commitment to make all things new (Rev.21:5). Turn our whines into worship, our frets into faith, our sweaty palms into hands engaged in Kingdom-service. Hope, generosity, and kindness are the order of this and every day. So Very Amen.

The Beauty, Joy, and Life-Giving Freedom of Godly Sorrow

Scotty Smith — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 11:09:23 +0000

“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens” (Ps.68:19).

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death” (2Cor.7:10)

Lord Jesus, 10,000 thanks for being the Savior who daily bears our burdens. Of all the heavy burdens we keep throwing into our backpacks and “heart-packs”—”vain regret” may be the heaviest. It masquerades as Spirit-conviction, but it really has nothing to do with the work of the Holy Spirit.

It is self-centered, pride fueled, and the only way the world knows how to deal with personal failure. Vain regret starts as shame, condemnation, and self-contempt; then it morphs into minimizing, excuse making, and scapegoating.

“Godly sorrow” however is the exact opposite of vain regret. It is “godly” because it honors you, is a work of grace (not law). It frees us to take responsibility, grieve, and repent for the unloving things we have thought, said, and done. Nothing is more beautiful and life-giving—unlike vain regret which only results in various expressions of death. It kills our peace and joy, and opportunities for the Gospel to become beautiful and believable to others.

Jesus, you know the things we deeply regret, generated from chapters and years of our parenting and “spouse-ing”—and the ways we have wasted time, ignored you, and hurt people we love. So, we come to you right now grateful the Gospel is true and that you occupy a throne of grace.

Precisely because there is no condemnation left for our sin (Rom.8:1), we can freely respond to Spirit-conviction about our sin, and Spirit-direction for moving forward. May our repentance become more obvious than our failures to love well. We’ll never regret humbling ourselves; we’ll only regret hardening our hearts. Here’s to a season of life-giving, joy-fueling godly sorrow. So Very Amen.

Deeply Satisfying, Wondrously Freeing, Utterly Transforming

Scotty Smith — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 12:11:47 +0000

“I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.” Song of Sol. 7:10

Lord Jesus, a fisherman craves tight lines, a “javaphile” craves the perfect cup of coffee, a golfer craves a smooth swing and long drives. But all of us have an irrepressible craving for intimacy that comes from you and can only be fulfilled by you. We try hard to fulfill this Jesus-shaped longing in a myriad of ways—ways that don’t make you necessary. They never work because they are never enough.

All love whispers, hints, and points to a greater love—the greatest love. On today’s calendar it’s Valentine’s Day, but on the Calendar of Grace every day is the perfect day to savor the widest, highest, deepest and longest love imaginable—your great love for us (Eph.3:14-19). No human relationship or storybook romance, no torrid love affair or the best marriage ever can give us what we only find in you. Grandparenting is awesome, our best friendships are sublime, and the gift of romantic love is one of the greatest experiences we have in life. But…

But Jesus, you are the ultimate Spouse—the one we always dreamt about, longed for, and hoped we’d find (Eph. 5:25-32). Every human marriage is temporary, only marriage to you is forever. In fact, as believers, we are already more married to you than we will ever be to a human spouse (2 Cor.11:2-3). Make this real to us, Lord—deeply satisfying, wondrously freeing, utterly transforming.

Nothing compares with being able to say, “I am my beloved’s and his desire is for me”—with you as the “Beloved” and us as the “desired” ones. Until we join you face to face at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, Jesus, may your love inhabit, shape, and fuel all other loves. So Very Amen.

“Be Mine” Is 10,000 Times Better Than “Be My Valentine”

Scotty Smith — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 10:08:54 +0000

“Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name, I will lift up my hands. I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.” Ps. 63:3–5

Lord Jesus, Oh, to know and love you with the passion and delight reflected in Psalm 63—in such a heart-thrilling, soul-satisfying, life-liberating way. Praising lips, engaged mind, raised hands, satisfied soul—every aspect of our being captured is designed to be enthralled with your goodness and grace.

Nothing is more compelling, transforming, and counterintuitive than your love for us. Your love isn’t “like” anything; it is the meaning, magnificence, and measure of true affection. As Charles Wesley taught us to sing—your loves is “pure, unbounded, divine,”—”excelling all other loves.” Jesus, make us blush with astonishment, for this is the way you love us.

During this weekend when human romance will be in the spotlight (Valentine’s Day), may your “better-than-life-love” shatter all comparisons to human loves—even the healthiest and dearest ones. David danced with shame-free joy when the Ark of the Covenant was returned to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:1-23)—the symbol of your presence and blessing. How much more so should we live before you with an “inexpressible and glorious joy”? (1Pet.1:8). Not being happy all the time but always being certain of your great love for us and unwavering delight in us.

Jesus, your empty tomb is behind us. Your occupied throne is above us. Your righteousness is wrapped around us. Your everlasting arms are under us (Deut.33:27). Your prayers and intercession never stop for us, and you are fixin’ to return for us—passionate Bridegroom for beloved Bride. “Love divine, all loves excelling” indeed! So Very Amen.

Three Timely “Don’ts” Along with a Grand Vision

Scotty Smith — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 10:44:04 +0000

“Don’t take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.” Rom. 12:19

“Don’t gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice.” Prov. 24:17

“Don’t worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong. For like the grass, they will soon wilt and be no more.” Ps.37:1

Heavenly Father, I’m still relishing the taste of the “heavenly gelato” I had earlier this week in Encinitas. I also savor 70% dark chocolate poured over walnuts sitting atop vanilla ice cream. But I’m just as capable of enjoying the flavor and texture of sweet revenge, spiteful payback, and watching the arrogant eat crow and get low. That’s a confession, not a boast.

Longing for justice is one thing, but feeding a vengeful spirit like it is a sourdough starter, is in a different category—a category sharing company with anti-grace, rat poison, and Eboli. No matter the provocation—from a personal “dissing” to evil parading its hatred of beauty—you’ve told us you’re greedy with revenge—keeping all of it to yourself and timetable. Help us Abba, for we live in a culture that has mastered and normalized demonizing, weaponizing, and supersizing getting even. It’s how cultures in the past self-destructed and became a regrettable footnote in the history of self-idolatry. Have mercy on us, Lord.

Father, I’m so glad you didn’t “get even” with us. You didn’t get even; you got generous—so generous that you gave our sin to Jesus, gave his righteousness to us, and then you gave us to Jesus “to have and hold forever.” Hallelujah… we are more married to Jesus than we’ll ever be to a human spouse. May realizing we’re the beloved Bride of Jesus—the true and reigning King, humble, gladden, and focus us. May it empower us to work for justice tenaciously and sacrificially, to love your mercy for ourselves and for others, and to walk humbly and gladly with Jesus all the way to the Wedding Feast and the eternal beyond. So Very Amen.

Hallelujah for All the Awesome Triads in the Bible!

Scotty Smith — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 12:16:25 +0000

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, constant in prayer.” Rom. 12:12

Lord Jesus, wonderful threes, triples, and triads fill the Bible. Beginning with you, our Father, and the Holy Spirit as our glorious Triune God—the source and fountain of all truth, goodness, and beauty. You came into the world to fulfill the three offices of Prophet, Priest, and King on our behalf; and in doing so you claim our past, present, and future—body, soul, and spirit. Hallelujah and thank you!

Then we remember, rest, and rejoice in these wonderful “3’s” from 3 or your beloved friends: Paul’s “faith, hope, and love” (ICor.13:13), Jude’s “called, loved, and kept” (Jude 1:1), and John’s “grace, mercy, and peace” (2Jn.1:3)—each highlighting the riches of grace that are ours in you. And today’s Scripture gives us a three-fold path for trusting and serving you all the way Home.

Be Joyful in Hope: Jesus, thank you for giving us hope, not hype—a firm foundation for the future, not a pain-denying fantasy. The more we understand the “perfect everything” we’ll enjoy forever (Rev.21-22), the greater our joy will be, the more our fears will shrink, and the freer we will be to live and love to your glory.

Be Patient in Affliction: Since all evil, sin, and brokenness have an expiration date, patience isn’t a risk but our calling. You are working in all things for our good, working all things together according to your plan, and nothing can separate us from your love. Hallelujah!

Be Constant in Prayer: Jesus, we can pray without ceasing because you love us without wavering, rule over all things without exception, and intercede for us without stopping. Hallelujah, and So Very Amen.

A Fresh Infusion of Grace, Love, and Hope in Our Relationships

Scotty Smith — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 14:06:02 +0000

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved…” (Col.3:12a)

Lord Jesus, these 3 realities define us more than anything else:

We are Chosen—Not accidently yours, but providentially and affectionately yours.
We are Holy—Righteous in you, set apart for you, and destined to be 100% like you.
We are Dearly Loved—Fully known, constantly enjoyed, and forever your treasure.

Jesus, from the overflow of your love for us—infuse our marriages, friendships, parenting, and neighboring with copious portions of these 5 expressions of your relationship with us: “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” (Col.3:12b). Thank you for loving us like this and help us more fully believe that you do.

Until heaven, our commitment to love well will include seasons of conflict, heart-hurt, disconnect, and the need for repentance. So, free us to “bear with each other and forgive one another when we grieve each other. Jesus, may we forgive as the you forgave us.” (Col.3:13).

Gentle our hearts and supersize our forbearance. Free us to forgive grievances (big and little ones) with speed and joy. May your once-and-for-all forgiveness of us, define and fuel our forgiveness of others. Help us Lord, for each of us inhabits complex and challenging relationships—and we ourselves are not always the easiest to love.

So, help us constantly to “put on love, which binds all these graces together in perfect unity (Col.3:14). Not mere external niceness but dressing ourselves with your love, Jesus—the love you have lavished upon us, pray we will experience more fully (Eph.3:18-19), and bid us extend to each other (Jn.13:34-35).

We long for the Day we will only and forever love perfectly (1Jn.4:18), but until then knowing you already love us perfectly is our deep peace, greatest joy, and profound hope. Hallelujah and So Very Amen.

Not As Kiss-ups, Give-ins, or Bail-outs

Scotty Smith — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 13:25:07 +0000

“You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession. Live the rest of your lives as a revelation and declaration of God’s glory and grace. In his generosity and kindness he called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (Paraphrase 1Pet.2:9).

“Live such good lives among the pagans (the “Left,” “Right,” Other, and Neither) that, though they deride you, they’ll see your good deeds and glorify God on the Day he visits us”—the Day Jesus returns to finish making all things new (1Pet.2:12, Rev.21:5).

“Respect everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor” (1Pet. 2:17)

Lord Jesus, it’s getting more and more complicated to live as your beloved Bride in this crazy world of ours. We ask you to do the same work in our hearts that you did in the Apostle Peter’s. Nothing but the Gospel can explain the change in Peter’s life reflected in these verses. He went from being an angry separatist to living as an engaged citizen in your now and coming Kingdom. Faith sabotaged his fear, hope supplanted his despair, and love replaced his unbelief.

When political forces tried to arrest you (Matt.26:53). Peter tried to defend you. But you’ve could’ve dispatched “twelve legions of angels” to rescue you. The same angels you could’ve dispatched then remain at your beckoning call today. You don’t need our little knives, but we do ask you to use the sword of your Word on us.

In February 2026 you “control the course of world events—sitting down and setting up kings at your discretion” (Dan.2:21)—just like you always have. Forgive us for ignoring, minimizing, or under-believing this glorious reality. So, very practically, Jesus, show us how to “Respect everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor” (1Pet.2:17).

How was it possible for Peter and his friends to “honor” Nero—a true narcissist and tyrant? By praying for him, and serving you as their present, true, and eternal King. Do the same in and for us, Jesus. Fill us afresh with the Holy Spirit. Until you return and finish making all things new, show us how to live as salt and light—not as flame throwers or naïve pacifists—not as kiss-ups, give-ins, or bail-outs. So Very Amen.

Abba Plans, Knows, Does, and Loves

Scotty Smith — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 10:23:59 +0000

“I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good, not disaster—to give you a future, a glorious hope, and exceedingly beyond all you can ask or imagine.” (Jer.29:11+ Eph.3:20).

Heavenly Father, Hallelujah! This verse isn’t the private domain of one nation, a promise for an individual believer to claim. Rather, it’s your meta-promise that claims each of us and every nation (Rev.7)—everything above, on, and under the earth (Rev.5:13)—every scintilla of the cosmos and nanosecond of time. You’ve left nothing to chance but all things to Jesus—the creator, sustainer, and heir of everything (Col.1:15-20; Heb.1:2-3; Eph.1:10).

Thank you for being a planner, not suggester—author and perfecter of our faith, not initiator and observer. We really don’t have to be afraid of anything—in life, death, and in between.

Now our “in-Christ-ness” doesn’t make us immune to pain, but it does mean we are pregnant with glory (Rom.8:22-26). Our groans aren’t meaningless suffering; they are wonder-filled aches. Jesus is being formed in us (Gal.4:19), and all creation is in the “labor and delivery room” awaiting the arrival of the new heaven and new earth. It’s supposed to hurt; birthing is never easy, always messy, and takes longer than we wish.

We know that until the Day of “all things new,” “stuff” happens. But, Father, your sovereignty eats “stuff” for breakfast, lunch, snacks, supper, and dessert. Every circumstance, consequence, and coincidence serves the purposes of your providence. This doesn’t make us numbed-fatalists but your fully engaged children.

You are at work in us and through us. We’re not just in Christ; we’re also on mission—characters in and carriers of your great Story of redemption. Our labors in the Lord are never in vain. You will fill the earth with your glory on the perfect Day. Evil will be eradicated. “Jesus Who died shall be satisfied, and earth and Heav’n be one.” So Very Amen.

In This Hope We Lament, Long, and Love

Scotty Smith — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 11:45:46 +0000

“The reason Jesus, the Son of God, appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” (1Jn.3:8) “Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him through the cross.” (Col.2:15). “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! (Rev. 22:20)

Lord Jesus, how long must we wait? We cry out for the Day when scores of nations streaming into an arena for the Olympics give way to ALL nations streaming into the New Jerusalem as your redeemed, beloved Bride (Rev.21:24-26). We are weary of the world the way she is. We want to lash out, Jesus, but better to lament. So, we cry out to you for the Day then there will be…

No more missiles flying, children cowering, funeral planning, evil laughing.
No more bombast, bad, braggadocio, and buffoonery in world “leaders”—or in any leader anywhere anytime—forever and ever.
When all riches and all power become the currency of grace and kindness in a culture of servanthood in the new heaven and new earth (Rev.21-22).
When every expression of injustice, hate, racism, “my-nation-idolatry,” harm, “us-versus-them-ism,” abuse, and “loving to be first” (3 Jn.1:9-10) will be burned up in the purging, purifying fires of your return (Malachi 3:2-4).

Jesus, help us; help us, Lord. We will not give disgust, indifference, and fear more power over our hearts than your beauty, goodness, and truth.

Your bold cry from the cross, “It is finished!,” is our peace and joy.
Your post-resurrection declaration, “ALL authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” is our sanity.
Your trustworthy promise, “Surely I am coming soon,” is our living, trustworthy, treasured hope.

So Very Amen.

If the Peace of Jesus Isn’t Ruling in Our Hearts, What Is?

Scotty Smith — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 11:43:19 +0000

“May the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation.” (2Thess.3:16). “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” (Col.3:15)

Lord Jesus, there’s no part of our being, chapter in our stories, or concern of our hearts outside your care. Though you’ve never promised to give us immediate solutions, fixes, and resolutions—you have promised never to leave or forsake us. And you are always with us as the Lord of Peace. Hallelujah and thank you.

Paul’s admonition to “let” your peace rule in our hearts comes both as invitation and indictment. We know that, ultimately, we cannot stop your hand and heart—for which we are eternally grateful. However we can temporally rob our hearts of joy, hope, and gentleness when we don’t surrender to your peace as Lord, Sovereign, and King or our hearts.

We’re often happy to “let” your peace be like a refreshing décor, a new color scheme, or even a welcome guest in our heart-manor. But, Jesus, you didn’t enter our lives as decoration and guest, but as reconstruction and Lord.

Hallelujah, we have the Lord of Peace as the Lord of our heart-manor—willing to give us his peace “at all times is every situation” (2Thess.3:16). So, if your peace isn’t ruling in our hearts, what is? This is our confession time, Jesus. You already know this stuff, but we need to own it before your throne of grace. Here’s a few; there are many more. Show us and free us:

Fear is a lousy heart-lord, but we often give him the keys to the manor and the thermostat. Anger only dwells in our hearts to rob, kill, and destroy—and shouldn’t even be a guest, much less a ruler. Control—really, the illusion of control. Insistence on “it’s my way or the highway” is more like a jungle trail that leads to aloneness and deep regret.

Jesus, your banner over us is love, so we hoist afresh our white flag of surrender. We want your peace to rule in our hearts more than we want our way, period. And So Very Amen.

We’ll Never Be too Enthralled, Gripped, and Adoring of Jesus

Scotty Smith — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 11:35:19 +0000

“The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen” (Rev.22:21)

Lord Jesus, it’s not just the last verse in the Bible, but (Rev.22:21) is the first, middle, and last word spoken throughout the history of the world and the entirety of our personal stories. The one thing we can count on every year, 24/7, in every place and circumstance is your grace. All hype and hyperbole aside, your grace is the most certain, inexhaustible, necessary, and glorious reality we will ever experience in life and eternity.

