Brooks Szewczyk

God is omnipresent, which means he exists in all places at all times. His existence is unlimited, undivided, undiluted, and unconfined. And as David shows us in Psalm 139, that’s not just a deep doctrine, it’s a real comfort for God’s people. God’s presence means present care, present control, and present conviction.¹

In this post:

1. What Does It Mean That God Is Omnipresent?
2. What Does the Bible Say About God Being Everywhere?
3. Why Does It Matter That God Is Everywhere?

Do you recognize this verse from the Bible? “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Psalm 103:8; see also Exodus 34:6).

I think many of you will have heard that. Some of you could point me to where it is, and I would guess that some of you even have that verse memorized. It’s a precious and sweet verse that tells us something about our God. He is merciful and gracious and loving.

Those attributes of his are so meaningful to us. For one thing, they have something to do with us. He is merciful toward us, gracious with us, and loving of us.

For another thing, those are attributes that we can more easily wrap our minds around. We have a frame of reference for mercy because we’ve been shown mercy and we’ve shown mercy to others. We have a frame of understanding in our minds of love because we’ve loved people and we’ve been loved by people. God has let us experience and partake in some of his divine attributes, like mercy, grace, and love. We have a real partaking in them, though God’s love and mercy are not on the level of our love and mercy.

The thing is, there are other attributes of God that we have less of a frame of reference for. There are things that are harder for us to wrap our minds around, like God’s eternality. I remember being a kid and it blowing my mind that God has existed forever, that there was never a time when he was not. It still blows my mind to this day to think about how God has always been and always will be. That is just something that I, as a creature confined by time, have no frame of reference for.

Omnipresence is one of those attributes. It’s not easy to fully grasp, but it will blow your mind if you get even an ounce of understanding of it. That’s what I hope to give you here: an ounce of understanding that gives you some worshipful awe of just how great your omnipresent God is.

First, I’ll give you a biblical definition of omnipresence that I think will help it fit in our minds better. Then I’ll do what the biblical authors do: connect it to our experience in life, with our sin, our struggles, our suffering, and the evil around us.

What Does It Mean That God Is Omnipresent?

All the preaching textbooks tell you that you have to find a way to make truth real to people. You have to have stories, analogies, illustrations, and examples because we’re experiential people. We live life, and we need to be able to connect truth to real life so it stays in our minds and hearts.

I want to give you some real-world analogies to help you understand this big theological category of God’s omnipresence, but there’s nothing and no one like God in this way. The difference between being omnipresent and not being omnipresent is the difference between Creator and creature, between God and everything else. There is nothing like God in this respect: no angel, no person, no created thing.

So, I asked myself this question: How do I define this deep, philosophical, theological, and biblical truth in a way that is connected to the life that we live? Here’s the answer I’ve come up with: I’m going to do the opposite.

I’ll give you a simple definition, and then I’m going to give you four ways that God’s omnipresence is unlike anything else. It is in a category all on its own.

Here’s the simple definition: God exists in all places at all times. His existence is unlimited, undivided, undiluted, and unconfined. Those are the four qualities of his omnipresent existence that no one and nothing else shares.

Let’s walk through them.

Unlimited

You can only exist where you are. You can’t be in two places at once. This is not only a limitation on your physical body; it’s a limitation on your soul as a creature. You are limited by time and space. By nature, you can’t exist outside of them. Nor can any angels, demons, animals, or anything else. Except for God. His existence and presence are unlimited. He can be in all places at all times.

This is why God is called I Am (Exodus 3:14). Only God can always be I Am. In every place and at every time, you might be an I was or an I will be, but God never is. He is the great I Am.

Undivided

Imagine the universe were a single room, so you have 100 square feet of space in the universe, and you say God is present in all of them. Say you put a wall up in the middle of the room. Did you just divide the presence of God in half? You could say, “God is 50% present over here and 50% present over there. He’s still in all places. We’re not dividing his nature, but we are dividing his presence. He is present here, but it’s a 50% presence, and here it’s a 50% presence.”

