This Prayer Is for You

November 4, 2022 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH This Prayer Is for You SCOTTY SMITH   “The LORD your God is among you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will greatly delight in you. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with loud singing.” Zephaniah 3:17   Lord Jesus, I start today in the posture of adult weariness, childlike curiosity, and earnest longing. If you are actually addressing me in this passage—if you’re not looking over my shoulder at someone else, but are seeking to make eye contact with the eyes of my heart… then I’ll get still, sit here, and be as receptive as your Spirit will make me. I know you’re here. I absolutely believe you were raised from the dead, after dying for me on the cross. I don’t doubt that. But how can it be that, right now, right here, in this very moment… you greatly delight in me? Jesus, promise me that’s not poetry, hyperbole, or just a metaphor. In my unbelief, I’m tempted to say, “Do you really know me, Jesus? Are you sure you’re addressing me?” But of course, you do. Only you really know me, or any of us. And only you love like this, Jesus. People can’t touch the depths of this promise and longing. Our sweetest, healthiest moments of intimacy and connection with loved ones have just been a hint and taste of how much you love us, Jesus, and how you desire to be our greatest delight, deepest satisfaction, and most compelling treasure. And our hardest relationships, Jesus… you know all about them, help us see how those serve to open, or reopen us again, to the wonders of your love. No spouse, no children, no friends, no nobody can take your place, Jesus. In the coming hours and days, quiet us with your love, Jesus. Turn down the noise, the unbelief, and our people-pain, as you turn up the volume of your singing and rejoicing over us. So Very Amen. Wish you had a 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

Always Be Practicing Gratitude

November 3, 2022 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH Always Be Practicing Gratitude SCOTTY SMITH “Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Eph. 5:19-20   (Friends, gratitude is a most powerful means of gaining and maintaining heart-peace and freedom. By gratitude, self-pity is sabotaged and fears shrink. Gratitude is a discipline before it’s a delight, so let’s get a jumpstart of Thanksgiving with this prayer.)   Heavenly Father, thank you for only commanding things that deepen our knowledge of you, joy in you, and love for you. The command to keep the music of the Gospel alive in our hearts is a perfect example. We have so much for which to be grateful. For starters, thank you for granting us 100% forgiveness, robing us in Jesus’ righteousness, and for hiding our lives in Christ. Nothing can separate us from your love or diminish your delight in us. How can we possibly put a value on these things? Thank you for sovereignly ruling over everything, and for working in all things for our good. We don’t always like your timing or understand your ways, but your faithfulness and goodness are without question. And there’s so much more. Thank you for non-posing friends, sourdough bread, Romans 8, the color blue, and laughter that generates tears and snorts. Thank you for sunsets and moon rises, the music of the 60’s and 70’s (or whatever you guys like), unrushed conversations and almond butter balls. Thank you that Alzheimer’s and cancer, war and addiction, prodigal wandering and family stressors don’t get the last word—you do. Because the Gospel is true, we can vex less and repent quicker. Because you are with us, we can fear less and trust more. Father, thank you for the near Day of wiped tears and redeemed sorrows, no more sin anywhere and your glory everywhere. So Very Amen.     Wish you had a 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

Preparation, Prepentance, Preemptive Loving

November 2, 2022 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH Preparation, Prepentance, Preemptive Loving SCOTTY SMITH “Without love, I am nothing… Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:2, 13). “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Gal. 5:6). “Do everything in love” 1 Cor. 16:14).   Lord Jesus, yesterday my hackles were raised, my disgust went from a 3 to 8 in 2 seconds, and my resent-ability reared its head and shoulders. I hate hate. I hate spite. I hate evil. But more so, I fear becoming what I hate. So, here’s to a season of preparation, prepentance, and preemptive loving.   Preparation: Jesus, you told us that life between your resurrection and return will be marked by misplaced love. “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money… without love…, not lovers of the good… lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Tim.3:1-5). This makes us sad, but it should not shock us. So, the best thing we can do is to fill our minds, hearts, and days with your beauty, love, and grace. You have called us to discover how wide, long, high, and deep your love truly is (Eph.3:18-19). By your Spirit, take us further in and further up.   Prepentance: Jesus, we don’t want to wait till we have to repent of resentment, anger, and lovelessness. So, we “prepent”—we go ahead and admit our weakness and constant need of your grace. Grant us quick repentances when we respond in kind, not in kindness. Though we’ll try, don’t let us justify our bad attitudes, misuse of words, and hoarding of your grace.   Preemptive Loving: We love because you first loved us, and continue to do so, Jesus. We are most like you when we love like you. We will love like you as we spend more time adoring you, spending time with you, worshipping you, meditating on your mercies, and marinating in your grace. Jesus, supersize our love for yourself. So Very Amen, we ask, pray, long.   Wish you had a 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