This is true because grace isn’t a “something” but a “Someone.” Jesus you are the personification of God’s grace—the incarnation and essence of perfect love, sacrificial redemption, total restoration. Before you entered the world on our behalf, you created the cosmos as an act of sovereign grace. Nothing exists apart from you (Col.1:15-17), and you sustain everything by the power of your word (Heb.1:3). Gravity depends on you just like grace is defined by you.

When you were born, “grace appeared” (Tit.2:11). To be saved by grace is to be saved 100% by you, Jesus (2 Cor.8:9). The law came through Moses, but “grace and truth” came through you; and from your fullness, we continue to receive “grace upon grace” (Jn.1:16-17). You “give more grace” (James 4:11) because we need more grace. Life and heaven will always be about more of you, Jesus.

To receive “sufficient grace” (2Cor.12:9) is to get all of you we need in any and every situation. You are the whole armor of God (Eph.6:10-18) we wear, and the Divine Warrior who fights and prevails on our behalf. You don’t just give us life; you are our very life and only hope of glory (Col.3:1-4). Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. So Very Amen.

Seven “I Will’s” Not “I Might’s”

Scotty Smith — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 10:28:45 +0000

I will be their God, and they will be my people.

I will give them oneness of heart and way.

I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

I will never stop doing good to them.

I will fill their hearts with awe and adoration of me.

I will rejoice in doing them good.

I will assuredly plant them in the “land.”

(7 Promises to us from our Father in Jeremiah 32:38–41)

Heavenly Father, thank you… I know this passage—but I want it to own me, re-thrill me, run after me when I lose my way, re-center me when I lose hope, and shape the rest of my journey Home. You are the quintessential Promise Maker and Promise Keeper.

If “7” is the perfect number, then all seven of these promises lead us smack dab unavoidably to Jesus our perfect Savior—the “Yes!” and fulfillment of every promise you have made (2Cor.1:20). We belong to you because you gave Jesus for us (Rom.8:31-33), and you gave us to Jesus (Jn.17:24). We have a new heart because of the new birth you’ve given us (1Pet.1:3-5), and the New Covenant you made with us through Jesus (Ezek.36:26, Matt.26:28). Stunning, staggering, and “Hallelujah!”

Today and forever, you will never stop doing good to us, Father—always doing so with unwavering joy and incomparable delight. “Good” doesn’t always mean “pleasant,” immediately understandable, or what we’d choose—but one Day we will celebrate your provision of “good” as our utter and only “best.”

And, Father, as surely as you have already hidden our lives in Jesus (Col.3:1-4), so you will “plant us” in the ultimate land of “the new heaven and new earth” (Rev.21-22). Until that Day, Abba, supersize our love for you, because we want to love you as you love us—with all our heart and soul. So Very Amen.

Don’t Just Be Driven Batty. Be Driven All the Way to Jesus

Scotty Smith — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 11:16:33 +0000

“I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven. My sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the Most High and honored the one who lives forever. His rule is everlasting, and his kingdom is eternal… He does as he pleases among the angels of heaven and among the people of the earth. No one can stop him…” Daniel 4:34-35.

Lord Jesus, this familiar story lands on our hearts as a timely mercy-bomb, Gospel-grenade, grace-lift, and sanity-maker. Every time we begin to doubt a good future for our world—or a future at all, you send us to your Word, illumine us by your Spirit, and speak centering truth to our hearts. Thank you.

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego got to see you turn Nebuchadnezzar’s lions into purring kittens, and his 7-fold hot furnace-flames became like 7 battery-operated candles. Their world did not immediately change, but along with Nebuchadnezzar, they were reminded only you are King and only your Kingdom is eternal. You weren’t just the 4th man in the furnace with Daniel’s 3 friends; you were/are the only Ruler of the cosmos.

Appropriately, there is so much going on in our country and world right now that drives us “batty,” bonkers, and nuts. But may those very things drive us a little further—like all the way to you, Jesus. For you are already “ruler of the kings of the earth” (Rev.1:5)—seated and sovereign over heaven’s angels, the devil’s worst, earth’s everything, and the rest of our stories. That does not make life easy; but it makes us yours and that’s all that really matters.

Jesus, thank you for always doing as you please—not as we pray, beg, and claim. Turn our fears into faith, our mourning into dancing, and our sweaty palms into joyful hands lifted to you in worship and extended to others in service. So Very Amen.

Only in God Do I Really and Deeply Find Rest (Ps.62:1)

Scotty Smith — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 11:53:06 +0000

“The promise of entering God’s rest still stands and it is through the gift of faith, not the sweat of work, that we enter his unique rest. Therefore, let’s strive to enter that rest—and reenter it time and again when we lose or leave it.” (Paraphrase of Hebrews 4:1-3, 9-11).

Lord Jesus, you don’t just commend rest, you command it. And tonight, I’ll get all hooked up to electrodes and monitors at a sleep study center to discover to what extent I sleep, nap, or “noddle” my way through the night. REM-less sleep is like oxygen-less breathing—that doesn’t end up too well.

But sleep apnea is one thing; “life apnea” is another. Not getting enough grace into our hearts is WAY worse than not getting enough oxygen to our brains. That’s why you tell us to strive to enter the rest of the Gospel: To strain to not strain. To stay restless till we rest fully in you—for the first or 117th time.

There’s no greater rest than to know you are at peace with us, Jesus—to be certain you are resting in your love towards us and rejoicing over us with loud singing (Zeph.3:17). Indeed, Sabbath isn’t just a wonderful day; it’s you as our only and perfect Savior. So why are we restless—or even rest-averse?

We are legalists and performers to the core—allergic to grace, addicted to earning, and plagued with unbelief. Rescue us, Jesus. Some of us have gotten so used to living a busy, driven, cluttered life we are clueless about any form of rest. Rescue us, Jesus.

Some of us have no clue, and no set of electrodes and monitors can diagnose us. But your Word, Spirit, really good friends—and maybe a spiritual director or gifted counselor can help us. Humble us, Jesus, so we’ll get the help we need. So Very Amen.

Taking Hold of Being Held Fast

Scotty Smith — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 11:22:18 +0000

“I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Phil.3:12

Lord Jesus, I can’t imagine a better way to live 2026 than to make it a year of grasping more fully your grasp of us in the Gospel. You are holding us fast, and you will hold us fast all the way Home—a destination I treasure more than ever on this my 76th birthday.

Thank you for holding us as our joy-filled Savior and perfect righteousness. The saints in heaven are more whole than we are, but they’re not more saved. Those you save you save 100%.

Thank you for holding us as an enthralled Bridegroom embraces his beloved Bride—for that is the affection with which you love us. Yours is the only love that is better than life, the only love that is enough for our sin and brokenness, the only love that will never let go of us. Hallelujah!

Thank you for holding us as our mighty and merciful King—for that is who you are, Jesus. Indeed, we are married to the King of the cosmos, the Creator and sustainer of all things—the only Sovereign able, delighted, and committed to making all things new and beautiful. We’re more on the brink of your return than we’re on the brink of anything else. Another big Hallelujah for that good news flash.

Lastly, thank you, Jesus for holding us as the Author and finisher of our life story. You only and always write with the ink of grace—irrespective of what life feels like at times. Why did you first take hold of us? Because you love us. What do you have planned for us and the cosmos in 2026? We don’t know, but we do know we can trust your loving, nail-scarred hands to hold, carry, and finish our stories. Hallelujah and So Very Amen.

Making Peace with Mystery through the Peace We Have in Jesus

Scotty Smith — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 12:35:23 +0000

Joseph to his brothers, “You meant evil against me—and that is what you did. But God meant good for many others beyond me and our own family—because that is who he is. Is it now a ‘payback’ time for me? No. You don’t have to be afraid, for I will provide for you and your little ones.” (Paraphrase of Genesis 50:20-21)

Heavenly Father, the story behind the story in this passage is dark, ugly, and horrifying. Joseph’s brothers first threw him into a pit to die slowly, before they trafficked him to pagans to extend his suffering before he would surely die as a slave. This story doesn’t end with a bow on it, but with mystery written all over it—so help us.

The good you brought out of this evil was exponential—life-giving provision for multitudes in and around Egypt. But the evil did not become good or acceptable. You sent Jesus to destroy evil—not to make lemonade out of lemons. Joseph’s brothers weren’t excused; they were convicted, humbled, and forgiven.

They, along with thousands of others, experienced the wonders of your sovereign power and the greatness of your mercy and grace—just like we do every day in the Gospel. Whether our deepest hurts and hardest stories were generated by random accidents, by people we should be able to trust, or by lamentable choices we have made—there is always a bigger Story in play. But you never call us to simply find a “moral in the story,” but eventually to see Jesus in every story.

You are always at work for our good and the good of others through us (Rom.8:28). The devil is always at work for evil knowing “his time is short” (Rev.12:12). Both are true because the Gospel is true. Father, we don’t understand the outworking of your sovereignty over all things, and the difference between things you plan, allow, use, and things you redeem—but we count on it and rest in it. Help us, Father. Show us more and more of Jesus. So Very Amen.

Don’t Pretend to Be Happy and Don’t Resist Jesus’ Joy

Scotty Smith — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 11:00:56 +0000

Success Joy: Spiritual effectiveness is wonderful, “but primarily rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (pp Lk.10:17-20).
Distress Joy: Times of great difficulty are coming, “nevertheless, I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!” (pp Hab. 3:18)
Gospel Joy: “I pray they will have the full measure of my joy inside them.” (Jn.17:13)

Lord Jesus, thank you for the contrast in these two stories. In Luke 10, the 72 disciples revel in ministry success. Habakkuk the prophet laments Israel’s impending distress. The 72 disciples watched darkness flee and Habakkuk saw it coming. Both affirm you give a joy that transcends the best and worst of storylines. Hallelujah, and thank you.

Gospel-fueled, Spirit-generated joy transcends triumph and terror, bad news (Ps.112:17) and wonderful reports, “rupture and rapture.” It’s not destroyed when there’s no fruit on the vine (Hab.3:17-18); and it’s not tied to vast vineyards abounding with lush grapes. Though we wish our dance-worthy, happiness -generating days would always out-number our hard ones—that’s not what you told us to expect (John 16:33).

In our world and lifetime, we have trouble, but in you and by you we have peace. The peace you give best explains the joy you promise—for they are virtually synonymous. The greatest peace and joy come from knowing we belong to you, Jesus. All kinds of stories will be written into our lives on the way Home—many we’d never choose, and others that leave us giddy with gratitude.

But the main penmanship we rest in is the day Abba used the indelible ink of grace to write our names in heaven—into the Lamb’s book of life (Phil.4:3, Rev.3:5,13:8). This doesn’t just mean we go to heaven when we die; it means we are yours while we live! Honestly Jesus, we’d love a happy life; but more so we want the joy you won for us and pray for us So Very Amen.

Wholeheartedness

Scotty Smith — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 11:45:22 +0000

“Give me your heart my child.” (Pr.23:26)

“Guard your heart tenaciously for everything flows from it.” (Pr.4:23)

“Your heart’s fullness will be revealed in your words.” (pp Lk.6:45)

“Don’t harden your heart—like Israel did in the wilderness.” (Heb.2:8)

“It’s hard down here but take heart for I have overcome world.” (pp Jn.16:33)

“Don’t lose heart for your inner life is being renewed day by day.” (2Cor.4:16)

“Give me an undivided heart to adore and revere you, Abba.” (pp Ps.86:11)

Heavenly Father, I woke up today thinking about my heart—since, as these 7 verses affirm, you have so much to say about our hearts. At times I feel more “prone to wander” than prone to worship and trust you. So I am profoundly grateful for two “heart-promises” you have made that claim us more than we claim them:

1. “I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a new, tender, undivided, responsive heart” (Ezek.11:19; 36:26). Hallelujah with shouts, cartwheels, and extreme relief—you began this great, grace-work inside us, and you will complete it (Phil.1:6). This doesn’t make us 100% passive but 100% yours and 100% dependent on you. The Gospel puts an end to all earning, but not all effort. We do good heart-work now from your love, not for your love.

2. “I will heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds.” (Ps.147:3). Hallelujah, healing and health define our forever! Father, we’ll either bring our heartaches and heart-messes to you; or we’ll weaponize them and demonize others for being the source of all our pain in life. You are the “Father of compassion and God of all comfort” (2Cor.1:3), so here we come.

Thank you for welcoming us with our heavy hearts, crushed hearts, fearful hearts, divided hearts, pity-party hearts, angry hearts—thank you for welcoming us as we are but not leaving us as we are. Grace gets the first, middle, and last word. So Very Amen.

Redeeming Love and Re-Naming Grace

Scotty Smith — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 11:18:36 +0000

“I have called you by name, you are mine” (Isa.43:1). “No longer will you be called ‘Forsaken’, instead, ‘My Delight Is in Her’ … for the LORD delights in you and has made you his Bride“ (Isa.62:4). “One Day every knee will bow at Jesus’ name” (Phil.2:10).

Lord Jesus, these Scriptures remind us that nothing is more central to our existence than the name(s) by which we live. We are grateful to know you as the Lord of redeeming love and re-naming grace. Abram became Abraham, Jacob became Israel, Simon became Peter, Saul became Paul—all by the power of your kindness and eternal purposes.

Whether or not there’s literally a new name awaiting us in heaven (Rev.2:17), it’s enough to know you now call us, “Mine“, “Beloved”, “Desired.” these aren’t nicknames but transforming realities more legal and lasting than anything we have ever been called in life. Jesus, please free and heal us of all the anti-grace, shame-poisoned, dignity-robbing names we’ve received in life.

Just as importantly, help us adress each other the way you address us—with kindness and grace, healing and hope. Convict us quickly and deeply when we harm others with weaponized words and mercy-void names. “You are pathetic.” “You’ll never change.” “You are pathetic.” “You are hopeless.” “You’re a failure.”—these aren’t “brands” like cereals on the shelf at Publix. They are “brands” like red hot steel burning an identity into the hide of a steer. Forgive us, Jesus.

Lastly, Jesus, and most importantly, your name is the name we love to hear more than any other. Your name isn’t just the assembly of 5 letters; it is the bottomless ocean of truth, goodness, and beauty—the name above every name to which we are destined to bow, and in which we now greatly delight. Hallelujah, and So Very Amen.

Jesus’ Boundless, Boundaryless, Abounding Love

Scotty Smith — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 09:40:52 +0000

“My love knows no bounds.” Hosea 14:4

Dear Lord Jesus, whatever our malady, illness, heartache, or storyline—our greatest consolation is hearing you say to us, “My love knows no bounds.” Hallelujah, when it comes to your love, there are no “out of bounds.” None of us is beyond the need or reach of your love, for your love has a height, depth, width and breadth (Eph.3:18-19) that anticipate every location in the cosmos, every conceivable need, and every season of life.

Some of us are living with chronic pain, others with judgmentalism—either on the giving or receiving end. Many of us are challenged with the weight and wait of spouse-ing, parenting, or aging-parents care. Others are somewhere on the continuum of stage 1-4 stress, cancer, fear, unbelief, Gospel-amnesia, anger, and etc. We will struggle, feel vulnerable, wonder about your ways and timing… but will not despair, Jesus. For your love knows no bounds or boundaries, no limits or contingencies—no “ifs, ands, or buts.” We could never earn it, and we’ll never lose it (Rom.8:38-39).

Until the Day of perfect health and wholeness (Rev.21:1-5), we will seek to take care of ourselves: Guarding our hearts (Prov.4:23). Abiding in your love (Jn.15:9). Surrendering our thought-life to your Kingship and truth (2Cor.10:5). Setting our affection on things above—chiefly you (Col.3:1-4). Obeying your command to accept our limits, rest, and sleep (Ps.127:2). Exercising spiritually, physically, and emotionally (1Tim.4:8).

But our hope is in you, Jesus—in your delight not in our discipline, in your faithfulness not in our faith, in your grace not in our grip, in your return not in our resolve. So Very Amen.

A Prayer for Our Friends

Scotty Smith — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 10:21:44 +0000

“I will not sin against the LORD by failing or ceasing to pray for you. (1Sam.12:23)

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.” (Eccl.4:9-10)

“Bear each other’s burdens, for this is how you fulfill the law of Christ—which is the law of love.” (pp Gal.6:2)

Heavenly Father, I’m especially thankful on this cold, icy, WIFI-less Monday for the friends you’ve put in my life. The older I get, the more I treasure them. Out of sight doesn’t have to mean out of mind—and it dare not mean out of heart. Our friends are most precious and most essential in life.

The one thing that’s always going to be atop my prayer list for my friends is their relationship with you. Abba, by your Holy Spirit, continue to reveal more and more of your great love for us in Jesus. Dazzle their hearts (and mine) afresh with the reach and riches of your Fatherly care, and with your 100% total sovereignty over all things all the time.

Restore all of us to our first love, first peace, and first joy of knowing Jesus. Whatever else happens in 2026, that’s most to be desired, because it’s most needful and most impactful on everything else in our lives. We “leak” grace; refuel us. We always need your Spirit’s infilling; fill us up.

Be palpably near my friends in difficult seasons of life (that would be all of us)—friends weighed down with burdens of health and relationships, old wounds yielding fresh pain, and new stories bearing uncertain outcomes. Show us how to put arms and legs on our prayers for each other, Abba. Always keep our “to love list” longer than any “to do list.” So Very Amen.