No. God’s existence and nature are undivided. He is fully present wherever he is, and the fact that he’s present in two places, or throughout all of creation, does not limit the fullness of his presence in any particular place. The fact that God is listening to the prayers of people in Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania, and South America does not mean he’s giving less attention or is any less present with you as you pray at church. Or in your home.

Undiluted

In every place, God exists in the fullness of his presence in a way that could never be watered down. Right where you are, God exists in all of his fullness.

What if you zoomed in on one square foot of that room? You’re looking at 1% of the universe at that point. What percentage of God’s presence would you say is in that square? The answer is 100%. The fullness of God exists in that square. God is as much in the room where you’re sitting as he is everywhere. God is as much in you, if you are in Christ, as he is in all the heavens and the earth. His presence is potent everywhere, indivisible and unable to be watered down. You have with you at all times the fullness of the presence of God, the full potency of his power, the full strength of his care.

Unconfined

And his presence is unconfined. If you stood up right now and started running as fast as you can toward the back of the room you’re in, it would take you about three seconds before you ran into a wall. When you leave a building and the doors are locked behind you, you will no longer be able to get in without breaking the walls, windows, or doors, because there are physical structures that limit us.

We haven’t come close to finding where the universe ends, but there is an end to the created universe. And even that does not confine God.

The Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs writes this:

…God is as much beyond every place as He is in every place. He is as much beyond the circumference of the heavens and the earth as He is in them; yea, if God should make ten thousand worlds more, He would fill all those as well as He does this one, without any motion at all. He would not move from one place to another to fill up ten thousand worlds (if there were so many new ones made), but in the same instant in which they were all made, that immense being of His would fill up all. Surely God is a most excellent being than above all other things whatsoever.

Jeremiah Burroughs²

I love that last sentence. Contemplating such great things, Jeremiah Burroughs is just led to worship. And it’s not just him.

What Does the Bible Say About God Being Everywhere?

Throughout the Bible, God’s omnipresence is not just an implicit truth. It’s not just this undergirding reality that you can see if you really peel back the curtain of theology. It is taught from the beginning of the book to the end of the book, certainly, but the saints in the Bible also worship God for being omnipresent. For them, that doctrine was a comfort, an assurance, a hope, and it changed how they saw the world.

I tell you, God’s omnipresence is a practical and life-changing thing to understand.

King David had learned that in his life, and so he wrote Psalm 139. Nowhere in the Bible is God worshiped for his omnipresence like he is in Psalm 139. This is one of the most beautiful psalms in the Bible. Let’s walk through it and highlight three ways David connects God’s omnipresence to his life: present care, present control, and present conviction.

Present Care

Starting in verse 1:

O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

Psalm 139:1–12

God’s presence is a sweet thing to a saint. Asaph ends Psalm 73 by saying, “But for me it is good to be near God” (Psalm 73:28). David spends so much of Psalm 139 delighting in the fact that he cannot escape God.

The reason that’s delightful to me and to you is that we have a sinful propensity to try to escape from God. We are runners, sinners who are stupidly running away from that which is good for us, often knowingly running from that which is good for us.

Have you ever gone to sin knowing this is just going to make you feel terrible? That’s what we do. The first thing that Adam and Eve did after sinning was to run from God (Genesis 3:8). It was stupid of Adam and Eve to flee from God, not only because God saw anyway, but because their only hope in God’s world was God.

God’s presence is not disconnected from the verse we started with: “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” God’s presence is vitally connected to his mercy and grace and love.

His presence means mercy. His presence means grace. His presence means love. God’s presence is a comfort to his people. That’s what David finds out and writes, not only here but in Psalm 23, when he says, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” (Psalm 23:6).

If you think that you have fled from the love of God and escaped it, if you think you’re far from the goodness and mercy of God, you’re wrong. You can’t escape. You cannot go to Sheol, you cannot go to heaven, you can’t fly as high as the birds or take a submarine to the bottom of the ocean and escape from the love of God.

No matter where you are, if you are in Christ, even there your God upholds you in his care and love. God’s omnipresence means present care.

Present Control

Continuing in verse 13:

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Psalm 139:13–16

God is Lord over all creation. His lordship and presence are joined together inseparably. Wherever God is, God rules, and wherever God rules, God is.

