A Weekend for Kindness and Refreshing One Another

November 7, 2020 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH A Weekend for Kindness and Refreshing One Another SCOTTY SMITH For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. Philemon 1:7 Lord Jesus, we’re not made to navigate even the normal storms of life alone; or carry our burdens and heal our heartaches all by ourselves. We need each other. Add a “virus” and “votes” to the mix, and it underscores the priceless gift of Gospel-friendships. Thank you for friends with whom it’s just as easy to lament as laugh; eat fruit cobbler or feast on the Lord’s Supper; try a new hobby for the 1st time, or remember to trust you for the 1000th time. Thank you for friends who offer their listening, quicker than their answers—those who bring more kindness than rightness to the relationship. In the stressors and messes of 2020, we need each other’s love and refreshment—beginning this very weekend. Jesus, you are the fountain of the most refreshing and renewing of all friendships. In the Gospel, you say to us, “I no longer call you servants; I call you friends” (John 15:15). And we say to you, “Thank you, Jesus, thank you.” As you are to us, may we be to each other. So very Amen we pray, in your kind and peerless name.   Wish you had roundup of our best content? Subscribe to our weekly Update. SIGN ME UP! About Us    |     Council    |     Donate ©2020 The Gospel Coalition, All Rights Reserved. P.O. Box 170346 — Austin, TX 78717 Update Email  |  Unsubscribe

What Jesus Continues to Pray for Us

November 6, 2020 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH What Jesus Continues to Pray for Us SCOTTY SMITH “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” John 17:20-21 Lord Jesus, we are grateful you constantly pray for us. For surely, all your prayers will find a grand fulfillment, including this prayer. You don’t pray for uniformity, but unity—a glorious display of our diversity becoming a bouquet of grace. A Gospel-garden, whose aroma and beauty convinces the world the Father sent you to reconcile us to Himself, and to one another. Only the Gospel can do this: Hostilities replaced with hospitality. Meanness usurped by kindness. Rancor giving way to welcome. Dividing walls retrofitted as healing bridges. Segregating by pride and fear, becoming congregating by mercy and grace. Throughout the world, non-essentials, and non-eternals, continue to divide us as your people. Forgive us, and heal us, Jesus. Our call to unity, and your prayers for it, are of critical importance for the foreseeable future. No matter who our next president will be, you are our King, now and forever. May the Gospel become beautiful and believable to a divided USA through a united US. Send your Spirit, please. So very Amen we pray, in your tender and triumphant name.   Wish you had roundup of our best content? Subscribe to our weekly Update. SIGN ME UP! About Us    |     Council    |     Donate ©2020 The Gospel Coalition, All Rights Reserved. P.O. Box 170346 — Austin, TX 78717 Update Email  |  Unsubscribe

Heart-Setting for the Days Ahead

November 5, 2020 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH Heart-Setting for the Days Ahead SCOTTY SMITH   In the last days, people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. 2 Tim. 3:1-4 “I have this against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first.” Rev.2:4 Lord Jesus, what a sobering passage for us to marinate in—no matter our time zone or postal code. According to Paul, the one most accurate description of fallen humanity is misplaced love. “Lovers of themselves, money, pleasure; not lovers of the good, without love…”—how indicting and convicting. Yet, how inviting and focusing the last phrase is: “rather than lovers of God.” Jesus, wherever you’ve placed us as your Bride-in-waiting, we’re called to love you with everything we have and are. We love because you first loved us—by your life, death, and resurrection. Refuel, revive, restore our “first-love” for you, and each other. (Rev. 2:4). Nothing else matters more right now. Recapture and enrapture us with your beauty and love. What do we love more, or other, than you, Jesus? Free us to love well in the coming “last days”—Friends who voted opposite us. Neighbors having no clue about you. People who love everything but you. Those we’ve made our enemies, and those who consider us their enemy. Love never fails. So very Amen we pray, in your holy and peerless name. Wish you had roundup of our best content? Subscribe to our weekly Update. SIGN ME UP! About Us    |     Council    |     Donate ©2020 The Gospel Coalition, All Rights Reserved. P.O. Box 170346 — Austin, TX 78717 Update Email  |  Unsubscribe