The Day of No Right Wings, Left Wings, Just Gospel Wings

Scotty Smith — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 12:05:23 +0000

Peter, “put your over-sized knife back into its sheath; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Don’t you realize if I ask Abba, he’d immediately deploy more than twelve legions of angels?” (pp Matt.26:52-54)

Trust me, for “I will make peace your governor and well-being your ruler. A Day is coming when zero violence will echo in your land, and all ruin and destruction will cease to exist” (pp Isa.60:17-18)

Lord Jesus, we come to you today with cries of lament and sighs of longing. How long, O Lord, until you return and put an end to all violence—whether it’s in the streets of Minneapolis and Tehran, in the ally fights between political groups, and among those who claim to know you? When will resentment give way to righteousness, and hatefulness get trumped by kindness?

How long before the word “woke” will only remind us of a line in the great, grace-hymn, “And Can It Be”?—“I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose and followed thee.” When, Jesus, when?

We yearn for the Day when “peace will be our governor” and “well-being our ruler”—when walls won’t be built with bricks of fear and suspicion, but with grace and salvation. Jesus, hasten the Day when there’s no right-wing, left-wing, just Gospel-wings—the eternal Day of your glory and grace covering the earth as the waters cover the sea. Bring. It. On. Usher. It. In. Please, Jesus.

Until that Day, help us live by the sword of your Word, not by blades of sharpened steel—by the way of your cross, not by the ways of mere men—by the riches of grace, not by the rancor of fallen hearts. So Very Amen

When We REALLY Need Jesus to Be Jesus

Scotty Smith — Sat, 24 Jan 2026 10:38:34 +0000

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you (Eph 4:32), now loves you (Zeph.3:17), and will finish his work in you” (Phil1:6). “Because Christ is your life and his glory defines your forever” (Col.3:4), “have brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind” toward each other (I Pet. 3:8).

Lord Jesus, this tapestry of Scriptures falls squarely in the category of “things impossible for man are possible with God” (Matt.19:26). Now we could dumb-down these words to merely mean, “be a polite, well-mannered, don’t embarrasses-your-parents Southerner.” But that’s certainly not what you have in mind. We are to love others as you love us, period. Have mercy, Lord, have mercy—and you do as this day begins and will continue.

If you asked us the question Abba asked Jonah a bunch of years ago: “Do you have a good reason to be angry?” (Jon.4:4). We might respond, “Yes, I have every right to be angry” (Jon.4:9). Though many of us have really good reasons to be angry today, a good reason to be angry and a right to be angry aren’t the same thing. A “right” to be angry isn’t too far upstream from a “license to kill.”

A good reason to be angry doesn’t give us the right to “repay in kind,” but to be kind and repay with grace (1Pet.3:9, 1Thess.5:15, Rom.12:17-21). That’s not emotional crazy-making or abusive over-expectation; it’s your life for us, in us, and through us. Help us, Jesus.

“Help us” like you “helped” the Red Sea to part, and Lazarus to walk out of his tomb alive. Help us like you helped the lame to walk, the blind to see, and the demonized to be free. We’re that clueless, helpless, and powerless when it comes to loving as you love us, Jesus. So Very Amen

For We Who Over-Care or Under-Care What People Think of Us

Scotty Smith — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 11:16:22 +0000

“Caring too much about what people think of us, or living afraid of mere men, is a dangerous trap that always ends poorly. But trusting the LORD gives us both what we crave and need the most—safety, in the very best sense.” (Paraphrase of Prov. 29:25)

Dear Jesus, at times we give people (or they seize it) more influence, power, and control over our hearts than they deserve. When this happens, all kinds of broken relational styles result. When people seem more important and bigger to us than you do, it impacts everything about us: How we see ourselves and spend our days. What we think, feel, and choose. How we sleep, eat, and stress.

Through the truth and grace of the Gospel, Jesus free us from two extremes: Giving people the power to shape, shame, and shut us down. Or to thrill, complete, or fill us up. No one deserves that much sway over us.

Who have we unwittingly (or willingly) allowed to emotionally replace you? Whether it’s a parent or spouse, kids or friends, colleagues or bosses—people are salvation-less saviors. For good and eternal reasons, Abba put a “Jesus-shaped-vacuum” in our hearts only you can fill. Keep us restless until we rest in you for the first or 117th time, Lord Jesus. And give us wisdom moving forward, for relationships are complex and loving well always generates pain.

If caring too much about what people think of us is co-dependent and being an “approval-suck,” not caring “diddly-squat” what people think of us is selfish-indifference, sub-human, or borderline narcissism. To care most about what you say and think of us, Jesus—and to live from your love in our easiest and hardest relationships—that is true freedom. That’s what we really want, Jesus. So Very Amen.

Still Hurting Is One Thing; Weaponizing the Hurt Is Another

Scotty Smith — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 13:14:53 +0000

“Love your enemies, do good to them. Such counter-intuitive, revolutionary kindness will confirm you to be daughters and sons of Abba—the Most High God. For he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (pp Lk.6:35-36).

Heavenly Father, I’ll resist the temptation to qualify and “Yes, but” these verses to death. Rather, I want to marinate in and marvel at and the greatness of your mercy and grace for us in Jesus. Your mercies are daily, and your grace is measureless—this is stunning, but tragically easy to take for granted. If there is such a thing as being “re-awed,” re-awe us Abba.

You are kind to the “ungrateful and wicked.” We have no problem owning our ingratitude—for we indulge it every day. But in what ways are we “wicked,” Father? What could be more wicked than for us to be 100% forgiven by you, be 100% robed in Jesus’ righteousness, have 100% of your favor resting on us, and have 100% of the new heaven and new earth as our inheritance … YET to continue to nurse grudges, harbor resentments, hold people hostage to the ways they have failed and hurt us? Struggling to forgive is one thing; purposing not to forgive is another. Still hurting is one thing; weaponizing the hurt is another.

Father, you understand the messes we’re in; but you also understand we’re more “in Christ” than we’re “in” anything else. Many of us are involved in testy and testing relationships that have history and require wisdom. Your kindness first led us to repentance, and it still does. Our hardness and harshness will only lead in the opposite direction. Help and free us, Abba. So Very Amen.

Abba Is Our “Father of Compassion and God of All Comfort”

Scotty Smith — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 11:07:30 +0000

“When my ‘heart-cares’ are many—my anxieties, stressors, and fears—your deep empathy and unparalleled comfort delight my innermost being.” (pp Ps. 94:19)

Heavenly Father, we carry many types and sizes of “cares” in life—small, mid-size, and large ones. We have cares related to weather fronts (fixin’ to ice-n-snow here in Franklin, Tn), our sports teams, aging skin, pet training—we can turn anything into a care. But the most critical cares we have are “heart-cares”—crises, stories, and relational matters that impact our innermost being.

Abba, it’s scary down here right now—a teetering world, fragile health, an unknown future, and known heartaches—as our “Father of compassion and God of all comfort” (2Cor.1:3), no one is more committed to giving us the care we need and catching the cares we cast (1Pet.5:7). Your empathy and comfort bring us delight like oxygen “delights” gasping lungs, like water “consoles” dehydration, and food “encourages” the starving. In other words, Abba, your kindness and care aren’t an add-on but our everything.

On this January Wednesday, we cast every heart-care we can possibly hurl on you or leave with you. For the ones we have a hard time letting go of, Abba, pry them from our white-knuckled grip; and when we try to grab them back, slap our hands. For the ones just too heavy for us to lift to your throne of grace, send sisters and brothers with burden-bearing love and biceps.

This isn’t just “the day you have made,” 2026 is the year you planned before the world began. You aren’t nervously pacing from afar; you are peacefully reigning up close (Eph.1:11). You are so loving, faithful, sovereign, and kind, Abba. Hallelujah, thank you, and So Very Amen.

What Does Heaven Smell Like?

Scotty Smith — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 10:37:53 +0000

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; According to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.( Ps. 51:1). “Forgive as God in Christ has forgiven you” (Eph.4:32).

Heavenly Father, these are a few of my favorite aromas: Sour dough bread just before it exits the over, a stand of spruce trees after a rain, and fine dark chocolate ganache. Thank you for each. But you seem to enjoy the aroma of genuine humility—for it’s a theme that runs throughout your Word.

Whenever we offer you and each other a broken and contrite heart—not only do you not despise it, but you also delight in it (Ps. 51:17). It’s the aroma of grace, the fragrance of the Gospel, the cologne of heaven. Few things are as sweet-smelling as a genuine apology offered and extravagant forgiveness extended.

Maybe that’s where we can hear you singing and rejoicing over us the loudest (Zeph.3:17)—when we sinner-saints meet before Jesus’ cross, empty tomb, and occupied throne—needing, extending, and receiving the riches of your grace from each other.

Father, your mercies are new every morning because we need them every day—certainly for ourselves, but also to give to each other. We only live with imperfect people. We only know yet-to-be-glorified believers—just like ourselves. We do and will hurt each other until heaven. But we don’t have to live allergic to humility and be miserly with your grace. That smells worse than a middle-school boys locker room. Have mercy on us, on me, indeed.

Each of us has relationships that desperately needs the life-giving aroma of your reconciling love. Help us, free us to offer the fragrant treasure of the Gospel through these fragile jars of clay we inhabit. We will only live to regret being stingy with grace. We will never regret being generous with your love. So Very Amen.

“ALL Things” (Col.1:16, Rom.8:28, Rev.21:5)

Scotty Smith — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 11:48:57 +0000

Most Sovereign, Loving, and Perfect Father, this is the best news ever … you are working in all things for the good of those who love you—and we love you because you first loved us by “gifting” us with perfect and full salvation in Jesus. Sending Jesus wasn’t an afterthought but an eternal one—made before the world began. You called, justified, and glorified us.

Our glorification (becoming 100% Jesus-like) is so certain you moved Paul to write about it in the past tense. Because you gave Jesus for us, and gave us to Jesus, certainly we can trust you for everything else needful in us—and in the entire cosmos. All evil has an expiration date; but the Day of all things new and beautiful is eternal. (Paraphrase of Rom.8:28-32—with a little of 1Jn.4:17, Jn.17:2, Rom.16:20, Rev.21:5, Eccl.3:11 in the hope-filled mix too!)

Abba, Father, we have no clue how all things are going to work out, but we are deeply grateful to know you work in all things for your glory and our good. All things means ALL things because ALL things were created by and for Jesus (Col.1:16), and he is committed to make ALL things new and beautiful.

You are at work in our messiest most frustrating relationships. You are at work in our greatest joys and our “achiest” heartaches. You are at work in our divided Romans-7-hearts—which one Day will love you only and love you perfectly. Hallelujah!

You are at work in things that make zero sense to us—and frustrate, puzzle, and anger us. You’re never offended when we cry out, “How long O Lord?”—because you know the answer. You are indifferent and disengaged from nothing—in us and around us.

Greenland, Poland, Czechoslovakia (and all other hard to spell and pronounce countries)—along with Switzerland, Venezuela, Ukraine, the entire UK, and all other nations are yours. Stars already sing about you (Job 38:7) and one Day the entire earth will be filled with your glory (Hab.2:14). Thank you, Abba. So Very Amen.

Out of the Shadow of Shame into the Radiance of Joy

Scotty Smith — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 11:16:15 +0000

“I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to Jesus for help will be radiant with joy and no shadow of shame will darken their faces.” Psalm 34:4-5

Lord Jesus, thank you 10,000 times over for the good news contained in this passage. Like all Scripture—you fulfill it. In our bouts with fear and shame, we are way too slow to look to you. Why? That’s what shame does—we fear making “eye contact and we fear being seen. But you always and only greet us with compassion, mercy, and grace upon grace—always.

You know everything we know about ourselves, Jesus—and the other 98.6% as well. It’s not that you keep record—but you know all the ways we think, speak, and act in ways that contradict your perfect love. It’s not that you’ve grown indifferent to our brokenness; it’s that you’re never less than our wonderful, merciful Savior. Hallelujah!

Because we are yours, we have zero unforgiven sins. We no longer wear the burden of guilt but the robe of your righteousness. We no longer live in the shadow of shame but in the light of your delight. We have nothing to prove just your grace to enjoy. An even bigger Hallelujah! than the last one.

Hasten the Day when we’ll never again be tempted to sin, doubt your love, and under-believe the Gospel. Rush-deliver the Day we’ll be “radiant with joy” perpetually—not just occasionally. Put the “pedal to the metal,” finish making all things new, and usher in the new heaven and new earth. We are SO ready to be like you and with you, Lord Jesus. So Very Amen.

Hallelujah for Abba’s “No’s” and Negativity!

Scotty Smith — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 10:30:18 +0000

Heavenly Father, none of us choose “negative people” as our primary hanging buddies. That being said, thank you for being generous with “No’s” and “negativity” when it comes to the things that mark and matter most to us. Such as…

No condemnation remains for us, only your delight. – “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Rom.8:1.
No separation from your love. “Nothing will ever separate us from the love of God has for us in Christ Jesus our Lord” Rom.8:39.
No temptation is greater than your provision of grace and escape. “God won’t allow you to be tempted beyond your ability to endure and will always give you a way out” 1Cor.1:13.
No possibility exists of losing our salvation. “I am sure he who began a good work in you will complete it.” Phil.1:6.
No end to Jesus’ perfect prayers for us. “Jesus completely saves those who come to God through him, because he ever-lives to intercede for them” Heb.7:25.
No chance we won’t be 100% like Jesus one Day. “We know that when Jesus appears we shall be like him” 1Jn.3:2
No crisis, failure, loss, or heartache is excluded from Romans 8:28. “God works in all things for the good of those who love him.”
No evil will escape eradication. “Death—the last enemy, will also be destroyed.” 1Cor.15:26
No way we can weigh, fathom, or grasp the 100% perfection of our eternal future. “No eye has seen, ear heard, or mind imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” 1Cor.2:9.
No tear we’ve ever wept will be left up-wiped and it’s pain left unredeemed. “God will wipe every tear out of their eyes” Rev.21:4.
No chance Jesus won’t finish making all things new. Rev.21:5

Hallelujah times a gazillion! Thank you, Abba, for turning our worries and whines into worship. So Very Amen

Encouragement, Hope, Joy, Peace, Power in Abundance

Scotty Smith — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 11:46:17 +0000

“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word” (2Thess.2:16–17).

Indeed, “may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom.15:13).

Dear Jesus, there are 2 things we can’t get too much of all the way Home—encouragement and hope. And the best news is you, Abba, and the Holy Spirit are tenaciously committed to giving us these and much more—such as joy and peace and power. We’ll talk all 5—and as much of each as you will give us Lord.

So how does our eternal encouragement become fresh and daily encouragement? How does the good and sure hope of heaven become functional and powerful hope for today? How are our joy, peace, and power refreshed and supercharged?

First of all, there is no substitute for the investment of time and energy in walking with you, Jesus—contemplating your truth, goodness, and beauty (2Cor.3:18). And every time you give more of yourself to us, it’s always for the good and blessing of others as well. May 2026 be a year of …

Investing our heart-passion in you.

Surrendering our thought-life to you.

Engaging our hand-strength in serving you.

Jesus, each of us—no matter our age and stage, number of birthdays and hair follicles left … each of us easily, gladly declare: We don’t want to spend our remaining days giving ourselves to things that don’t matter “diddly-squat” in light of eternity, or in “getting more/getting ours,” or in nursing grudges when we could be building bridges, or in majoring in “rightness” more so than in kindness. Hallelujah, and So Very Amen.

Jesus, Make Us This Self-Aware and Gospel-Saturated

Scotty Smith — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 10:24:36 +0000

“If as believers we think we no longer have any sins to confess, we’re fooling ourselves and not living in the truth and reality. But if we confess our sins to God, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (pp 1Jn.1:8-9).

Heavenly Father, for your steadfast love, we bless you. For your patience and kindness, we praise you. For your daily mercies, we trust you. Hallelujah! … You’ve already declared us righteous in Christ and now you’re at work to make us as beautiful as Christ.

There’s no condemnation for sin left for us, but there remains plenty of conviction for the ways we still fall short of your glory and perfect Christlikeness. Here are some things we bring to your throne of grace today, appropriating the forgiveness you’ve already given us. Remind us of other things as well, Father.

We confess thinking of ourselves too often and marveling at Jesus too little.
We confess over-believing our fears and regrets and under-resting in the Gospel.
We confess scheduling ourselves into bad attitudes, strained relationships, and diminishing health.
We confess indulging a critical spirit more than we seek your Spirit’s filling.
We confess being more upset by world news than at peace through the Good News.
We confess being more offended by other people’s sins than we grieve our own
We confess wanting you to “rubber stamp” our plans rather than surrender our wishes to your Fatherly heart and sovereign hand.

Father, grant us grace to repent quicker than we blame shift, minimize, and make excuses. Humble us. Gentle us. Heal us. Free us. Transform us. Thank you for “booking” the Day we’ll never sin again, and we will forever be as loving as Jesus. Hasten that Day, Abba. Hallelujah, and So Very Amen.

How to Enjoy, Love, and Honor Jesus

Scotty Smith — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 09:29:04 +0000

Dear Lord Jesus, several images coming to mind and heart when I think of Philippians 2:1-4: True Freedom, Lighthouse, Reset Button, Default Mode, North Star, Primary GPS Setting, Homeroom, Oasis in the Desert, Riches of Grace, Gospel Sanity … and that’s just 10 of many more. I can’t think of a more central and centering portion of your Word.

“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ” (Phil.2:1) – What encouragement comes through our union with you? We are fully known and deeply loved—forgiven, justified, and adopted by Abba, Father. Staying experientially alive to these 3 grace-realities would change everything, Jesus. Help us, free us. But that’s comparable to a few rolls of quarters compared to all the riches we have in you.

“if any comfort from Jesus’ love” – How do you comfort us with your love? By your love’s quality, depth, and constancy. No one loves us like you do, Jesus. You comfort us in our grief, fears, and pain—when we lose our grip, way, and hope.