If there were a place in this world where God was not, there would be a place in this world where God does not rule. If there were a speck of dust in the universe that God did not rule over, it would be the single speck in the universe where God’s presence was not. That’s a mere hypothetical, because God is omnipresent. He is in control of everything. His presence means that he is not just powerful enough to rule over creation; his presence means that he is actively ruling over all of creation.

There is a star billions of light-years away that is only shining because God is ruling over it and is present with it. If God were not actively present, that star would not only not shine, it would not exist. He’s Lord over it, and so he’s present with it. He’s present with it, and so he is Lord over it.

So it is with your life.

I remember in a Q&A someone asking R.C. Sproul how he could say that God was sovereign over cancer. How could we say God is Lord over that kind of suffering? Sproul’s answer was this, to paraphrase: If you were to remove the sovereignty of God, the control of God, the presence of God from that suffering, you would also be removing any hope for that suffering. You would be removing any meaning in that suffering. But because God is there, he’s in control.

God’s lordship and presence go hand in hand. That’s a hopeful thing.

Present Conviction

Continuing in verse 17:

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you. Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Psalm 139:17–24

God’s presence means that God sees all things.

It’s also a comfort to know that no evil in this world goes unnoticed. You have never been sinned against without your Father noticing. You have never been the recipient of injustice without the just God of the universe taking note. He has never turned a blind eye to wickedness, whether it’s against you or anyone else. Vengeance belongs to him, and there will be no ultimate injustice left in this world. There will be no crooked lines that are not made straight, because the omnipresent God sees and convicts the world regarding sin.

It also means there is no darkness in which we can hide our wicked acts. As Adam and Eve found out, there’s no tree to hide behind when God seeks to enact justice. There are no secret sins. You may have a sin that is secret from everyone else around you, but you have no sin that is secret from God Almighty.

You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

Psalm 90:8

All that we do, we do with the eye of God on us. Now that’s convicting personally. That’s why David ends the psalm with, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

He’s saying, “God, you know all of my sin, and so it is a grace to be known. I want to be known.” It’s not a bad thing that God is present everywhere. It is not a bad thing to live before the face of God. We want that conviction.

It is a great mercy and grace that we cannot run from conviction, because that is the means by which we are made more holy and so more happy. Like David, we need to turn the knowledge of God’s omnipresence into the desire to do all things for the glory of God.

We have an audience for every word that we speak, every thought that we think, and everything that we do. The audience is God, the Almighty. In all of our thoughts, words, and deeds, our goal should be to bring glory to the omnipresent God, the One who sees.

Why Does It Matter That God Is Everywhere?

Theology matters! It’s all connected to real life.

His presence is an astounding theological truth, a deep philosophical and doctrinal reality. It’s connected to our lives because it is by and through his omnipresence that he cares for us, that he comforts us, that he controls all things for our good, and that he convicts us to make us eternally happy and holy.

Brothers and sisters, one thing I will leave you with is this: theology matters. Many people are looking for solutions to the problems of their heart and mind and soul. They look under every nook and cranny in this world, to every kind of person and expert in this world, to every kind of substance that they could get their hands on. A true knowledge of and confidence in doctrines like the omnipresence of God would go a long way to set our minds, hearts, and souls right. This kind of theology is connected to real life.

Take up and read the word. Think about what it means that God is with you all the time. “I feel like God is far from me.” But he’s not. “I need mercy.” God is present and ready to give mercy. “I’ve sinned.” God sees and knows. “I’m suffering.” God is with me to make my suffering meaningful.

Theology matters. Remind yourself this week, as often as you can, that God is with you. How sweet is that? So sweet that it’s the promise Jesus left for us: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). That promise is a comfort, and it’s for you. Take it this week. Pray it. Let it nourish your soul.