The Longing for Peaceful and Quiet Lives

November 4, 2020 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH The Longing for Peaceful and Quiet Lives SCOTTY SMITH I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 1 Tim. 2:1-2 Lord Jesus, as I begin this day and prayer, it’s still uncertain who will occupy the Oval Office in the White House the next term. What is certain is that you are ruling the world with your truth and grace. That’s where we anchor our peace and hope, and center our hearts. Irrespective of how this election plays out, we are to pray for “all people, kings, and those in authority.” It’s hard to lapse into criticism if we linger in intercession. So we pray for our present and future president, and those in authority. In the coming hours and months, may we pray just as earnestly and faithfully for whoever you “set up, and sit down.” The goal being that we may live “peaceful and quiet lives.” Lord Jesus, we long for peace in our country and world—the “shalom” of your present and coming Kingdom. By your mercy and might, please restrain the evil-making, leading up to and surrounding this election. But most of all, give us a greater passion for “godliness and holiness”—lives centered on your glory, grace, will, and reign. What we need more than “our candidate” to win, is for you, our King, to pour out the Holy Spirit on us. We need revival. May we not settle for mere lives of “personal peace and affluence.” The Gospel frees us to live for you, not ourselves—for you, “who died for them (us) and was raised again” (2 Cor 5:15). May it be, Jesus. So very Amen we pray, in your merciful and mighty name. Wish you had roundup of our best content? Subscribe to our weekly Update. SIGN ME UP! About Us    |     Council    |     Donate ©2020 The Gospel Coalition, All Rights Reserved. P.O. Box 170346 — Austin, TX 78717 Update Email  |  Unsubscribe

An Occupied Throne and Our Much-Grace-Needed Calling

November 3, 2020 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH An Occupied Throne and Our Much-Grace-Needed Calling SCOTTY SMITH At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. Rev. 4:2 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor. 1 Pet. 2:17      Heavenly Father, as those you’ve given to Jesus, and sealed with your Spirit, we bow before you today with gratitude and groaning. We are grateful the Gospel is true, the throne of heaven is occupied, and the return of Jesus is certain. These 3 grand realities give us peace, and fuel our hope. In our gratitude “we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly” for the completion of our salvation and the fullness of your Kingdom (Rom. 8:23). We’ve never groaned louder, or been more eager for the Day of all-things-new (Rev. 21:1-5). Father, as votes are cast and counted in America today, give us all the grace we will need to love, obey, and trust you. Surely this is what is means to “fear God”—to live with affectionate awe of who you really are. Only you are God. Only you are sovereign. Only you are worthy of our worship. “Honor the emperor”—this will require a lot of your grace, no matter who sits in the Oval Office the next four years. In Peter’s day the emperor was Nero. In John’s day, even worse, it was Domitian. Prepare us Father, whether we are pleased, angry, or are frightened by the outcome. “Show proper respect to everyone”—to believers and non-believers alike. We haven’t done a great job of this lately, Father. Help us to be salt and light, in a world of bitterness and spite. “Love the family of believers”—this will never be more necessary moving forward, Father. The world will know we belong to Jesus by the way we love each other—not by the way we voted. Help us, heal us, heart-fill us with your glory and grace, humility and kindness. Renew our first-love for Jesus, and deepen our trust in you. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ triumphant and tender name. Wish you had roundup of our best content? Subscribe to our weekly Update. SIGN ME UP! About Us    |     Council    |     Donate ©2020 The Gospel Coalition, All Rights Reserved. P.O. Box 170346 — Austin, TX 78717 Update Email  |  Unsubscribe

We’re Electing a President, not a Savior and Sovereign

November 2, 2020 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH We're Electing a President, not a Savior and Sovereign SCOTTY SMITH “Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.” Ps. 46:10 He controls the course of world events; he removes kings and sets up other kings. Daniel 2:21 Lord Jesus, Americans will elect a president tomorrow—a great honor, prayerful matter, and big deal. So, keep us perpetually aware of the empty tomb of Easter, the warm-seated throne of heaven, and the eternally-settled purposes of heaven. Indeed, a president is being elected; not a Savior and Sovereign. Because you are in control, we shouldn’t be in knots. Worship, not worry, is the order of the day. You know what will best serve the purposes of the Great Commission in the USA; and in Uganda, the Sudan, Switzerland, Israel, Russia, and China. You will be (not, might be) exalted among the nations—all of them. We don’t know heaven’s reasons for choosing to seat certain kings and remove others (Dan. 2:21). That’s “above our pay grade.” But we do know our Father has left nothing to chance, but all things to you (Psalm 2:8). In all of our seeking, we intend to seek first your kingdom and the righteousness of your kingdom—by the way we vote, trust, and love. So very Amen we pray, in your triumphant and loving name. Wish you had roundup of our best content? Subscribe to our weekly Update. SIGN ME UP! About Us    |     Council    |     Donate ©2020 The Gospel Coalition, All Rights Reserved. P.O. Box 170346 — Austin, TX 78717 Update Email  |  Unsubscribe