“if any fellowship with the Spirit, tenderness, and compassion” – The Spirit is constantly telling us of your beauty, glory, and compassion; and of our belovedness and “sonship” with Abba (Rom. 8:16). How will all this goodness impact our relationships?

“Be like-minded and grace-hearted—having the same love for Jesus and each other… Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, humbly value and honor each other above yourselves. Don’t make everything about yourself. Champion the interests of others” (Paraphrase of Philippians 2:2-4).

Jesus, THIS is the relational culture the Gospel will create—in our hearts, churches, marriages, and friendships—in every season of family life, in our various callings, and throughout our journey Home. As you love us, free us to love to your glory. Life is too precious and short to make it about us. It’s all about loving and honoring you, Jesus. So Very Amen.

The Pace of Our Idols Or the Pace of God’s Grace?

Scotty Smith — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 11:06:01 +0000

“I say to my soul ‘Soul, find your rest in God alone!’ Indeed, the hope I crave can only be found in God.” (pp Ps.62:5)

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Truly, “I will give you my peace—a peace of which the world is ignorant and cannot supply.” (pp Matt.11:28 + John 14:27)

Lord Jesus, you know everything about us—our beauty and brokenness, our weariness, heartaches, and burdens. You don’t want us to try harder but trust more. Where can the green pastures of rest, refreshment, renewal, and replenishment be found? Anywhere you are, Jesus.

Sometimes that looks like one or more burden bearing, grace-saturated friends—whose presence is a meadow of your mercy.

Sometimes it happens while we’re sitting in the same chair—but we travel to your occupied throne of grace by the Word, your Spirit, and worship.

Sometimes we find the green pastures of your rest and kindness, quite literally, in actual green pastures of nature, creation, and beauty.

Sometimes our spirits soar into the rarified air of your rest and peace as we offload the “need” for control, the “need” to be right, the “need” for people to agree with us.

Jesus, take us to green pastures of your choosing. What are our rest-needs?

Rest from trying to be omni-competent, awesome, and anybody’s savior.
Rest from over-stressing and under-believing the Gospel
Rest from living as the pace of our idols not at the pace of God’s grace.
Rest from looking more at the “What if’s?” of our regrets than the “Now that’s!” of your resurrection and occupied throne.

We gladly exchange our “heavy-laden-ness” for your “sufficient-grace-ness.” Jesus, though we resist, keep making us lie down in green pastures of your choosing. So Very Amen.

In Jesus’ School of Humility and Gentleness

Scotty Smith — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 08:49:47 +0000

Paul writing to his friends, “We were gentle among you—like a nursing mother caring for her young children.” (1Thess.2:7).

Cultivate “the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” (1Pet.3:4).

“Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt.11:29)

Lord Jesus, every time we orient our hearts towards you, you greet us, grace us, and grant us the perspective we need. You “school us” in the things that really matter—like humility and gentleness. Thank you and we are eager to learn and relearn. Here’s what we crave as we begin another work-week.

May your Spirit fill us with humility and gentleness, kindness and words of encouragement for others. At a time when many are easily triggered, thinned-skinned, and suspicious of “the other”—grant us the revolutionary power of a non-anxious, non-judgmental, caring presence. The most insecure shout the loudest. The most angry least enjoy your occupied throne and reign of grace. Resorting to harshness may create short term compliance, but it also guarantees long term distance.

As you spoke this world into existence, so speak quietness, peace, and caring deep into our hearts. Redemptively “shush”—quiet us with your love, Jesus (Zeph.3:17). Then liberate us for your glory and our tongues for your praise. Continue to show us where we’re not as free as you intend, as joyful as you pray, or as trusting as you deserve. So Very Amen we pray in your ever-so-glorious name.

2026 As a Year of Hope on Gospel-Steroids

Scotty Smith — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 11:02:19 +0000

Ephesians 1:17 – “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.”

Lord Jesus, what a glorious prayer Paul prayed, reminding us of our need to come more fully alive to who you are, and what we already have in you. Indeed, life is to be lived as perpetual “come to Jesus moment”—really as an eternal “Jesus Movement.” May 2026 be a year in which the Holy Spirit does his revelation-giving, relationship-renewing work in our hearts. We want to know you better and better and better, for to know you and Abba, Father is eternal life (John 17:3).

Eph.1:18a – “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you…”

Jesus, open the eyes of our hearts to see and experience more of the incomparable hope to which you have called us—not invited, but subpoenaed us! You give us hope not hype, transforming assurance not Pollyanna-spin, joy to live on mission and not in fear. How do you do this, Jesus?

“Christ in us” is our sure and only hope of glory.

“Us in Christ” is our righteousness and acceptance with you.

“Christ for us” is our peace, for you are our reigning and returning King.

Eph.1:18b – I also pray you may know “the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people…” Jesus—stunning, astounding is what this is… you don’t just give us an incomparable inheritance; you have made us YOUR beloved inheritance. Talk about circuit-overloading, transforming love—free us from our unbelief.

Eph.1:19 – I also pray you may know “his incomparably great power for us who believe.” – Lastly, Jesus, keep releasing the power of your resurrection in and through our lives. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of “Sonship” (Rom.8), the power to know your multidimensional love (Eph.3:14-21), and the means by which you are making us like yourself. Hallelujah! And So Very Amen.

Sweating by Grace: Resting in God’s Work As We Do Our Work

Scotty Smith — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 09:30:05 +0000

“God works in you to desire his will and work for his good pleasure.” (pp Phil. 2:13). “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever” (Ps.138:8). “With confidence I affirm, Abba will complete the good work he began in you, and that he is always at work in all things for your good” (pp Phil.1:6, Rom.8:28).

Heavenly Father, what peace these affirmations from your Word bring us. You are at work all the time—in us, around us, above us, beneath us, behind us, and through us—when we see it and when we don’t, when we’re wide awake and when we’re deep asleep.

This doesn’t make us passive; it makes us yours. Hallelujah, we can worry less and worship more. We can fear failure less and love grace more. We can do our work from your love, not for your love. We can rest in Jesus’ finished work for us and in your ongoing work everywhere else. This changes everything, Abba.

May 2026 be a year in which we learn to say with the Apostle Paul: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but God was working by his grace through me.” (1Cor.15:10).

Confident you will accomplish your purpose in us and for us, and being certain of your steadfast, unwavering, lavish, “we-can-never-earn-or-lose-it” love—we want to spend the rest of our days living and loving, working and serving your glory. Breaking a sweat by grace is 10,000 times better than sweating with pride, doubt, guilt, and fear. So Very Amen.

When Can We Rely on God’s Love for Us?

Scotty Smith — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 09:28:35 +0000

“We know and we rely on the love God has for us. God is love” 1 John 4:16

Heavenly Father, it’s impossible to exaggerate how much I cherish this verse. It’s one of a handful of Scriptures my spiritual father, Jack Miller, was always quoting. “Nothing is more certain, nothing is more reliable, nothing is more yours than your Father’s love.”—I can still hear Jack saying.

“Is it reliable?”—that’s a question we ask when choosing a car, an insurance company, a roofer—and especially a parachute. Trustworthiness is an essential category in life—and nowhere more so than in our relationship with you and your love.

So, thank you for emphatically affirming the knowability and reliability of your love for us. You know we need your love more than we realize—more than oxygen, blood, and water. So in what areas of life can we rely on your love?

For our salvation: Thank you for spending the currency of your love on the bankruptcy of our sin and deadness. We are saved 100% by your grace.

In our weakness and brokenness: You don’t love us more when we are “awesome” and less when we are a mess. You give us daily mercies because we need them . Thank you Abba.

In our difficult and messy relationships: We can rely on your love when we’d rather call down fire than grace; when we’re more lonely married than we were single; when there’s more tension than tenderness; when we’ve blown it with people we love; and when the call to forgive is 10 times greater than our will to forgive—to name a few.

As we face dying and death: You will hold us fast all the way Home. So Very Amen.

Fresh Encouragement, Grace, Comfort, and Peace

Scotty Smith — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 09:40:10 +0000

“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father—who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace—may the whole Trinity comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word”. (pp 2Thess.2:16-17). Indeed, “may the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. And as the Lord of peace, may Jesus give you his peace at all times in every situation” (2Thess.3:5,16: Jn.14:27)

Heavenly Father—with our palms turned upward in praise and surrender; we receive these words of encouragement and grace as this day begins. Thank you for anticipating every challenge before us today, for knowing every fear dancing around in our hearts, and for staying faithfully committed to bless, care, and nourish and flourish us.

As Paul prayed in the passages above, we ask you to direct our hearts into more of your without-parallel love, and into the inexhaustible perseverance of Jesus. If our hearts could be like an auto-driving Tesla, set the GPS and navigate our whole being into the depths of your affection you have lavished on us in Jesus.Dazzle and delight us.

Take us from our theoretical, partial, and waning experience of your love into what Paul referred to as being “compelled by the love of Christ” (2Cor.5:14). Make the love of Jesus become the most compelling reality in our lives.

That will free us to trust in Jesus’ perseverance when our resolve is weak, our resources are spent, and our weariness is growing. It’s Jesus’ grip, not ours, that matters most. It’s his faithfulness, not ours, that will not only get us Home but also get us through our current “hard stuff.”

Lastly, Father, you know the specific hurts and heartaches for which we need your fresh comfort, and the particular crisis and crucibles for which we need a fresh baptism in the peace of Jesus. Thank you, “Hallelujah!”, and So Very Amen.

Paul’s Certainty, Abba’s Generosity/Tenacity, Our Serenity

Scotty Smith — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 09:52:12 +0000

“I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” Phil. 1:6

Gracious Father, our salvation is a work we didn’t begin, and you alone can finish. It’s impossible to morally perform our way out of sin or religiously earn our way into your love. From beginning to end—our salvation is 100% by your grace for your glory. We bring desperation to “the table,” but you bring Jesus’ resurrection and righteousness. Hallelujah, and thank you. Because of your generosity and tenacity, one Day we will be as loving and as lovely as Jesus—as hard as that is for us to fathom. This gives us a serenity we can’t get anywhere else.

But on this January, Wednesday, early 2026, I am equally grateful for your commitment to finish the “good work” you began throughout creation. One Day everything … everywhere … all the time is going to be filled with your glory, beauty, goodness, and perfection. The entire cosmos, as Paul wrote in Romans 8, is “in the labors pains of childbirth”—awaiting the Day it will be “liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Rom.8:18-22).

This means, among other things, that there is an expiration date on all political madness, avarice, and arrogance. You laugh while earth’s kings plot, conspire, and pretend like you don’t exist (Psalm 2). Help us hear your laugh, Father. It will keep us sane as we await the Day for Jesus’ Kingdom to come in fullness.

Speaking of expiration dates—death itself is going to die (1Cor.15:26). Many of us attended too many funerals in 2025, and already some in 2026. The “good work” you will finish also means no more human or drug trafficking; no more exploitation and abuse; no more trauma triggers or trauma itself; no more cancer cells, brain disorders, or heart disease. Father, I SO needed to be reminded of all of this today. Thank you, and So Very Amen.

For All Who Experience Grace-Allergies and Gospel-Amnesia

Scotty Smith — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 11:14:23 +0000

“You didn’t receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself proclaims to our spirit that we are God’s children”. Romans 8:15-16

Heavenly Father, it’s hard to believe today marks the 28th year I have taught a January Term class at Covenant Seminary, St Louis—spanning my late 40’s to my mid 70’s. For the next 4 days I have the honor of marinating with my students in the theology, riches, wonder, and implications of “Sonship”—how through the Gospel and our union with Christ, you make us your beloved daughters and sons—whom you love as much as you love Jesus.

I’m not merely an aging professor, I’m a hungry student as well, Father. Meet me afresh. Mesmerize me anew with things you have taught me for the past half-century. Dazzle my heart these next 4 days with the beauty of Jesus—as though it was for the first time. Make the good news of the Gospel current and compelling news. I know the material I’ll teach, but I want to know you better and better as my glorious, grace-filled Abba. I’d love to begin 2026 with your Spirit humbling and gladdening me (and my online classroom community) with heaven-sent Gospel-renewal. For your glory and our joy, grant it Father.

By your Spirit, continue to free us from our slavish fears, our grace-allergies, our Gospel-amnesia, and our penchant for woefully under-believing the truth, goodness, and beauty of Jesus. We’re not spiritual orphans, for you have given us the legal rights and personal delights of everything that belongs to Jesus. Hallelujah—Jesus is the Son of “Sonship.” You’ve hidden our lives in Christ, given us the status of “Firstborn Son,” and will one Day finish making us like Jesus. Hallelujah on Gospel-steroids! Thank you, Abba, and So Very Amen.

How to Conflict As though the Battle Really Does Belong to Jesus

Scotty Smith — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 10:16:58 +0000

“Your victory isn’t going to come through trusting in your swords and spears. For the battle is the Lord’s. He will take care of the enemy. Trust him.” (1Sam.17:47)

This is what the Lord says to you: “Don’t be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle isn’t yours, the battle belongs to God.” (2Chron.20:15)

Lord Jesus, we know that disagreements, conflicts, and battles are inevitable in life; but conflicting well is a choice requiring the resources of heaven. Whether it’s a broken story between friends or spouses, a division in the workplace or worship space, rising political discord or an all-out assault of evil—you “claim ownership.”

Fear, panic, and self-deliverance aren’t the order of the day; faith, trust, and worship are the order of every day. What does “conflicting well” look like? First and foremost, it means that our commitment to honor you is greater than our commitment to self-interest and self-glory. Rather than taking everything so personally, help us take everything more readily to you, Jesus—pouring out our hearts, loving you, trusting you with the outcome

When family matters, work dynamics—even “ministry life” get tense, disconcerting, relationship bruising and breaking—keep bringing us back to the Gospel expressing itself in wisdom (James 1:5), “faith expressing itself in love” (Gal.5:6) and trust expressing itself in waiting (Isa.40:31). We can’t always makes things better; but we can easily make things a lot worse.

Jesus may our conscience and heart be so possessed by the Gospel we will always fear dishonoring you more than we fear losing face, advantage, or prestige. We’ll only regret taking things into our own hands; we will never regret leaving them in yours—never. So Very Amen.

Remember to Remember Jesus and All We Have in Him

Scotty Smith — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 10:34:40 +0000

“Brothers and sisters, keeping God’s mercy in view, I urge you to offer your whole being as a living sacrifice—set apart, honoring God. This is truly the way to worship him.” (pp Rom.12:1)

Heavenly Father, I can’t think of a verse in your Word that better summaries the dynamics and delights of the Christian life. Who are we believers? We are your beloved children—those to whom you are SO merciful, and upon whom you set your 100% unfiltered, unwavering, never-ending affection.

How then shall we live? By keeping your mercy in clear view. The best way to do that is to start every day by preaching the Gospel to ourselves—by “remembering to remember” what you have done for us in Jesus. This means we will never be too preoccupied, enthralled, and “smitten” with Jesus. We’ll never “over-mine” the inexhaustible riches of your grace or be too stunned by the implications of having you as our Father. Fill our 2026 with yourself, Jesus, your Spirit, and everything else you are pleased to give us, Abba.

Precisely because Jesus’ sacrifice for us was, literally, “one and done,” the sacrifice we now offer you merits us nothing but gives you everything. It’s as shocking as it is liberating—we can’t be more pleasing to you than we already are in Christ. For you gave Jesus our sin and gave us his righteousness—what a glorious exchange. We can be more aware and grateful, but we can’t be more saved or yours.

So, what is a “set apart life”? It’s not dour, but delight-enriched; not always easy but immeasurably blessed. You can’t love us more; you’ll never love us less, Father. So, we give you what you have already claimed in the Gospel: Our body, soul, and spirit. Our head, heart, and hands. Our time, talents, and treasure. Our wounds, wandering, and wonder. It’s all yours, Father; and everything Jesus has, you have given to us (1Cor.3:18). Hallelujah, and So Very Amen.

Kindness on Gospel-Steroids—Literally

Scotty Smith — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 11:12:32 +0000

God is kind to the ungrateful and the evil (Lk.6:35). The kindness of God leads you to repentance (Rom. 2:4). When the kindness of God appeared, he saved us (Tit. 3:4-6). The fruit of the Spirit (among other things) is kindness (Gal.5:12-13). Clothe yourselves with kindness as God’s dearly loved children (Col. 3:12).

Heavenly Father, thank you for being incomparably, relentlessly, extravagantly kind to us. How kind are you? Through our union with Jesus, we live in a perpetual state of your favor, affection, and delight. We believe this because you say it’s true; make it more real than ever, Abba.

You’re not kind until it “no longer works”—and then you resort to being a bit harsh with us. Your kindness isn’t a sweet mood; it’s the loving fire of your heart that melts and molds our hard hearts. Indeed, your kindness leads us to repentance (Rom.2:4). Shame only leads us to having contempt for ourselves and others.

So, on this 1st Saturday of 2026, we repent of refusing to believe you love us as much as you say you do (Eph.3:18-19). We repent of under-believing the Gospel. We repent of blaming others, politics, our sport team, a new puppy—or anything for our bad mood and lack of kindness. Father, you don’t “put up with us” with strained tolerance; you put us “in Christ” with never-ending grace. Hallelujah and thank you.

If a verse could be turned into a one-a-day spiritual vitamin with instant results, I’d chose this one: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph. 4:32). There is no such pill; but there is you Father, the work of your Spirit, the love of Jesus, the riches of your grace, and dear believing friends. By all of these expressions of your kindness, change us, Abba. So Very Amen.