God tests us, but he never tempts us. Trials are the pressure from without that comes from our Father to strengthen us and lead us to righteousness. Temptation is the pressure from within that comes from the evil desire in our hearts and entices us to sin. One leads to death, one leads to life.³

	Trials	Temptation
Source	God, according to his plan (James 1:2–3)	Our own desire (James 1:14)
Effect	Steadfastness (James 1:3)	Sin (James 1:15)
End	The crown of life (James 1:12)	Death (James 1:15)
Our response	Count it all joy and endure (James 1:2, 12)	Don’t blame God; take responsibility (James 1:13)

In this post:

1. Does God Test Us?
2. Does God Tempt Us?
3. What Is the Difference Between Trials and Temptation?
4. How Should We Respond to Trials?
5. How Should We Respond to Temptation?
6. Christ Took the Blame

James 1 is, I think, one of the most needed texts in regard to how we counsel one another, particularly as we respond to suffering. Most of life is spent responding to suffering, because it is in this world everywhere and all the time.

As we walk through this text, I want to walk through a case study as well, a biblical case study, so that you can see what an example of this theological argument looks like when it hits the real world. Biblical counseling is for the real world. It’s not confined to a small part of our lives. Because the Bible indeed is able to give us the categories and counsel to deal with all of our suffering (all of it) and to make us complete.

The case study we’re going to look at is that of Job. Job is the perfect example of James 1 worked out in a proper way and in improper ways, as you’ll see.

Now, this is a long point that James is making. It starts at the very beginning of the letter in verse 2, and it goes all the way down to verse 18. So we’re not going to walk through that whole text. But I want to look at the bookends of the text, where James opens up his argument, and then where he picks it back up with his main point in verse 12.

There are two questions I will ask of the text, because they are the exact questions James answers: What are trials? And what is temptation? After we understand those things, we’ll see why James is making the distinction between trials and temptation and how we respond to each of them for God’s glory.

Does God Test Us?

So let’s start by asking the first question: What are trials?

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

James 1:2–3

Let’s walk through this text phrase by phrase.

“Count it all joy, my brothers…” We’ll come back to that phrase.

“When you meet trials…” Let’s stop there. That immediately tells us something.

Source

To meet a trial means you encounter it, walk into it, happen upon it. It’s not something you create. In fact, the most literal rendering of the verb translated here as “to meet” is “to fall into.”

In other words, trials are not your plan. They are not what you expected. They are not by your design. From your perspective, they happen to you. These trials come from without, not from within. They are external pressures.

So, what’s the source?

To ask the question differently: If we’re just walking into these trials, where did they come from? They’re called tests in verse 3. Who is administering the test?

The intentional implication is that these trials are from God. They are according to his will and his plan.

But he uses his tools to accomplish that plan. What are those tools?

Nature

Look at the next phrase: “…when you meet trials of various kinds…”

This life is filled with trials. I know that you know that, because you live through them.

God’s plan for each of us is unique. We don’t all walk through the exact same trials and struggles.

When we look back over our lives, there will likely be huge trials that we look back on and identify. For some, it may be cancer. For others, it may be when you lost all that you had. For some, it may be watching a loved one walk away from the Lord.

We all will walk through incredibly difficult things, but they won’t all be the same. They will be of various kinds.

The word various refers to the type of trial, the intensity of the trial, and the longevity. James absolutely has in mind the major afflictions we walk through, but he also means more than that.

Every day, we face various trials. The world is filled with them. When you’re already running late, you’re going to get in the car and see that you have to stop for gas. And after you fill up the tank, you will get stopped at every red light. You’ll stub your toe, and that really does hurt. But some people are going to live with a low-grade pain for years. And some will live with deep pain they will never get answers to.

Every affliction we walk through, big or small, whether it lasts for a day or a lifetime, is from God’s hand and for our good. Indeed, Romans 8:28 is still true: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Even the little things are moments of testing that we can respond to in faith.

There are many biblical examples of trials given by God, and they are various.

Hebrews 11:17: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested (same word), offered up Isaac…”

It was a trial God ordained for Abraham to offer up his son. That’s a trial unlike any most of us will ever go through.

John 6:5–6: “Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?’ He said this to test him (same word, again)…”

A mere question from Jesus to Philip was a trial.

What I’m saying, brothers and sisters, is that we should know that God’s hand is behind all trials, big and small.

It is just as right to take hold of faith when every red light stops us as it is when we lose our job. All of these things are tools in God’s hand that he uses how he wants to.

