The Happiness and Generosity of Our Father

October 16, 2021 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH The Happiness and Generosity of Our Father SCOTTY SMITH “Don’t be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.” (Luke 12:32); “Let us be grateful, for we are receiving an unshakable Kingdom.” (Heb. 12:28) Lord Jesus, thank you—thank you very much. This is a simple and short Saturday-prayer, offered by a bunch of former “spiritual-lepers” you have cleansed, forgiven, and clothed in your righteousness. If we had nothing else but you, and these riches of grace, we would be incalculably wealthy. But there is more. Through you, we’ve been adopted into Abba’s family. We’re no longer spiritual orphans, or slaves to sin and death. In you, we are co-heirs of…. well, of everything. We really don’t have to be afraid. Fear and worry don’t deserve as much time and power as we give them. Help us with that. Thank you for telling us about our Father’s happiness, and the joy he has in being generous with us. You know more about that than anyone, so we trust you. Keep freeing us from our unbelief about our Father, and everything else in the Gospel that seems just too good to be true—or too good to be ours. We inwardly groan and eagerly await the fullness of the “unshakable Kingdom.” It’s certainly coming, and we certainly ready. Gratefully yours, your beloved Bride. 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

If I (We) Had Three Months to Live

October 15, 2021 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH If I (We) Had Three Months to Live SCOTTY SMITH   “LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered—how fleeting my life is.” Psalm 39:4 Lord Jesus, I’m still processing my dear friend’s words, “Looks like I might be in heaven in three months.” My first response is, thank you for making heaven a glorious reality, and not an empty metaphor everyone reaches for to deal with the awkwardness, fears, and unknowns about death. Your death was the death of death, and your resurrection is the guarantee of ours. Hallelujah, and thank you! One of the reasons you came into the world was to “set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying” (Heb. 2:15). Because the Gospel is true, we don’t have to be afraid of dying, or living. My second response is, thank you Jesus for setting an expiration date on all cancer, heart disease, sin, evil, and brokenness. Hasten that Day. But thirdly, how might knowing I only had three months to live impact me? What would I do more of, and less of? What resentments, irritations, grudges, and hurts that feel like an “8” (on a scale of 1 to 10), would get instantly dialed down to a “3” or even a “0”? I’m sure my “to love list” would instantly be more important and longer than my “to do list.” Jesus, whether our remaining “brief time on earth” is 3 months, 3 years, or 3 decades, make this our core conviction, great joy, and daily reality: “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love” (Gal. 5:6). Love from you, for you, extended to everybody else. A Huge Amen   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

It Always Comes Back to Jesus

October 14, 2021 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH It Always Comes Back to Jesus SCOTTY SMITH “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Ephesians 5:21 Dear Jesus, it always come back to you, and well it should. There’s simply nothing more important about us than how we relate to you from our hearts. The one question always on the table is, “Who do you say I am?” (Matt.16:15). How we respond impacts everything about us. Free us to revere you more. So, what does it mean to “revere” you, Jesus? It certainly doesn’t mean to be afraid of you, for your perfect love drives out all fear. We revere you when we give you the love, adoration, worship of which you alone are worthy. We revere you when awe fills our hearts—astonishment that you love us just as much as you say you do. We revere you when our communion and fellowship with you give us more satisfaction and joy than any and all of our best human relationships. When we revere you, we show up as servants in our relationships—not as doormats, but as foot-washers. Not as slaves to man, but as children of Abba. Not to make anybody happy or holy, (which is impossible), but to love others as you love us. We revere you when we forgive as you have forgiven us; when we forbear with others as you forbear with us every second of every minute; when we extend mercy and grace, as you extravagantly do to us all the time. Oh Jesus, free us to revere, love, and enjoy you more than ever. So very Amen, we pray, in your matchless and merciful 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