4 Participles—Words Ending With “Ing”—to Take to Heart

Scotty Smith — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 10:13:07 +0000

“Jesus is standing at God’s right hand!”, Stephen exclaimed. (Acts 7:56)

“Sin is crouching at the door eager to control you.” (Gen.4:7).

“The devil is prowling like a roaring lion seeking to devour you“ (1Pet.5:8).

“The world is squeezing the naïve into its own mold…” (Rom.12:2 – Phillips).

Lord Jesus, like every other year, month, and day—2026 will be a year in which we will encounter powerful influences. We don’t need to be paranoid but must not be naive. There isn’t “a demon under every rock,” but there are reasons in every day for us to lock our gaze and set our affections on you.

First and foremost, because you are so beautiful, good, and true. Jesus, you alone are worthy of our adoration, affection, and allegiance. You love us with extravagant, unwavering, never-ending love. Secondly because…

Sin isn’t just “crouching at our door,” it’s living inside us—enticing, tantalizing, lying—seeking to seduce, control, and demolish us.
The devil knows his time is short, he’s angry, and he wants to “rob, kill, and destroy us” (Jn.10:10).
The world—not the earth itself, but the “world system” with its values, idols, and man-centered-me-first allure will “squeeze” us into its mold unless we resist; or better, until you are dazzling and irresistible to us.

Jesus, that’s why, like Stephen, with eyes of faith, we want to see you standing on our behalf in triumph, tenderness, and tenacity at Abba’s right hand. Standing up for us when sin and the devil would accuse and condemn us. Standing to catch every care we cast on you and every burden we offload on you. Standing to give us your peace in our troubles and your rest in our weariness. Standing as our passionate Bridegroom—fixing to “run down” the isle from heaven,” to have and hold us forever. Thank you, “Hallelujah!”, and So Very Amen.

Grabbing Hold of Jesus’ Grip

Scotty Smith — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 10:26:57 +0000

“I seek to grasp more fully the reasons for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (pp Phil.3:12)

Lord Jesus, I cannot think of a better resolution for 2026 than to make it a year of pondering your grip of us. Hallelujah, yours is a grace-grip; you hold us fast, and no one will ever snatch us from your hand (Jn.10:28). But why did you do all of that for us? And what are the implications of your tender and tenacious grip for us in 2026?

Thank you for holding us as our enthralled Bridegroom. Whatever else you have planned for us in this new year, we can be certain you want us to know more of the height, depth, width, and length of your love (Eph.3:17-19)—so much so you command us to abide in your love (Jn.15:9). For us not to make growth in your love a priority will be seditious, insane, and self-sabotaging.

Thank you for holding us as our mighty and merciful King—for that is who you are, Jesus. Indeed, we are married to the King of the cosmos who is making ALL things new and beautiful. Help us grab that, Jesus. We spent too much of 2025 stressing, vexing, and fearing—under-believing that you really are “ruling the world with your truth and grace.”

You’re also sovereign over every heartache and hardship we will experience in life. Perhaps 2026 is to be a year in which we embrace both the mystery and mercy of your ways. Growth in humility, trust, and peace can only honor you, free our hearts, and encourage those with whom we live.

Lastly, thank you, Jesus for holding us as the “author and finisher of our faith”—the gracious Storywriter who isn’t writing short stories about our personal awesomeness, but a multi-chapter novel about how you are making us more and more like yourself. It’s a novel containing drama, joy, hidden subplots, twists-n-turns, tons of grace, and the most redemptive ending imaginable. Thank you, Jesus, and So Very Amen.

One of Our Many Prayers for 2026

Scotty Smith — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 10:36:50 +0000

“To Jesus who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood…” (Rev.1:6). “I want to know Christ.” (Phil.3:10). “More Love to Thee, O Christ, More Love to Thee” (Hymn by Elizabeth Prentiss)

Lord Jesus, you already love us as much as you ever will; but we’re mere babes, neophytes, and greenhorns in our love for you—even if we have known your grace and heart for decades. Truly, there’s so much more of you to relish and cherish as we enter 2026. And as we often sing, “when we’ve been there 10,000 years we’ll have no less days to sing your praise”—only 10,000 more reasons to do so.

So, here’s one of our prayers for 2026. Jesus, take us “further up and further in” to these 7 grand Gospel-realities. These will refuel, renew—even super-charge our love for you.

Us In Christ: Jesus, we affirm we are saved and safe only through our union with you. We bring need to our salvation; you bring over-supply to our need. You are 100% of our “righteousness, holiness, and redemption” (1Cor.1:30). Hallelujah!

Christ Above Us: Jesus, you are sovereign over our pain and joys, every nation and every nanosecond—at work in all things for our good, no exceptions. Make this especially real to us in 2026.

Christ In Us: Because you live in us as “our hope of glory”—heaven and being 100% like you one Day are our guaranteed inheritance. Oh the peace and joy this gives us, Jesus.

Christ For Us: With you “for us,” Jesus, nothing and no one can ultimately be against us. They can “mess” with us for a moment, but nothing will separate us from your love. May our fears, anger, and self-pity shrink in 2026.

Christ With Us: Until heaven, we will never experience a Jesus-absent day. Sometimes hidden, sometimes more real than everything else—but you will never leave us.

Christ Under Us: When (not if) we fall, falter, and fall—you will catch us, hold us, and keep us all the way Home. PTL!

Christ Towards Us: Jesus, you are coming back as our joyful, loving Bridegroom. Hallelujah, maybe in 2026? So Very Amen.

Jesus Didn’t Come to Be First but Only

Scotty Smith — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 10:00:46 +0000

Jesus to the Rich Young Ruler: “One thing you lack—the Gospel” (pp Mk.10:21).
Jesus to Martha: “Only one thing is necessary—union and communion with me” (pp Lk.10:42).
King David: “One thing I desire of the LORD—to be with him and gaze upon his beauty” (Ps. 27:4).
The Apostle Paul: “One thing I do—I live heavenward for the ultimate prize of Jesus himself” (pp Phil.3:13)
Asaph: Lord, You are my one thing. “Indeed, whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth.” (Ps.73:25).

Lord Jesus, the more I read Scripture the more I realize you didn’t come to help us order our frazzled lives by making you a priority. We don’t make you anything—Lord or a priority. You didn’t submit to the cradle and cross to be first in our lives, but to be our lives—our righteousness and treasure; not our compass, but our destination; not our North Star, but our entire universe; not our “favorite thing” but our “only thing.”

The Rich Young Ruler had many things except the essential thing—you. You “had” Martha, but many other things “had” Martha. Doing for you meant more than being with you. King David ran after and gained many things—some good some evil, until he finally embraced his calling to “one-thing-ness.”

The Apostle Paul was capable of multitasking on steroids, but his “one thing” became “the surpassing excellency of knowing you” (Phil.3:8-9). Asaph nearly ruined his life with religion and resentment until you became his “one thing”—not the best part about heaven, but heaven itself.

Jesus, if we have never known you in such a heart and life consuming way, take us there in 2026. Some of us are primed—like baby Robins with beaks wide open for a fresh outpouring of your Holy Spirit in our hearts. So Very Amen.

To Walk with the Wise (Prov.13:20) Is to Walk with the Jesus-Smitten

Scotty Smith — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 10:12:11 +0000

“Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2Tim.2:1). “It’s good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace” (Heb.13:9)

Lord Jesus, “finishing strong”—a phrase appropriate to all kinds of sports teams, but also perfect for ending a year. For some of us, 2025 can’t be over fast enough; for others it may have been the best year ever. For all of us, finishing strong in your grace is closer to our lungs finishing strong with oxygen—meaning essential, not merely nice.

What are the other options? Well, we could finish 2025 paralyzed by various fears. But who, given the option, would happily choose that? Or we could finish the year stuck in resentment—which tastes good for the moment but then turns rancid. Or we could opt for guilt-n-shame—which is often the fuel for New Year’s resolutions that often generate more guilt-n-shame.

But to finish strong in grace implies we’ll turn the calendar with at least these 3 things in place: 1.Being honest about our weaknesses. 2. Loving you and being more dependent on you than ever, Jesus. 3. Walking with Gospel-captured, grace-smelling, Jesus-loving friends throughout 2026.

You made us for yourself, Jesus, and we will remain restless until we rest in you for the first or “umpteenth” time. May 2026 be one big “come to Jesus meeting”—in which you reveal more of yourself to us, and make us more honest, humble, and hopeful about specific ways you intend for us to grow in grace and Jesus-likeness.

But lastly, “be strong in grace” is a plural command, not a solo sport; and being strengthened in grace is “good for our hearts”—not just my heart. Jesus, we will become like the people we spend most of our time with period. Help us pray and think through our relational commitments as we enter 2026. May having and being a Gospel-captured friend be a no-brainer and heart-essential to us. So Very Amen.

Living, Suffering, Dancing, and Dying with Peace

Scotty Smith — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 10:51:28 +0000

Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, now you are letting your servant depart in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel” Luke 2:28-32

Lord Jesus, with your beyond-understanding peace and Gospel-assurance in my heart—I am thankful beyond measure that, like Simeon, I too will “depart in peace” whenever you call me Home. You are the only reason any of us can live with “no guilt in life, and no fear in death.”

We feel guilty, but those who know you aren’t; for you exhausted our guilt on the cross. We don’t feel good enough to deserve heaven and your delight, and we aren’t. But you clothed us in your perfect righteousness and made us your bride (2Cor.5:21; 1Cor.1:30). We still have doubts; but you don’t. Your banner over us is love, your grace for us is measureless, and your grasp of us is eternal. Hallelujah!

Oh, the wonder of it all … you laid aside your glory in your incarnation (Phil.2:5-11), lay peacefully in Mary’s embrace, the stable’s manger, and Simeon’s arms. Thirty-three years later, you laid down your life for us on the cross—there is no greater mystery, greater love, or greater reason to adore you. “Born that we no more may die, born to raise us from the earth, born to give us second birth”… Angels aren’t the only “Hark-ers”; we too “Hark” with joy today, Jesus.

This is the Gospel, the meaning of life, and why, like Simeon, we can live with peace, suffer with peace, dance with peace, and die in peace. And it’s why we can trust you with our old wounds, current crucibles, and as many tomorrows you are pleased to give us. So Very Amen.

If I Was a Blank Check, How Would You Spend Me, Jesus?

Scotty Smith — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 11:05:26 +0000

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” Phil.1:21

Lord Jesus, some choices are “no brainers” and some merely require “sanctified common sense.” Other choices tie us in knots, rob us of sleep, and fuel our 2nd-guessing. Winding down 2025 and on the cusp of 2026, those phrases aren’t metaphors but realities for many of us—me included.

The first Christmas thrust all the main characters into new scenarios and stories—all generated by your arrival. Mary and Joseph, the shepherds who made it to Bethlehem, Maji who’d come later, insecure religious leaders, threatened Roman officials—the world changed for everyone in response to your presence, Jesus. That’s actually a good thing.

Living life and making choices in response to you is, in fact, how we want to live the rest of our days. You’re not an add-on. You’re not the opening devo and closing prayer of our 70+ years of life; you are our life, Lord Jesus (Phil.1:21). Perhaps the Holy Spirit is using Christmas 2025 to reaffirm you as our heart-treasure, realign our priorities with “things above” (Col.3:2), and reset our inner GPS to “auto pilot” with you as our Pilot, destination, and delight.

Jesus, if we hoist our heart-sails afresh to the wind of the Gospel, where will you take us? If the remainder of our lives is a blank check in your hand, how will you spend us, Jesus? If we seek your Kingdom and righteousness first (Matt.6:33), not seventh, what difference will this make in how we invest 2026?

This life is too short and precious to waste on old hurts and resentments and heaping up more stuff destined for the ash heap. And, more importantly, Jesus, you are too good and beautiful not to know, love, and serve with all our heart and remaining days. So Very Amen.

More and More, Greater and Greater Love for Jesus

Scotty Smith — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 10:58:22 +0000

“King Herod heard Jesus was born, and was disturbed” Matt.2:3

Lord Jesus, whether our Christmas gatherings have been sweet and easy, chaotic in the best sense, or a bit sad + special—we acknowledge you to be the “God from whom all blessings flow.” The greatest blessing meets our greatest need—salvation.

You didn’t come because we needed a personal valet, party concierge, or on-call masseur. We needed/need a Savior who is full of grace and truth, and that narrows the field to one—to you. The fullness of your grace and truth addresses the fullness of our sin and brokenness. In fact, you over-meet every need we have.

It’s hard and messy down here—as evidenced by events right after your birth. When you were one day-old a “5-star inn” didn’t open up for your family with hot tubs, post-natal care, and an around-the-clock chef. Before long, you were whisked to Egypt to escape Herod’s evil plan to eliminate you—you, the source of all life and the one destined to destroy all evil.

With your birth, death began working backwards. With your death and resurrection, the firstfruits of the new heaven and new earth emerged. Demons tremble knowing their days are numbered. Storms, disease, oppression, injustice, captivities, war, enmity, being harmed and harming, sin and death ALL got a “pink notice” and expiration date. Hallelujah! Knowing his days are short, the devil is now filled with fury (Rev.12:12).

Jesus, keep us wise to the devil’s schemes (2Cor.2:11) and 100 times more hopeful than fearful. We don’t have live afraid, but we dare not live naïve. The devil hates everything precious to you. He despises everything that reveals your truth, goodness, and beauty. We shouldn’t be shocked and we must not primarily blame people for our misery or look to them for our “salvation.”

The #1 thing the devil hates is our love for you in response to your great love for us (2Cor.11:3). SO, may today and ALL of 2026 be marked by a return to our first love for you, and a journey into much greater love for you. Everything else will take care of itself. So Very Amen.

Christmas 2025—The Unique Joy That Jesus Has and Gives

Scotty Smith — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 10:51:03 +0000

“Don’t be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people!” Luke 2:10

Lord Jesus, “in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Ps.16:11

“Joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.” Eccles. 8:15

Abba, “may they have the full measure of my joy within them.” John 17:13

Lord Jesus, It’s 3:25 am Christmas morning 2025 here in in Franklin, Tennessee. Music of your birth is “quietly” filling the room (Darlene’s sleeping!), while these Scriptures about your joy invite, stretch, and encourage my heart. I am a deeply grateful man.

Thank you for caring about our joy—for making a big deal about it. It’s certainly not the only emotion you give and bless, but it’s one you intend to “accompany us in our toil” ALL our days. Thank you, Jesus, for temperament-transcending, circumstance-defying, suffering-assuming joy. “Whew!” and “Hallelujah!”

Free us Jesus, for we’re still capable of living like sheep without a Shepherd, wanderers without wonder—your betrothed bride forgetting Whose we are, what we have in you, and where we are heading. You are always rejoicing over us and constantly delighting in us. This reality boggles our minds, exposes our unbelief, and encourages our hearts. It is your joy that is our strength, not our joy that fires you up or keeps you from being sad. Because of the Gospel, we bear no burden to put a smile on your face or keep your feet dancing. How liberating—how peace-giving!

No matter the “temperature” of Christmas Day 2025—meteorologically and emotionally; no matter who we’re with or really miss; no matter if we have “figgy-pudding,” fruitcake, or Fritos; no matter if it’s the best Christmas Day ever or a really challenging one—we praise, bless, and adore you, Jesus. We “hitch” our joy-cart to you—and no one or nothing else. So Very Amen.

On Christmas Eve 2025

Scotty Smith — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 09:40:26 +0000

“When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship” (Gal. 4:5-6)

Lord Jesus, even if we’ve miss-dated your birth on our calendars, on the calendar of grace you were born in Bethlehem “when the set time had fully come.” Not as a metaphor, myth, or mere model—you arrived as God incarnate in weakness unadorned.

Other kings would’ve arrived with fireworks, big fanfare, and flash to impress; you came in humility, utter dependence, and sacrifice to save. Your glory was hidden in Mary’s womb but not diminished. You never ceased being God, but you did become fully man. Though you fill all things, you emptied yourself for us. Mary was pregnant with you for 9 months, but you were eternally “pregnant” with these callings, commitments—and much more.

As the Last Adam, you fulfilled the law for us.
As the Lamb of God, you bore our sin and took our judgment.
As Grave Robber, you conquered death and rose to give us life.
As Grace Giver, you are our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
As the Lord of Lords, you reign over kings, history, us, and everything.
As our Great High Priest, you intercede, care, and defend us constantly.
As our Loving Bridegroom, you’re coming for us with passion and delight.

As 2025 winds down, Jesus, would you “wind us up” afresh with wonder, love, and praise? Refuel our first love, first joy, and eternal delight in you. So Very Hallelujah and So Very Amen.

Jesus Our Immanuel

Scotty Smith — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 10:18:35 +0000

“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” Luke 2:20

Lord Jesus, I woke up this morning praying for friends in seasons of crisis, complexity, and change—3 realities that marked the world into which you were born. Choosing shepherds as the first recipients of your birth announcement was brilliant and is deeply encouraging to us, for their lives were filled with challenges.

The shepherds were given the first glimpses of your incarnate self—God as a baby, Majesty in a manger, Deity in diapers. O Holy night, O holy paradox, O immeasurable gift—you created Mary yet came to save her, shepherds, and us. She nursed you—giving milk to the one who feeds every bird and clothes every field. She changed and cleaned your soiled clothing, Jesus—you, the one who has come to make all things new and beautiful.