There was a 17th-century Puritan pastor named Thomas Brooks (great name), and as a pastor, he dealt with the bubonic plague going through his town and his church. He preached a sermon during the plague in which he pointed those suffering it to God’s sovereign hand over it. He said (and this is a long quote):

The scribe is more properly said to write than the pen, and he that maketh and keepeth the clock is more properly said to make it go and strike than the wheels and poises that hang upon it; and every workman to effect his work, rather than the tools which he useth as instruments. So the Lord of hosts, who is the chief agent and mover in all things and in all actions, may more fitly and properly be said to effect and bring to pass all judgments, yea, all things which are done in the earth, than any inferior or subordinate causes: seeing they are but his tools and instruments, which he rules or guides according to his own will, power, and providence.

Thomas Brooks⁴

When you see the tools that bring about affliction, learn to see the hand of your Father holding them. You will understand that none of it is purposeless.

The trials may be written in ink on the pages, but it’s God writing the story. Sickness, persecution, judgment, pressure at work, difficulty at home, even your particular struggles and inclinations: all of them are just tools in God’s hand that he uses to accomplish his good plan with good purposes for you.

And what are those good purposes?

Effect

Verse 3 continues: “…for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”

Trials lead to strengthened faith. Isn’t that interesting? The world doesn’t understand that. They expect our faith to crumble in the face of adversity. They expect persecution to put an end to the preaching. They expect war to put an end to worship. They expect cancer to put an end to our confidence in the goodness of God. They expect pain to put an end to the pleasure we enjoy in Christ. That’s backwards!

James says, “you know”! That is not the way faith truly works. And God knows that too.

Why else would our loving Father plan trials? Why would our Lord Jesus tell us to expect them if they weren’t for our good? Why would the Spirit write to us through 1 Peter 4:12, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you (same word), as though something strange were happening to you”?

This isn’t strange. This is God’s method of building your faith. The world boasts in prosperity. Not us. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 11:30, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”

When you’re pressed with trials and struggles and you think, “God, why are you trying to snuff out the little hope that I had?” you’re thinking like the world! When God presses you with trials, he’s working to strengthen your faith. To give you more hope. To get you to feel even more of his love.

Though trials in this life seem to never cease, they make our hold of God stronger.

It’s like if you’re riding a bull and the bull keeps getting crazier, but somehow your hold on the rope is getting better.

Or though the background noise gets louder and louder, you’re getting better at honing in on the voice of the Shepherd.

Or though you are pushed with more force, your feet are more firmly planted.

You can pick any of those analogies, because clearly I couldn’t choose between them.

Trials are from God to strengthen our faith, which leads to life.

End: The Crown of Life

Verse 4 finishes the thought:

And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:4

Then James picks this argument back up in verse 12:

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

James 1:12

The work that God does to strengthen our faith culminates in our deliverance from the world of suffering and sin and trials into eternal life.

God’s ultimate goal for our lives on earth is not what our goal often is. God’s goal in your life right now is, through trials, to prepare you for eternal joy. Our goal in the moment is often to bypass the trials and enter into that joy immediately.

God calls us to endure trials, and we often want to end the trials. You see what the problem is with that? God’s ultimate goal is to give us something more precious than gold. Our ultimate goal is to settle for puny, temporary joys right now.

This is one of the biggest differences between biblical counseling and the counseling of the world.

The goal of biblical counseling is to help people take a stronger hold of Christ and endure suffering in faith for his glory, so that by his grace they can receive the crown of life. The goal of secular counseling is to remove all suffering and take hold of temporary pleasures, with no thought to the crown of life.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. Our main calling in the trial is to endure, to persevere, to remain steadfast. That is where the blessedness comes from. The joy is in the endurance.

Now, does that mean we don’t pursue healing? Does that mean we don’t pursue a job? Does that mean we don’t pray for God to save our kids? No, of course that’s not what that means. Of course not! But we understand that all things we endure have their beginning and end set by the sovereign hand of God. We’re not sovereign over the trials. He is. And to glorify God (which is what we want more than anything), we endure trials and let that steadfastness have its full effect.

Put all of that together, and let’s answer the original question:

What are trials? Trials are various afflictions that we face according to God’s plan to strengthen our faith and prepare us to receive the crown of life.