Captives and Captivated

November 1, 2022 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH Captives and Captivated SCOTTY SMITH   “Thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. 2 Cor. 2:14-15   Heavenly Father, what an amazing description of the Christian life. We are to live as most grateful captives in Jesus’ “triumphal procession”—not as bombastic conquerors, but as those conquered by the only love that is better than life. This “parade of grace” will carry us all the way into the new heaven and new earth. We are captives because the Gospel rescued us from sin, death, and the dominion of darkness. We are captivated because Jesus is a most wonderful, merciful Savior and King. By the work of your Spirit, Increase our “smitten-ness” with Jesus’ beauty, magnificence, and joy. Since we most smell like Jesus when we are humble, gentle, grateful, and kind., keep us in that most attractive posture. Grace always runs downhill. We can love extravagantly because of Jesus’ extravagant love for us. We can risk waiting. We can live non-reactively and non-defensively because Jesus’ Kingdom has come, and will come in fullness. Faith and hope are the order of each and every day. As our culture is, once again, turning up the thermoset on vitriol, meanness, and “us versus them,” may the Gospel be the only thing offensive about us, Father. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our identity is in Christ. Our calling is to live here and now for your glory. What an honor. So Very Amen.   Wish you had a 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

Mercy-Bomb, Grace-Gift, Peace-Kiss

October 31, 2022 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH Mercy-Bomb, Grace-Gift, Peace-Kiss SCOTTY SMITH   King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?” (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego). They replied, “Certainly, Your Majesty.” He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” (Daniel 3:22-25).   Lord Jesus, theologians often refer to your joining Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace as a “Christophany”—an occasion in the Old Testament when you “show up,” before you entered our world through your incarnation. We are fine calling it a mercy-bomb, grace-gift, and peace-kiss. That’s all we really need and want, Jesus—to know you are with us and for us—Immanuel, all the time and in every circumstance. We know our lives are safely hidden in you, Jesus (Col. 3:3), and that you live in us as our sure hope of glory (Col. 1:27). And we rest in your promise that, as our God, you will never leave us or forsake us (Deut. 31:6). Hallelujah, and thank you, for this is very a very timely reminder. Many of us feel like we are near, or in, some version of a “fiery furnace”—a hard providence over which we have no control, or guaranteed outcome. Jesus, would you please drop a few mercy-bombs and grace-gifts on us? There is nothing like a realized sense of your presence—nothing. There is nothing as centering and settling as a fresh peace-kiss from you on our hearts. If your peace is ruling in our hearts, Jesus (Col. 3:15), we’re okay living in the chaos, waiting, and not knowing. Thank you, Lord Jesus. So Very Amen, we pray and trust.   Wish you had a 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

Life As a Perpetual Return to the Gospel

October 30, 2022 Heavenward SCOTTY SMITH Life As a Perpetual Return to the Gospel SCOTTY SMITH   “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Eph. 2:8-9   Lord Jesus, much of the Christian world recognizes today as “Reformation Sunday.” It’s not a day for groveling and promising to reform ourselves. It’s a day for remembering the sweetest, most necessary fruit that emerged from the Reformation. When Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle, Oct. 31, 1517, it was a glorious reminder that all of our sins had been nailed to your cross. Luther began a fresh chapter in the back-to-the-Gospel story—a story which preceded him, and will continue until you return, Jesus. For we suffer from Gospel-amnesia, grace-allergies, truth-dementia, and faith-forgetfulness—along with a big dose of insufferable pride. The Gospel declares our need to be greater than we want to admit, and more loved than we can possibly imagine. We needed a new heart, not a fresh start—to be grafted into the True Vine, not merely “turn over a new leaf.” Only your saving grace and perfect righteousness are sufficient—not our tearful resolve, hard work, and sweaty grit. Jesus, thank you for exhausting our guilt, taking our shame, and breaking our chains. Today we re-affirm our hope is built on nothing less, other, and more than you, and your finished work on our behalf. Keep bringing us back to yourself and “the Gospel of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24). All other saviors are “snake-oil salesmen.” All other “gospels” are graceless liars. All other hopes are empty-nothings. All other kings are barking puppies. All other riches are “fool’s gold.” All other peace is evaporating-dew. So Very Amen.     Wish you had a 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