When the shepherds left your manger, they were still “shepherds.” Brokenness and unfairness were written all over their stories. They still couldn’t worship at the temple—though they raised sheep for temple sacrifices. They still couldn’t give testimony in a court of law—yet they were heaven-picked “expert witnesses” to your birth. They returned to a difficult life of stereotypes, literal wolves, and a denarii-to-denarii existence.

At one level, nothing changed for them; but in what matters most, everything changed. They returned, worshipping not whining. They didn’t take “selfies” with you to share with friends; 10,000 times better you returned with them as Immanuel—God with us and God for us. You, the Good Shepherd, now defined them, not their shepherding.

May the same be true for each of us, Jesus—whatever our situation. Whatever is hard, sad, unnerving, vulnerability-fueling—you are with us and for us period. Personally, this is my first Christmas in 50 years—half of a century, not being a pastor on a church staff. It feels right, sweet, and a bit weird—but with a new season comes new opportunities to know, love, serve, and trust you, Jesus. “Hallelujah!”, here we go, and So Very Amen!

The Gospel Is for Believers and Non-Believers Alike

Scotty Smith — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 11:28:53 +0000

“Good news of great joy! … The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” (Lk.2:10-11). “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.” (1Tim.1:15)

Lord Jesus, the next 72 hours invite us into fresh wonder, love, and praise as we reflect on the breathtaking, eternal-life-giving marvel of your incarnation. Every other king has been a baby before they were enthroned; but you who are King of the cosmos became a baby to be our servant-Savior. What wondrous love is this, indeed?

We don’t need a second chance, hot romance, more recognition, or a fan base. We need what the angel announced—THE Savior, not a savior. It’s why I treasure the Apostle Paul’s self-description as “the worst of sinners”—for I finally understand what he meant. It’s the most healthy, self-aware, “emotionally intelligent,” spiritually mature affirmation any of us can make. Paul wasn’t engaging in self-contempt and personal loathing; he was demonstrating Gospel-sanity and true freedom. We Christians need the Gospel just as much as any non-believer.

The more we see your dazzling beauty, experience your incomparable goodness, and abide in your lavish love, we too will own Paul’s affirmation as our own. None of us are as joyful as you intend, as free as you desire, or as loving as we will be one Day. But hallelujah a gazillion times over—you don’t love us to the extent that we are already like you, but to the extent we are in you. It’s our union with you, not our doing for you, that is our assurance and hope of eternal life.

What do we want for Christmas, Jesus? (1) More freedom from under-believing this glorious Gospel, (2) fresh love for you and delight in you, and (3) Holy Spirit given joy to accept Christmas this year as you script it and love for whoever you place before us. So Very Amen.

Jesus—The Joy of Every Longing Heart

Scotty Smith — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 10:39:45 +0000

“Great joy propelled these stargazing, wisdom-seekers to find the one for whom they longed with their entire being. Going into the house, the Maji saw the child and his mother Mary. They fell down and worshiped Jesus. Then, opening their treasures, they presented him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” (Paraphrase of Matt.2:11-12)

Lord Jesus, whether we are kings or carpetbaggers, highly religious or cynically unbelieving, proudly ethical or shamefully amoral—there is a gravitational pull in our hearts to seek you, for we have been made by you and for you. We can deny it, dance around it, despise it—but our hearts will remain restless until they rest in you… or rest in you again.

You are “the dear desire or every nation and the joy of every longing heart,” as Charles Wesley so aptly put it. True wisdom is (1) to seek you, (2) to be found by you the real Seeker and Finder, (3) then worship you with everything we have and are. And it will take all eternity for us to begin to give you the worship you deserve, Jesus. For you are the one who came bearing gifts for us. Indeed, you have come to be our ‘righteousness, holiness, and redemption” (1Cor.1:30). You have come bearing the gifts of personal salvation, cosmic redemption, and evil’s eradication—among SO many more grace-gifts.

Come Herod or high water, heartaches and hardships, those you’ve come to save will come to you, Jesus. Drawn by providence or pain, a visitation of angels or the witness of a friend, supernatural revelation or ordinary circumstances—your every-nation, cannot-be-numbered Bride will gather at the wedding feast of the Lamb. It’s the meaning of history and the measure of your grace. Hallelujah, 10,000 times over!

Jesus, supersize the chambers of our hearts to make more room for you and the wonders of your love this Christmas. It’s you we want more than a Hallmark Christmas Story. So Very Amen.

Again and Again—Adoration Supplanting Vexation

Scotty Smith — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 12:13:22 +0000

Mary treasured and pondered that she would give birth to Jesus (Lk.2:19). Martha fretted and vexed about many things, including feeding Jesus (Lk.10:40). Jesus declares to each of us, “Only one thing really matters. Choose well.” (Lk.10:41)

Lord Jesus, choosing between having knots or worship in our hearts shouldn’t be that difficult, but often it is. If we’re not careful, aggravation can replace adoration in the blink of an eye or by the demands of the day. Thank you for reminding us, over and over, that being with you will always surpass doing for you.

We are to fix our gaze on you, fill our hearts with you—celebrate you as the pearl of great price that has been freely given to us (Matt.13:46). Adore you as the treasure hidden in the field that found us and now treasures us (Matt.13:44-45). Jesus, there is so much more of your beauty, goodness, and truth for us to discover, behold, and savor. Take us there. Show us. Dazzle us. Transform us.

From eternity through your incarnation and resurrection, you have captured our hearts and worship, Jesus. And now atop your throne of grace and your habitation in our hearts—you can be fully trusted, literally, with everything.

Like Mary, we want to treasure you more, Jesus. Like the shepherds, we want to be wherever you are. Like Simeon, we want to live and die as unto you (Lk.2:25-35). Like Anna—until our last breath, we want your presence to be our portion, your great grace to be our greatest gain (Lk.2:36-38).

In the waiting days of 2025, we choose you again as our first love, Jesus, because you chose and first loved us. Whether we are days, weeks, years, or decades from heaven, you are already our Home. Hallelujah, and So Very Amen.

A Christmas As Big as Jesus’ Cradle, Cross, and Crown

Scotty Smith — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 11:47:53 +0000

“Behold… I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. Be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.” Isaiah 65:17–19

Heavenly Father, I love meditating on Isaiah’s tantalizing visions of Jesus’ first and second comings, for they remind us that Christmas is pregnant with immeasurable hope and irrepressible delight. You made promises SO big only you can fulfill them. And you are, Father, for every promise you have made finds its “Yes!” and fulfillment in Jesus (2Cor.1:30).

Through Jesus’ cradle (birth), cross (finished work on earth), and crown (ongoing work as our enthroned King)—we discover you to be “the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort” (2Cor.1:3)—more loving and joyful than we ever imagined. So, just how big of a deal is Christmas?

For all of us who have received Jesus—the quintessential Christmas gift—you forgave all our sins and declared us righteous in Christ. We’ve become your beloved children—with a home in your heart and citizenship in heaven—to name just a handful and a full heaven of blessings you have given us.

And right now, Jesus is “making all things new” and is redeeming his Bride from the nations. When he returns, Jesus will usher in the new heaven and new earth of Isaiah’s vision. At his 1st coming Jesus defeated evil; at his 2nd he’ll eradicate it. The expiration date on all sin and sickness, death and disease, harm and harming will arrive (Rev.21:1-5).

Hallelujah—our forever will be forever full of your truth, goodness, and beauty. We will not want to change one thing about it, as eternity will be way beyond all we can ask or imagine. No wonder Isaiah prophesied with so much joy. Father, the heck with a “merry little Christmas”! Hallelujah, for a Christmas as big as your heart, your promises, and the Gospel! So Very Amen.

Welcoming Jesus Afresh

Scotty Smith — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 10:47:50 +0000

“Mary gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room available for them” (Lk 2:4-7). “Jesus fills all things everywhere with himself” (Eph.1:23)

Lord Jesus, perfect sovereignty, not uncaring inhospitality, determined your less-than-ideal “birthing suite.” Nevertheless, the oft-highlighted image of “no room available” for you, deserves our reflection today. In what ways do we fail to “make room” for you?

You “fill all things everywhere” (Eph.1:23); you live inside us as our hope of glory (Col.1:27); and our lives are hidden in yours as the basis and assurance of our entire salvation (Rom.8:1-2; 1Cor1:30). YET, it’s also possible for you to be on the outside of our heart-door knocking (Rev.3:20). How can this be? How does this happen, Jesus? How can we get so busy and be so preoccupied with lesser things that we don’t even realize when we’re not walking intimately with you—not enjoying life-giving, heart-renewing fellowship with you?

Thank you for making room for us in your heart. The Gospel is the greatest welcome and hospitality we’ll ever experience—today and throughout eternity. Our grateful response is to welcome you afresh, Jesus.

We welcome you into our brokenness and weakness. Bring your centering presence and kindness.
We welcome you into our fears and vulnerability. Bring the reign of your grace and peace.
We welcome you into our chilled affections for you, and our less than loving relationships with others. Bring the flames of heart-renewal, humility, and tenderness.
We welcome you into our known disappointments and unknown future. Bring your heart and hand to bear upon all of it—all of our baggage and burdens.

Free us to love, trust, and worship you, Jesus. So Very Amen

Copious Grace for Specific Issues

Scotty Smith — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 09:53:47 +0000

“Grace upon grace..” John 1:16

Lord Jesus, the affirmation “grace upon grace” is always precious to us and needed—especially during the end of the year stretch. Every Christmas season is pregnant with sweet memories, emotional drama, stockpiled trauma, the risks of hope—all assumed in your commitment to give us fresh grace and more grace. Thank you.

You know our heart-state and life-stressors as we enter the last two weeks of 2025. In the metaphor of movies, we dream of experiencing the final, heart-warming scene in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”— or the quirkiness, snow, and fun of “Christmas in Connecticut.” Some of us are bracing for our family’s version of “Cousin Eddie” and the bedlam of “Christmas Vacation.” Others of us would do well to get a visit from “Elf” and his larger-than-life joy.

As for me, Charlie Brown’s needle-dropping tree, with a kind dog, carols, smallness, and a few friends, would do quite well this year. For I’m feeling a bit like Scrooge with a small “h” Humbug attitude; or like Ralphie’s grumpy dad in A Christmas Story—on edge, triggerable, and not the most fun to be with right now.

Because the Gospel is true—we don’t have to pretend, deny, or minimize things. Because the Gospel is good—we can humble ourselves, repent, and collapse on Jesus. Because the Gospel is beautiful—we can risk hoping, loving, and get the help we need. Jesus, we know your “grace upon grace” is the resolution but show each of us what our core issues and needs are right now.

Jesus, thank you for coming to make your blessings flow “far as the curse is found.” You do your best work where sin does its worst. By your Spirit, sabotage our pity-parties and whine-fests—our penchant to blame others and make excuses. You resist the proud but give “grace upon grace” to the humble. The last thing we want is your resistance, Jesus, so here’s to “getting low.” So Very Amen.

Hopes, Fears, and Jesus

Scotty Smith — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 12:09:50 +0000

“And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.” (Psalm 39:7)

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God” (Isa. 41:10)

“The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee…” Phillips Brooks

Lord Jesus, in about a week many of us will be in a sanctuary, public space, online community, or living room… singing “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Holding lit candles, dripping a little wax, and trying to keep our kids and grandkids reigned in till Christmas Day—the day that literally changed everything.

The most memorable line of Phillips Brooks’ hymn reminds us of two heart-dominating realities, and the one and only ultimate resolution. What is life but an interplay, collision, and dance between our deepest hopes and greatest fears? To have each is to be human; to process hope and fear well is to be yours.

So, a tad over a week from Christmas Day, we want to affirm 3 things: First of all, our hope is in you, Jesus—not in people changing or circumstances getting better, not in romance, riches or the results we crave in many areas of life. Though we emotionally vacillate between hope and hopelessness, we can, do, and will trust you, Lord Jesus.

Secondly, we do have fears—Fears of not having enough or being enough. Fears of aging and loneliness. Fears for our parents, siblings, kids, grands, spouses—for everybody in our category called “my loved ones.” Fears of living in this toxically broken and mean-spirited moment in history.

Thirdly, all true hope is fulfilled in you Jesus, and every fear we have is resolved by you. In the coming days, help us distinguish between wishful thinking and selfish demanding, and the eternal hope you have written into our DNA. Not everything we hope for is hope-worthy.

And in ways that will give you the most glory—eliminate, shrink, charm, and utterly transform our fears, Jesus. Drive them out by your love. Hallelujah, thank you, and So Very Amen.

Jesus Our Grace-Magnet, True Wisdom, and Belovedness

Scotty Smith — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 10:27:59 +0000

“When the Magi saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy”. Matt. 2:10

Lord Jesus, it makes no difference if they were astrologers, wise guys, magicians, or kings. Their number—3, 5, or 7, is just as irrelevant as their arrival date—within hours, days, months, or years of your first breath in our world. The Magi came to you because you are an irresistible grace-magnet. You are the Savior who allures, draws, and seeks; then finds, saves, and treasures us. Thank you for being the author and object, treasure and completer of our faith (Heb. 12:2).

Thank you for actively saving a Bride for yourself as numerous as the stars, sand, and dust—a number so big it’s impossible to count (Rev.7:9-10, Heb.11:12, Gen.13:16). You are doing so by the ordinary means of grace and the sovereign work of your Spirit, by friend-to-friend evangelism and angelic visitation, by churches being planted and creation declaring your glory. This is the meaning of history, the heartbeat of heaven, and is happening non-stop “as far as the curse is found”—as far as rebels and prodigals try to run from you

Jesus, all true wisdom seekers will invariably discover you as their heart’s destination and delight. For you are wisdom from God—our “righteousness, holiness, redemption” (1Cor.1:30). Speaking of which, Jesus, we have friends and family who are simultaneously deeply religious but so lost. Others who are frozen with shame and paralyzed by guilt, and so certain you could never love them. Others who, like Saul of Tarsus before he became “Paul of Grace,” are cynical, angry, and are bent on destroying any and every reference to you.

Jesus, in a category of our culture—what do we want for Christmas 2025? Please save our loved ones that they might discover true belovedness. So Very Amen.

Rollercoasters, Redemption, and Rejoicing

Scotty Smith — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 10:58:30 +0000

“Stop what you are doing, take an unrushed look, transforming look. I am creating a new heaven and a new earth—not as a replacement but as a resurrection, restoration, and flourishing of my original creation. Think of a bud becoming a whole bouquet, then a garden. I want you to rejoice with all your being in what I am doing now and will bring in fullness on the perfect Day.

Old Jerusalem will shed her “skin,” and the New Jerusalem will emerge as an eternal domain of consummate happiness and beauty. Everyone who lives there will be a joy and give joy to each other. I myself will be Chief Rejoicer and will delight in you with a joy you cannot imagine. Never again will the sound of weeping and crying be heard.” (Paraphrase of Isaiah 65:17–19)

Heavenly Father, I’ve read this portion of your Word many times. I’ve preached it, prayed it, and shared it with others. But with timeliness, freshness, and sweetness—this prophecy from Isaiah gives voice to my “inward groaning and eager waiting” (Rm.8:23-25). I know I’m not alone in craving the fulfillment of all these promises.

We love the incredible “downpayment” and firstfruits of Jesus’ first coming, life, death, and resurrection. And now we are on tiptoes with joy and face-down with ache-filled hope for the fullness of his second coming (Rev.21:1-5). ASAP, please.

Personally, you know the emotional, mental, and spiritual rollercoaster I’ve been on the past 2 ½ years. And Father, you also know I never willingly get on a Ferris wheel, tilt-a-whirl, or gravity, sanity defying theme park ride. Thank you that as 2025 winds down my heaviness is lifting, I can smell the grass of the new earth again, and hoping is easier. There’s still a lot that’s not clear; but what IS clear is the Gospel and your love for me and my friends. Hallelujah, and So Very Amen.

Don’t Settle for Less Than a Gospel-Sized Christmas

Scotty Smith — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 09:56:42 +0000

Jesus, the Messiah, grew up “like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. He wasn’t ‘beautiful or majestic’ in the natural sense. Nothing about his appearance would have normally stood out to us. Actually, he was despised and rejected by mankind—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.

We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised and we didn’t care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down… He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.” So don’t pity him; marvel at him—worship him. (Paraphrase of Isaiah 53:1-5)

Lord Jesus, this passage both takes our breath away and gives us eternal life. You’re not the “reason for the season”; you’re the meaning of life, history, and the cosmos. You don’t need us to put you back into Christmas. You put us where we could never otherwise be—in Abba’s family and favor, in yourself and your unfiltered delight. Our most present, eternal, and glorious address is “in Christ.”

You are the “tender green shoot” of Isaiah’s vision—the vital root emerging from the parched earth for the “greening” of our arid hearts and the flourishing of our fallen world. Jesus, you created beauty, yet you became the one with “no beauty” on our behalf. You took the vileness and ugliness of our sin to beautify and cherish us forever.

Your love for us has no parallels or end. You are the fountain of eternal pleasures and your laughter fills heaven—yet to redeem us you became “the man of sorrows—acquainted with deepest grief.” You are the God of love who in love came near and got low. You “became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God” (2Cor.5:21). Jesus, we don’t want a “merry little Christmas”—we want you. So Very Amen.

Yuletide or Riptide, Jesus Is There Bringing Grace

Scotty Smith — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 11:06:18 +0000

Wherever Jesus is, he brings “grace upon grace.” John 1:16

Lord Jesus, I woke up feeling the weight of friends’ heartaches, health challenges, and the weight of waiting. On the relational front, many of us would love Christmas 2025 to bring a version of the last scene in Jimmy Stewart’s “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Resolution and redemption, a happy gathering and a healing story would truly be “wonderful.”