Case Study: Job’s Trial

How do we see that in Job? Let’s look at our case study. The book of Job peels back the curtain of reality so you can see what’s really behind Job’s suffering.

In Job 1, we learn that Job is a man who feared God and turned away from evil. He was an upright man who was very well-to-do. He had seven sons, three daughters, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants.

Here’s what happens: Satan comes before God after looking over the earth. And in Job 1:8, “the LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?'”

Who is in control of this situation? God is the one who brought up Job, knowing what Satan would say. And Satan says, “Of course Job fears you, you’ve blessed him with everything he could ever want!” You know how the conversation goes.

Job 1:12: “And the LORD said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.'” Soon thereafter, Job receives news from messenger after messenger that everything he has is gone: his children, his servants, his wealth.

Job experienced various afflictions in every area of his life. Was it according to God’s plan? Where did this trial come from? Satan, the adversary. He did this. And he did it to prove that Job was not righteous. He did it with evil motives. And he liked seeing Job in pain.

But there’s another answer to the question “Where did this trial come from?” The answer is God. God brought up Job to Satan, not the other way around. God put Job in Satan’s hand. God set the limits of what could be done to Job. This was God’s plan, not for evil, but for good. God did this to Job.

And it’s not sinful to recognize that the trial came from God’s hand. I know that because this is at the end of chapter 1:

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Job 1:20–22

That, my friends, is a trial. Though Satan meant it for evil, even the devil is a tool in God’s hand. Job knew the Lord was the ultimate actor, the one who took away all that he had. And Job knew that in doing this, God did no wrong. At least, in the beginning, Job knew that. We’ll pick back up in our case study later.

Does God Tempt Us?

Here’s the next question: What is temptation?

At this point in James 1, James begins to contrast what he has taught us about trials:

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

James 1:13–15

Source: Lured and Enticed

“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed…”

That’s already different from trials. Remember, trials are met. They’re encountered and divinely orchestrated. Temptation is different. It’s not happening to us. It’s a response of each person. The person is responding to something.

According to biblical scholars, both of these words in the original language (lured and enticed) had originally been used in the context of fishing. A person is tempted when they are lured, attracted to something like a fish to bait. They’re enticed like a fish is with the bait, which leads them to take a bite of it.

James uses language about trials to make it clear that they are happening to us, but he uses language about temptation to very clearly show that there is culpability in us. There is responsibility that we bear for temptation, because it starts not by our happening upon it but by our moving toward it.

And what is it that we move toward?

Nature: Desire

Verse 14 again: “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.”

That’s the bait. That’s what lures us in. Our desire.

We are only lured and enticed into temptation when our hearts desire sin. The problem is in us. In every circumstance.

But aren’t some things tempting? Isn’t Satan the great tempter? Yes, things can be temptations. And people and Satan can try to tempt us. But they are only temptations to us when they align with our hearts. When we desire them. That’s the meaning in the context of this verse.

With every temptation, it’s not the external stimuli that James blames. It’s not Satan who is held responsible. It’s not the Ferrari or the Rolex that makes us envious. It’s not the picture that’s responsible for our lust. It’s not the jumbo bucket of fried chicken that’s held accountable for our gluttony. It’s not the harsh words of your spouse that God blames for your sin. It’s not the company that laid you off. It’s your heart. It’s my heart. It’s our desire.

The way we talk, we blame everything on other people. “You made me do it.” Or “I just couldn’t help it.” Humans are great at finding reasons to not take responsibility for their sin. Because we are reacting to the world, we’re reacting to suffering, we’re reacting to other people’s sin, we’re reacting to evil, we’re reacting to things that were done to us or said to us, we’re reacting to trials. So there’s always something to point to. Of course there is!

But in the end, it is our desire that was already in our hearts that the Bible assigns ultimate responsibility to. It is resoundingly true across many biblical texts. From the biblical counselor Jeremy Pierre:

Scripture addresses the heart, not the external conditions, as the direct cause of a person’s response.

Jeremy Pierre⁵

The answer to the question “Why did I sin?” or “Why am I tempted?” is always that my heart desired evil. That is always the ultimate answer.