All That Matters

October 13, 2021 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH All That Matters SCOTTY SMITH “Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.” Eph. 6:24  Lord Jesus, you’ve written this final verse in Ephesians upon our hearts with the finger of your Spirit. May it increasingly be all we think about, pursue, delight in and live out… until you take us Home. Loving you with an “undying love”—what a glorious calling, heart-consuming privilege, and life-shaping honor. Not merely admiring you or greatly respecting you, Jesus,—or even giving everything we have to the poor in your name, or choosing the death of a martyr in service to you (1 Cor. 13:3). But loving you as our greatest treasure, peerless heart-claim, and singular joy. Passion, adoration, enjoyment, intimacy—this is the language of what it means to love you. It’s the only worthy response to the great love you have lavished on us in the Gospel (Eph. 1:3-14). Your love is the only love with a width, length, height, and depth beyond measuring, and (hallelujah) beyond exhausting (Eph. 3:18-19). Our brothers and sisters in heaven are happier than we are right now, but they are not more loved by you. Your love for us is the main constant in our lives, only equaled by our constant need for it. Lord Jesus, stoke the fires of our love for you, with by the truths of the Gospel and the power of your Spirit. Restore our first love for you, then take us farther beyond it than we have ever been before. So very Amen we pray, in your glorious and grace-filled 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

Asking, Imagining, Craving

October 12, 2021 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH Asking, Imagining, Craving SCOTTY SMITH  “To him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.” Eph. 3:20-21 Heavenly Father, meditating on Paul’s prayers in the Book of Ephesians (Eph. 1:15-22; 3:14-21) fills my heart with encouragement, joy, and hope. The gates of hell will not derail the growth of your church, advancing of your kingdom, and arrival of the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1-22:6). We’re not naïve. Until the Day of all-things-new, Satan will continue his attacking, lying, and robbing. Really good churches, (and really mature believers), do drift, fall, and jump into really big messes. Confident of your promise to do “immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine,” here’s what we ask and imagine. Restore us to our first-love relationship with Jesus (Eph. 6:24; Rev. 2:1-7). In response to his incomparable love for us (Eph. 3:18-19), may we love Jesus more than we ever have—more than our sin, more than our most beloved family members, more than our next breath (Luke 14:26). Humble, gentle, and gladden us. Dead bones can live again (Ezekiel 37). Chilly-hearted, cynical believers can dance again (Luke 15). Christians who have deeply hurt each other can heal and love well again. Churches can get unstuck, and become upward gazing and outward facing again. Father, bring us into fresh, palpable, ongoing Gospel-renewal. We ask, imagine, and crave it, in Jesus’ holy and loving name. So Very Amen. 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

“Pant-Theology” Is a Good Thing—a Gospel Reality

October 11, 2021 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH "Pant-Theology" Is a Good Thing—a Gospel Reality SCOTTY SMITH  “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” Ps. 42:1–2 Lord Jesus, there’s no craving more demanding than thirst. It’s neither patient nor polite. It doesn’t “take a number and wait.” We will slake our thirst—one way or another, wisely or foolishly. We will turn to broken cisterns that hold no water (Jer. 2:13)—people, approval, religion, success, more of something, the list goes on. Or we’ll look to you. On this October Monday, we lace-up our running shoes, and run to you, Jesus. Intensify our thirst for life-giving, soul-satisfying, peace-giving fellowship with yourself. We want to be experts in “pant-theology”—panting after you with the heart-fluttering joy of a Bride, and the unshakable certainty of your love. Indeed, renew, revivify, reinvigorate, restore to us the sweetest and deepest fellowship we’ve ever enjoyed with you. And then, take us into such new vistas of intimacy with yourself, our hearts will beat faster than ever, and will singularly beat for you. You still stand and cry out in a loud voice, “If you’re thirsty, come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, streams of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38). Thank you, Lord Jesus. Keep us simultaneously deeply thirsty for you, and greatly satisfied in you. So very Amen, we pray, in your all-glorious and all-generous 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