But whatever the storyline, you always come to us as our most wonderful, merciful Savior—bringing grace upon grace, and more grace on top of already given grace. Thank you, Jesus. So, we pray for our friends whose Christmas will be marked by an empty chair(s) and a painful heart-hole. Hasten the Day of death’s termination and eternal celebration—no waiting rooms or recovery rooms, no more funerals parlors only resurrection parties. Rush the return of our prodigals, and supersize our hearts with your mercy and welcome should they come through the back door this year.

We also pray in view of other scenarios each of us has. During the holidays old wounds get triggered, and incomplete healing gets neon lighted. Messy relationships seem messier, and loneliness feels its loneliest. No one understands these things better than you. The world into which you were born was filled with relational madness, deep weariness, and multiple fears. Yet you don’t shy away from any of this stuff. For you came to make all things new and beautiful—meaning everything really is broken.

As always, may your presence be the greatest present we receive this Christmas. Do more than we can ask or imagine, Jesus. Free us from comparing our family to the family up the street or in our church. Keep us grateful, tender, and expectant. So Very Amen.

I Want All of This for Christmas 2025

Scotty Smith — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:02:39 +0000

When Jesus returns to finish making all things new, “harming and being harmed will be eternally eliminated. Destroying and destruction won’t be found anywhere in the new heaven and new earth, for all creation will be full of God’s glory and people who know and love the Lord—even as the sea is full of water.” Paraphrase of Isaiah 11:9

Lord Jesus, what do I want for Christmas 2025? Everything promised and guaranteed in this one verse. The Day when all enmity and strife, violence and destruction give way a culture of kindness, affection, curiosity. Frolicking will replace stalking and devouring among animals. Praying Mantises might actually pray not prey.

But I/we long a million times—make that a gazillion times more for the eternal Day when the entire, impossible-to-count, family of God will each love each other as you love us, Jesus. How diverse will we be? We’ll know, love, and enjoy our brothers and sisters from every people group and nation that has ever existed. No nation will seek to be first, because we will finally and fully seek first your Kingdom. We will reveal your righteousness in every thought, word, and thing we do, and in every relationship we have.

Political parties will be replaced with Gospel parties. Boundaries will become bridges. Gates will be as open as hearts. No one will be used or sold, only championed and cherished. There won’t be any more spite, fight, freeze, or flight—no more selfishness, racism, or tribalism. It will be impossible for us to harm anyone or be harmed. We’ll never misspeak, miss-hear, or “miss” anyone’s heart. Thank you, Jesus. Until that Day, grant us kinder hearts, eyes of grace, quicker repentances, and increase our love for you tenfold. So Very Amen.

In ALL Things for Our Good—No Exceptions

Scotty Smith — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 10:07:16 +0000

No matter how things seem, no matter what you have in mind… “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans shaped by heaven not evil—plans about a good future and real hope.” (pp Jer. 29:11)

Heavenly Father, this much-loved verse both confronts and comforts us. It confronts that part of us that wishes you would simply sign off on the plans we make for ourselves. We like stories that include little disruption, ample resources, and minimal suffering. In essence, we’d choose a life requiring little faith, growth, and no waiting. We’d choose a Hallmark story over a Heaven scripted one.

But life between the two comings of Jesus is all about waiting—and more importantly, trusting. Fortunately, with regard to Jesus’ 2nd coming, we’re not waiting to climb into the dentist’s chair, but into the eternal joys of “all things new.” Until that Day, you are our true Home. Our past, present, and future are firmly in your loving grip of grace. Hallelujah, and thank you.

If we knew what you know, Abba, and could hear Jesus praying for us right now, we’d worship more and wrangle less. We’d have more peace than ulcers and would be more accepting than resenting of the hard things we experience before heaven. One day we WILL say, “My God truly worked in ALL things for my good—even in the things I cussed-and-kicked about, things I could not make sense of or believe a loving Father would allow” (Rm.8:28).

We have every opportunity and reason to learn this great truth now, in the waning days of 2025. Indeed, Abba, we don’t want you to be predictable or programable or to cater to our every whine-and-whim. You gave Jesus to us and for us; certainly, we can trust you give us everything else we actually need (Rom. 8:32). Thank you, and So Very Amen.

When Our Inner-Ache Intensifies

Scotty Smith — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 10:46:35 +0000

Mary worshipped proclaiming, “God’s mighty arm has done tremendous things! He scattered the proud and haughty. He dethroned princes and exalted the humble. He filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands and bellies. He helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.” (pp 1:51–55)

Dear heavenly Father, I awoke today with a deep ache in my heart—an ache that makes Mary’s prayer timely and encouraging. I’m grateful for what you do and do not remember. I’m thrilled you’ll never remember our sins against us again. Hallelujah! I’m also grateful you remember every promise you have made—each which finds its “Yes” and fulfillment in Jesus. Another Hallelujah!, on my inner-achy Tuesday.

So what promises warm my heart on this 25-degree, frosty Franklin, TN morning? This ache will not become despair because you have promised that defeated evil (1Jn.3:8) will become eradicated evil on the perfect Day (Rev.21:1-5). We are SO ready to live in a world of no more brokenness, sin, and death—death of anyone and anything—dreams, hopes, pets.

We are primed to say “Sayonara!” to all mourning, crying and pain; all blaming, shaming, and ignoring; every fractured relationship and unfulfilled longing. Hasten the Day, Abba, of no more knowing in part (1Cor.13:9) and loving in part—no more contempt only kindness and compassion. For we will see Jesus as he is and we will be made 100% like him (1Jn.3:1-3). That’s when this ache will cease and we’ll never again cry out, “How long, Oh Lord?”

Until that Day, thank you for being the Father of mercies and God of all comfort (2Cor.1:3). Thank you for promising, and delivering, new mercies every morning, including this frosty achy one. So Very Amen

Let’s Quit Pretending, Own Our Need, and Surrender to Jesus

Scotty Smith — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 10:58:19 +0000

Ask the Lord your God for a sign, Ahaz; let it be massive—as deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz arrogantly responded, “No thanks, who am I to test the Lord?”

With redemptive-irritation, Isaiah responds: “Really? You’ll weary men, but just as easily you dare to weary God also? Okay then, God WILL give a sign, but as an utter rebuke to your pig-headedness—a sign that will change everything in the cosmos and all of history. A virgin will conceive and have a son named Immanuel—which means, God is with and for his people.” (Paraphrase of Isaiah 7:11-14)

Heavenly Father, the Christmas season highlights—with neon blinking lights, your measureless mercy and mind-blowing generosity. But it also highlights the insanity of sin and 100% insufficiency of self-sufficiency. The promise of Immanuel came to one of Israel’s worse kings—Ahaz. Pretending to be humble, he “passed” on being a part of your eternal plan to send Jesus as the promised Messiah.

We throw no rocks this morning. We too have “passed” on your grace for us in Jesus much of our lives—not just in coming to faith, but in the life of faith. More stubborn than mules, more unbelieving than demons (James 2:19), smitten with pride and self-sufficiency, we have a hard time accepting that you are alwaysputting us in situations so we “won’t rely on ourselves but on the God who raises the dead” (2Cor.1:9).

Our need is far worse than we want to own, and your provision for us in Jesus is 10,000 times greater than we realize. Unlike Ahaz, we won’t pretend on this December 8, 2025. We own our need, and we will gladly receive everything you have for us in Jesus. In our relationships, health, hard stories, and multi-faceted brokenness, we abandon ourselves to the eternally God, virgin born Immanuel—Jesus himself. So VeryAmen.

Trustworthy, Trust-Willing, Trust-Enabled

Scotty Smith — Sun, 07 Dec 2025 09:52:09 +0000

“Nothing will be impossible with God.” Luke 1:37

Lord Jesus, how fitting that these words were spoken to your mother, Mary: “Nothing will be impossible with God.” The angel was preparing her for the “impossibility” of her womb becoming the habitation of God-incarnate for 9 months. From there, you would enter our world to redeem your every-nation Bride and “make all things new.” Traveling from heaven into a stable, to your cradle, cross, and crown—what could be more impossible?

On December 7, 2025, your incarnation fuels gratitude in my heart. Thank you for making the impossible actual. Thank you for your unimaginable humility and your immeasurable love. It also raises my trust issues. Can I, will I trust you for things that seem impossible? I’m not talking about “trusting” you for a chalet in Switzerland or a helicopter for running errands.

Can we trust you to work in the lives of our loved ones—without us mucking things up trying to be the 4th member of the Trinity? Can we, will we trust you when “darkness hides your lovely face,” leaving us to “rest on your unchanging grace?” When the pain won’t abate, the conflict isn’t resolved, the next step isn’t clear, not a fig blossom in on our vines, the diagnosis was missed, the peace on earth you promised seems like pie in the sky?

Biblically and theologically, we know you are 1000% trustworthy, Jesus. That’s not the issue. But we ask you to make us more trust-willing and trust-enabled. You are at work. You are in control. You do love. You will redeem. You will finish making all things new. Hallelujah, thank you, and So Very Amen.

Staying Alive to the Love of Jesus Impacts All Our Relationships

Scotty Smith — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 10:32:41 +0000

“Mary will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21).

“Her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love for me has just affirmed, Simon. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” (pp Luke 7:47)

Lord Jesus, like Isreal when you were born, we have wanted (still want?) a Messiah that would bless us politically, economically, and socially. By nature, we want status and security more than we are desperate for salvation. But first and foremost, you came to save us from our sins—sin’s guilt, shame, dominion, penalty, its lovelessness and Scrooge-heartedness—its very existence in us and around us. Thank you!

To be saved isn’t to earn anything, but to receive everything by grace. To name a few things: Total forgiveness and Christ’s righteousness, “belovedness” through adoptions into God’s family and irrevocable citizenship in heaven. Wow!

Jesus, the sanest (Gospel-sane) person in the world should then ask: “How can I show my gratitude for so great a salvation and all these grace-riches?” We do not have to guess. Those who have forgiven much love much—not perfectly, but persistently and as a priority. We are to love you and others as you love us in the Gospel (Jn.13:34-35)—NOT love others as others love us.

So, Lord Jesus, with Christmas 2025 upon us—our ask is simple and supernatural—for only you can do this. First, return us and keep us in a state of being SO alive to your love for us that our love for you will go from warm to chilly embers to a stoked and roaring blaze. Second, give us Gospel eyes, a heart of grace, and Holy Spirit compassion for others—those easy to love, challenging to love, and impossible for us to love apart from you. Thank you in advance, and So Very Amen.

Aching to the Point of Impatience for All the “Good Stuff”

Scotty Smith — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 11:45:28 +0000

“Jesus is already the ruler of the kings of the earth” (Rev.1:5); and “at the right time, God will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth will be summed up and united in Jesus.” (pp Eph.1:9-10)

“Of the increase of Jesus’ government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom—bringing to fruition all the justice and righteousness God promised to his first shepherd-king, David. God zealously guarantees this will happen.” (pp Isa. 9:7)

Lord Jesus, your righteousness is our surety, your love is our freedom, and your sovereignty is our sanity. In the humility of the stable, through your unimaginable sufferings, by the power of your resurrection and ascension—you have made it gloriously clear that you are the “Yes” to every promise God has made (2Cor.1:30).

We rejoice in what you accomplished by your first coming, but we ache for the “everything” of your second coming. We’re so grateful to know that heavenly decrees—not political doings or evil’s schemes, determine the future. Hallelujah! Nothing can derail, deter, or distract you from bringing to completion your good work of redemption and restoration.

Jesus, forgive us when we get impatient with your timing, prefer to live by sight not by faith, and would, indeed, rather be the potter than the clay. We’ve never been more eager for wolves and lambs to be friends (Isa.11:6). But much more so for there to be no more cancer, war, death, illness of any kind or unkindness of any sort. Come fill the earth with your glory, Jesus. Until then fill our hearts with your grace. So VeryAmen.

Never a Jesus-Absent Day All the Way Home

Scotty Smith — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 10:53:29 +0000

“O little town of Bethlehem Ephrathah… “he who has ever-lived—God’s promised Messiah will come from you … In time, he will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord and the majesty of God’s name. His lambs will live securely; and his greatness will reach the ends of the earth. He will be our peace.” (pp Micah 5:2, 4–5)

Lord Jesus, Micah’s prophecy of your coming simply adds to the long list of reasons we adore and trust you. Today we’re especially moved to worship you for being the Shepherd-Savior you are to us. Having laid down your life as the Lamb of God, you arose to be our “Standing Shepherd”—relentlessly, tenderly, faithfully caring for us. Thank you for nourishing, feeding and resting us in green pastures of grace—even when other pastures in life are lifeless, grace-void, and difficult.

Because of your great love for us, we don’t have everything we want, but we lack nothing we need. Because you are Immanuel, we don’t have to be afraid of anything or anyone, anytime or anywhere. This doesn’t mean you promise a pain-free journey Home; but you do promise (Hallelujah!) we’ll never experience a Jesus-absent day. May your perfect love continue to shrink our worries and drive out our fears (1 John 4:18).

Jesus, we SO look forward to the Day when your “greatness will reach to the ends of the earth”—the Day when all things will be new and beautiful and nothing will be broken or unredeemed. However right now and forever, you are our peace; for you are 100% our “righteousness, holiness, and redemption” (1 Cor.1:30). And you give us peace—by the sovereignty of your current reign and the hope of your glorious return. Thank you, Jesus. So Very Amen.

A Different Kind of Christmas List

Scotty Smith — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 11:14:03 +0000

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isa. 41:10)

Lord Jesus, in a world of global instability and personal vulnerability, hard providences and unfinished stories—it is a source of immeasurable peace to know you as the God of “I am’s” and “I will’s.” You tell us to “Fear not!”—not, “Buck up!” Because outcomes belong to you as surely as heaven, earth, and history do.

As our Immanuel, you are with us and for us. As our King, you are sovereign over every little “k” king, cancer cell, and crisis. As our Savior—you lived and died for us, and now we live in you and you in us. Jesus, you are as trustworthy as you are worship-worthy. Here are some of the things we need your “help” with in the last month of 2025. It’s a different kind of Christmas list—one you welcome from us. Jesus, free us to…

Trust you with our loved one’s diagnosis, surgery, and future.
Surrender our expectations, anxieties, and whatever is fueling our anger.
“Dance” in broken relationships while Christmas music is playing.
Accept changes we did not choose, limitations we do not like, and stories we would not write.
Take over-due responsibility for the messes we’ve made, the pain we’ve caused, and the stubbornness we’ve shown.

Jesus, we abandon ourselves to you right now as this day begins, is half over, or the sun is setting. We absolutely love the two “I am’s” and three “I will’s” of Isaiah 41:10. You don’t only have “the whole world in your hands”—but each of us as well. So Very Amen.

A Need So Great and A Craving So Intense Only Jesus Is Enough

Scotty Smith — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 07:57:58 +0000

“Peace to those on whom God’s favor rests.” Luke 2:14

Lord Jesus, how can it be? We’re just a tad over 3 weeks from Christmas Eve—the night angels broke forth with this everything-changing proclamation: “Peace to those on whom God’s favor rests.” Simultaneously the “heavenly host” was heralding your birth and a reality nearly impossible for us to imagine. The two go hand in hand.

Everything our hearts crave is crammed into this one doxological declaration. We want favor—to be desired and delighted in, forever validated and perpetually celebrated. But most of the time we look for favor in people, circumstances, and things that cannot possibly fulfill the depth of our Jesus-shaped craving. We look to stuff like:

A romance that craves us and children who adore us. Companies that promote us and groups that honor us. More friends who “get” us and less people who judge us. More signs of wealth and less signs of aging. More control over others and less disappointment from others… among many, many other destined-to-fail wannabe Jesus-substitutes.

The favor we crave can only be found in the peace you can give by the price that you paid. It’s what Christmas is all about. It’s why you came into our world. Christmas Eve’s cradle and Good Friday’s cross speak louder than 10,000 heavenly hosts of the greatness of our need and the even-greater-ness of your grace. Jesus, you took the disfavor we deserve to give us the delight we cannot imagine. Hallelujah!

You are 100% of our “righteousness, holiness, and redemption” (1Cor.1:30). You fill the Grand Canyon of our need with the fullness of who you are. That’s why, and only why, we can be certain of living in the unparalleled, unwavering, unfiltered favor of God. We believe, help our unbelief, Jesus. We love you; we want to love you SO much more. So Very Amen.

If Jesus Is Near Joy Is Just As Near

Scotty Smith — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 10:21:48 +0000

“Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit, loudly exclaimed to Mary: ‘Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child (Jesus) you will bear! But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby (John the Baptist) in my womb leaped for joy!’” Luke 1:41-44

Lord Jesus, Oh what holy mystery and deep encouragement this story generates. Both John the Baptist and you were still in your mother’s wombs, but your presence fueled John’s joy. This is astonishing but consistent with who you’ve eternally been, because “the fullness of joy abounds” anywhere you are (Ps.16:11).

It’s the same joy you pray we will experience in full measure (John 17:13)—the joy you produce in us by your Spirit (Gal.5:22-23)—a joy that makes room for the sorrows of life in our broken world and intense longings for the Day of all things new. For Jesus, you were simultaneously a man of sorrows (Isa.53:1) and anointed with the oil of joy above everyone else (Heb.1:9).

There’s no contradiction in this—just comfort, along with great freedom and deep hope. Joy inhabits our sorrows and grief; it doesn’t replace them. Our tears become the heart-water of compassion, not angry expressions of self-pity. Indeed, gladness and sadness are Gospel-sisters, not fighting cousins. The Apostle Paul understood this, describing himself and his friends as those who are “sorrowful but always rejoicing” (2Cor.6:10).

So, December 2025 we’re under zero pressure to be “up” all the time; neither are we to consider joy as optional, a matter of temperament, or reserved for your return. Jesus, grant us a December marked by a core of joy as we ponder your two comings, and hearts of compassion for others all around us. So Very Amen.

Jesus’ Heart, Arms, and Hands

Scotty Smith — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 11:03:24 +0000

Heralds of hope and the good news of the Gospel, bring your declaration with joyful shouts, saying: “Your God is coming!” Yes, the Sovereign LORD is coming in power. He will rule with a powerful arm. Behold, he brings the blessings of redemption and his reward with him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart… Who else can hold the oceans in his hand? (pp Isa.40:9-12)

Lord Jesus, in just 25 days, “Christmas happens”—a day pregnant with all kinds of meanings, memories, and emotions—for those who do and do not know you. So here is our prayer—no matter where we are in our spiritual journey, season of life, and chapter in our story. Grant us grace over the next 3 ½ weeks to discover more of who you are, why you came the first time, and what will happen when you come again.

The prophet Isaiah’s description of you is stunning in its imagery—and everything-changing because it’s true. You came/come to us as the Sovereign Lord, with “sleeves rolled up,” to rule over history and every heartache, over every king and every crisis. You even “hold the oceans in your hand” (Isa.40:12). Nothing is impossible for you. Nothing is too big or too much for you, Jesus—not one thing.

And with those same arms you gather, feed, carry, and hold us close to your heart. You alone deserve the title Good Shepherd—not because you are nice and caring by temperament, but because you are glorious and generous by sacrifice. Christmas reminds us you are our Good Shepherd because you were first our perfect substitute—the Lamb of God who took our sin to give us … well, everything. Here’s to 3 ½ weeks of fresh marveling, re-centering, deep worship, and profound hope. So Very Amen.

Finishing 2025 Dazzled, Humbled, and Gladdened by Jesus

Scotty Smith — Sat, 29 Nov 2025 10:59:58 +0000

“The prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently with great care, seeking to discern when and where the Spirit of Christ inside them was pointing. Without all the details, the Spirit told them the Messiah would suffer and afterwards great glories would follow… Even angels, on tip-toes with joy, long to look into these things.” (pp 1Pet.1:10-12)

Lord Jesus, the season of Advent officially begins tomorrow, Nov. 30—a month of pondering the things that moved prophets and angels to deep awe, fresh hope, and holy joy. May December 2025 find us “busy” with slowing down, quieting our hearts, and setting our gaze and affection on you afresh.

The Old Testament’s prophets were “shocked and awed” as the Holy Spirit gave them promises, words, and images to share with us about your two comings. By the sufferings of your first, you secured the glories of your second. I love how Peter summarized the “big picture” of your work as the Messiah as “grace coming to us.” For that is what we need, and that is who you are, Jesus. Truly, grace isn’t a something; it is a Someone—you, Lord Jesus.

Before you drew your first incarnate breath in Bethlehem, and exhaled your last on Calvary, you breathed our world into existence. Oh, blessed Alpha and Omega—First, Middle, and Last—Jesus only you are worthy of our worship, love, and praise. Only you see, know, and care for us in the ways we crave and need.

You know our greatest struggles and our yet-to-be-healed wounds, our most holy longings and your most glorious provision. Meet with us in this month, Jesus. Melt us with your mercy. Marvel our hearts with your truth, goodness, and beauty in ways we have never experienced. So Very Amen.

Just How Fully Can We Rely on God’s Love for Us?

Scotty Smith — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 12:23:23 +0000

Through the Gospel, “we have come to know, rest in, and rely upon the love God has for us. Whoever lives in his love lives in God, and God in them… There is no fear in love. In fact, God’s perfect love for us drives out our very imperfect, stubborn, and varied fears.” (pp 1Jn.4:16-18)

Heavenly Father, it’s all here in this one passage—the wonders of your love, the essence of your being, and the heartbeat of our calling. We are to rest in and rely on your incomparable love for us in Jesus.

The first is easier than the second, but both require the greatness of your grace and the power of your Spirit. Grant us both as we name the restlessness, weaknesses, and fears we carry .

About what are we restless? How much time do you have Abba on this day after Thanksgiving? How about global instability and national craziness for starters? But on a way-more personal level, we are restless about people we love, relationships we can’t make great, and outcomes we can’t control. Free us to rely on your love more fully in each of our relationships.

What weaknesses are we currently experiencing? As for me, being 75 has its own predictable, inconvenient, and humbling weaknesses. But temptation to sin is a weakness the youngest and most mature believer will experience till heaven. There’s no sin in being tempted, but there’s temptation in every single day. Abba, you know our current vulnerabilities. Free us to rely on your love more fully when we’re tempted to medicate our pain foolishly, satisfy good longings in very bad ways, and/or take things into our own hands that only you can handle.

What do we fear? Each of us, if we’re in doubt, needs to ask you to make our fears clear to us, Abba. Is it fear of people-pleasing, fear of aging and death, fear of not having or being enough, fear of becoming irrelevant and forgotten? Free us to rely on your love more fully when we face our fears. And Abba, with or without our permission, please expel, evict, exorcise our very unwelcome, vexatious, peace and joy robbing fears. So Very Amen.

Why Be Grateful Today Even if We Can’t Overflow with Thanks?

Scotty Smith — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 10:15:45 +0000

“Since you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, now walk in Him. Get to know him more intimately and love him more fully. You are deeply rooted in Christ, and your Father is making you more like Jesus. With our eyes fixed on Jesus, and Jesus as the object of our faith, may we overflow with gratitude.” (pp Col. 2:6-7)

Heavenly Father, considering the opulent riches you have given us in Jesus, and the many creature comforts and good things you give us as a loving Father, “overflowing with gratitude” shouldn’t be that difficult. But until you glorify us, our default mode will be forgetting the Gospel, discontent-by-comparison, and “Yes-But-Ing” your grace. “Yes, God’s grace is amazing BUT check out my ‘not-so-amazing-list’.”

(Friends, on this Thanksgiving Day, what disproportionally disappoints us more than the Gospel most appropriately astonishes us? Don’t let this question fuel shame but ignite our gratitude.)

Abba, you commend being “content with food and clothing” (1Tim.6:8). So, here’s the “bread-and-threads” we are most grateful for today. Thank you for giving us bread from heaven—the Bread of Life, Jesus himself as our essential nutrients and eternal feast. Thank you for taking away our wardrobe of sin and shame, and clothing us in garments of your grace—in the very righteousness and beauty of Jesus. Hallelujah,10,000 times over!

Abba, we also thank you today for the multiple freedoms of the Gospel, including these:

Thank you for your freedom from posing and pretending. Many of us wake up to hard stuff today—like empty chairs in our home through death of a loved one or strained/broken relationships. Your grace frees us to grieve hard things without them debilitating or defining us.
Thank you for the freedom to lament without our laments turning into cussin,’ contempt, and acting “crazy” for a few hours. We are guaranteed a perfect world, a perfect us, and perfected others—but not till Jesus returns. Give us big grace till that big Day.
Thank you for the freedom to ALWAYS ask: “How is my Father at work for my good right now in things I call bad and very hard?”

Father, we do thank you, but we are not saved to the degree we’re grateful but to the degree we’re grace-possessed—which is 100% by your doing and delight. So VERY Amen.

Life Is Short, Heaven Is Near, Love Like Both Are True

Scotty Smith — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 10:25:23 +0000

“Encourage one another, build one another up—more and more so as you hear the clock ticking and see the best Day ever getting really close.” (pp 1Thess.5:11+ Heb.10:25).

Heavenly Father, we will soon realize that whatever we thought heaven will be like—our bar is way, way too low; our imagination is too monochromatic and undersized; and our hopes about heaven have been too shackled and shaped by our fallenness and unbelief. Eternity will be beautiful, bountiful, and bodacious beyond our wildest dreams, best theology, and ability to conceive what you’ve prepared for us. Hallelujah, and thank you.

A nano-second into our first unfiltered, unfettered glimpse of Jesus (1Jn.3:1-3), we’ll also realize that your grace is 10,000 times more amazing that we currently realize. We’ll also understand that you intended us to live, (before our death), with more peace, freedom, and joy—more “holy-I-could-care-less-ness” about things that that presently bug and bind us.

This is all SO real to me as I think about how many of friends/acquaintances of mine have passed into eternity in the past year—some half my age. And there are several people dear to me who are carrying what our world calls a “terminal” illness. This is more of a “wake-up-and-smell-the-Gospel” call than it is sobering, scary, and saddening to me.

The perspective-metaphors you’ve given us in your Word about life before heaven are “mist, vapor, a shadow, and withering grass.” Thank you, and may these images impact us a lot more—even for the remainder of 2025. We’re fixing to be, (or not be), with people we call family, friend, neighbor, etc. Free us to see each other with eyes of compassion through the lens of mercy by the calendar of grace with the Day in view. Unknot us and de-rigid us, Father, gentle and soften us. We need to hold each other more than we need to hold grudges. So Very Amen.

The Fullness of Abba’s Joy Invading the Fullness of Our Messes

Scotty Smith — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 10:14:34 +0000

“Rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Lk.10:20).

“In your presence (Abba) there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps.16:11).

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James1:2).

“Father, may they have the full measure of my joy within them” (Jn.17:13).

Dear Abba, Father, Habakkuk your son and prophet affirmed his commitment to rejoice in you right in the middle of a fig-less, blossom-less, grape-less, olive-crop-failing, livestock-gone stretch of life (Hab.3:17-19). For some, this might seem like spiritual spin, feelingless stoicism, or the delusions of denial. But for those who understand the interplay of life in Christ and life in a fallen world—it’s really challenging, but not at all shocking.

Precisely because you are our Sovereign LORD and loving Father, we can trust you with our next several days and weeks—and the rest of our lives. In all probability we’ll experience both “trials of many kinds” (Jms.1:2), and “grace in many forms” (1Pet.4:10). This interplay might threaten our joy, but it can’t destroy it—for our joy is rooted in you, not dependent on things we cannot control. With Paul, our desire is to affirm: “Our hearts ache, but we always have joy” (2 Cor.6:10).

All this Thanksgiving week—and throughout Advent, may we see our names written in heaven’s book more clearly than the trials penciled into our journey Home. May we experience Jesus’ prayers for our joy being answered well before he wipes our tears and makes all things new. Since the fullness of joy is found in your presence (Ps.16:11), bring your presence into the fullness of our messes. Abba, if we haven’t told you lately, we love you and are SO glad we are your beloved children. So Very Amen.

What Kind of Thanksgiving Week Is Jesus Planning for Us?

Scotty Smith — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 10:49:08 +0000

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let anyone who hears this say, “Come!” Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life. Rev. 22:17

Lord Jesus, we just read the last command in the entire Bible (Rev.22:17) and it couldn’t be more encouraging. It’s not “Hurry up and get your act together quick!”; or “Do more, try harder!”; or “You haven’t done enough!” Rather it’s “Come, thirsty ones! Come, desiring ones! Come and take the free gift of the water of life. Come to me—again and again.”

Hallelujah… invitation not indictment, welcome not worry, provision not pressure, refreshment not “regret-ment”—this is what you offer us, Jesus, and it’s the “Spirit” we pray will permeate Thanksgiving week 2025. Beginning with ourselves, may we take our thirst seriously—our multi-level needs you alone can meet. And may we respond afresh to your offer of “the water of life”—needed by believers and non-believers alike. We’ll stop needing “living water” the day we stop needing your mercy, grace, and love.

So, about this week, Jesus—we know what we’d love it to be like; and you know what you have in mind, heart, and providence. Whoever we’ll be with or wished we could’ve been with; no matter how close or far Thanksgiving will be to fulfilling our hope for a healthy “family,” kind connections, and tension-free relationships—may you be our primary feast, Jesus. Knowing you and being known by you, is the deepest longing we have—our reason for existing and the fulfillment of our most intense cravings. Never let us forget this and make it more real than ever, Jesus.

You have a heavenly habit of “keeping the party going” even when invitees don’t, won’t come (Lk.14:15-25). You don’t mope; you gather. You don’t send the Turkey back to Publix; you have the band play louder. There are grace-thirsty ragamuffins, lonely friends, the weak and forgotten ones all around us. Fill our hearts, time, and tables with whomever you wish, Jesus. So Very Amen.

Forgiven, Healed, Redeemed, Crowned

Scotty Smith — Sun, 23 Nov 2025 10:06:27 +0000

“I say to myself, ‘Worship, praise, and love the Lord with everything you have and are—with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Adore him and don’t forget even one of the riches of grace he freely gives you.’” (pp Psalm 103:1-4)

Dear Jesus, we’re Cinderella with amnesia, AI without the memory part, dolphins with dementia. For we struggle to remember every good thing we have in you. We’d love to have a photographic grace-memory. Why, of all people, should we be grateful? Psalm 103 gives us a roadmap, catalogue, and warehouse of reasons to be irrepressibly grateful and worshipful.

You forgive all our sins. – When you declared, “It is finished,” you meant it. Though one Day we’ll be more like you, Jesus, we’ll never be more forgiven than we are today. Hallelujah!

You heal all our diseases. – Not always on our timetable, or in the exact way we pray, but you are always healing us. Jesus, thank you for securing perfect health for us forever—healing and wholeness for our bodies, mind, and spirit.

You redeem our lives from the “pit.” – What pits? The deep cavern of death and eternal judgment, but also nasty, infected wells of self-pity, resentment, and contempt; and road-kill-infested ditches of comparison, discontent, and ingratitude.

You crown us with love and compassion – Lord Jesus, you wore a crown of thorns that we might be crowned with your love and compassion—hallelujah! Your banner over us is now-and-only love. Your delight in us is full-throttle and non-stop. Your coming for us is more certain than our next breath, crazy traffic next week, and puppies that chew and need to be house-trained. We are loved and we are yours and we are grateful, Jesus. So Very Amen.

The Gift of People Is Greater Than Gifted People

Scotty Smith — Sat, 22 Nov 2025 10:27:02 +0000

“Philemon, your love has given me great joy and encouragement” (Phlm.1:6).

“Rufus’ mother has been a mom to me too” (Rom.16:13).

“Onesiphorus wasn’t ashamed of my chains and refreshed me” (2Tim.1:16).

“Phoebe has blessed many people, including me” (Rom.16:1-2).

“Timothy cares for people, including me, like no one else” (pp Phil.2:20).

“Titus was a conduit of your comfort at just the right time” (pp 2Cor.7:6)

Heavenly Father, Of all the good gifts you give us, the best come wrapped in human flesh—beginning with the gift of your beloved Son, Jesus. Thank you, for sending Jesus to us and for us. But you didn’t stop with Jesus. We all know very gifted people, but your gift of certain people to us makes it so easy to be grateful during this Thanksgiving season.

The Apostle Paul listed many friends for whom he was grateful—sisters and brothers who became grace-in-the-flesh to him. Abba, thank you for our grace-friends as well. Their compassion-antenna and Spirit-sensitivity serve us in timely and uncanny ways. Their encouragement is life-giving, heart-refreshing, and perspective-restoring. Like Paul himself, they don’t just give us the Gospel and verses, but their heart and lives as well (1Thess.2:8).

Their vulnerability about their own struggles and weaknesses makes it easier for us to own ours. Their eye contact, listening, and kindness “preach” the Gospel to us more clearly than most pulpiteers. They always seem to know when to pursue us, and when to push in without being “pushy.”

As Alison Krauss sings, They “say it best when they say nothing at all”—for sometimes words get in the way of what we need the most—the quieting presence of your love. Father, thank you blessing us with such friends. Increasingly make us this kind of friend to our friends. So Very Amen.

Don’t Superglue Your Cracks. It’s How Jesus Is Revealed

Scotty Smith — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 09:36:07 +0000

“We showcase the treasure of the Gospel in our weak humanity—in fragile jars of clay. This gives God all the glory for what he is doing in us and through us. We feel pressure on every side, but we’re not crushed. We’re perplexed but not in despair. Though persecuted, we know God’s abiding presence. Beaten down but not obliterated. We were crucified and raised with Christ, so his death is dear to us and his resurrection-life is now being revealed through us” (pp 2Cor.4:7-10).

Dear Jesus, comparing my challenges to the Apostle Paul’s is like comparing my ukulele plucking to Phil Keagy’s guitar playing; Kmart flip flops to German made Birkenstocks; canned asparagus to farm-fresh vegetables. In other words, there is no comparison. But I 100% relate to Paul’s treasure imagery and weakness metaphor.

Indeed Jesus, you are the most glorious, exquisite, and eternal treasure. Free me and my friends to be 100 times more enthralled with you than we currently are. We love you but want to be utterly “smitten” with you” and “gobsmacked” adoring of you.

Though there are moments/seasons in life when throwing in the towel, running to a distant land, or numbing our pain in foolish ways seem incredibly attractive—we know you well enough not to be as easily tricked by the devil’s schemes (2Cor.2:11). We’d rather be weak Christ-bearers than “awesome” and Christless.

You didn’t come into our world to be our masseur, concierge, butler—but our Savior, Lord, and very life. If being weak best reveals your magnificence, keep me/us weak. If the aroma of grace is most fully released through “cracks” in jar-of-clay-ness, don’t patch up my/our cracks. Reveal more of yourself to us and through us, Jesus. Become even more our singular, incomparable treasure. There is no greater privilege, joy, and honor. So Very Amen.