Temptation is when our own desire lures and entices us. Then what happens?

Effect: Sin

Verse 15: “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin.”

It’s no surprise that when we take the bait, we get a hook stuck in our mouth that yanks us in. As that desire takes root, it grows until sin is born.

The evil desires of our heart are not only displeasing to God, but they only grow in their badness. The fruit is rotten.

Trials, though difficult, strengthen our faith. They tighten our grip on God. Temptation does the opposite. It grips sin, and as it grows, that grip only gets tighter.

That’s why we are called to flee temptation. Remember: We can always say no to temptation. No matter what the external stimulus, no matter how great the desire of our hearts. 1 Corinthians 10:13 is true: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

We fight the evil desires of our heart, because if they are not cut off, they give birth to sin. And where does that lead?

End: Death

Finishing verse 15: “And sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

You know, that’s where sin leads. The image here is of the conception, birth, and growth of a person. Once born, sin only grows. And there comes a time when it is fully grown that it brings death.

Temptation is the first link in a chain, and the last link is your sin killing you. It is no small thing. Your sin will continue to grow until through death you encounter judgment. And that judgment for those not in Christ is eternal suffering. Eternal fire. Sin will grow until it sends you to hell. That’s what death is.

Christian, hear me: God is still sovereign. Let the end of temptation teach you something about the nature of temptation (it’s evil, and to be repented of, and we ought to flee from it), but do not let it convince you that Psalm 121:7 is not true:

The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.

Psalm 121:7

And if you are not in Christ, please know: The path you are walking on leads to death, then judgment. That’s not hyperbolic. It’s not an overstatement. But the grace of God is available to you by faith alone. Your sin requires everything of you, including your life, and will lead you to hell. God’s grace requires nothing of you and will end in you receiving the crown of life. Repent and believe.

All who are reading this, hear James: Take temptation seriously.

What is temptation? Temptation is the evil desire in our hearts that entices us to sin, which ultimately leads to death.

Take it seriously.

Case Study: Job’s Temptation

Let’s look at our case study again.

Where we left off, Job was under a trial and responded well by recognizing God’s sovereign hand and worshiping despite the suffering. But it didn’t stay that way forever. As Job sits in this suffering, he begins to have a change of heart.

He is enticed to sin. And he blames God. In Job 19:7, it’s recorded that he even implies God isn’t acting with justice. There was enormous pressure on Job from the outside because of the affliction. But his response eventually revealed what was in his own heart. He was tempted and led into sin. Where he initially did not sin with his lips, he eventually did sin in his heart.

And it wasn’t entirely. Job still said some good things and right things. He never lost the complete fear of God or anything like that. He just let bitterness take hold.

But that can’t be his fault, right? He lost everything! Wouldn’t the suffering be to blame? How could he not sin when he is in constant pain all over his body and has lost everything? Or Satan, whose hand did all of these things? Satan did it so that Job would not fear God. He did it to cause him to sin. This is the outcome he was going for, so wouldn’t he be the one responsible for Job’s sin? Or what about God, who ordained it all? Would Job have sinned if God were not testing him?

Well, God responds to Job. And he calls Job to repentance, boy does he. He holds no one and nothing besides Job responsible for his sin.

In Job 38 and 40, God answers Job out of the whirlwind for his bitterness and says, “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.” And in chapter 40, he continues:

Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?

Job 40:8

My friends, God will not have his glory tainted by us blaming him for the evil that came from the desire in our own heart. He will not have it. Job’s evil desire led him to sin, and God held him accountable. That’s the story. In fact, that’s the end of the story.

What Is the Difference Between Trials and Temptation?

Going back to James, have you thought about this question: Why is James contrasting trials and temptations? Why would he start out a letter by defining trials and temptations?

Here’s something that may surprise you about our text: the words trials and temptations in our translations are actually very similar words in Greek. They share the same root, and context makes a huge difference in how we know which sense is intended.

Think about how he defined each use of it. In the first sense, which we translate trials, they are something divinely orchestrated, that strengthens our faith, and that ends in life. But in the second sense, which we translate temptations, they are something we must not attribute to God, that leads to sin and ultimately ends in death. How can such similar words carry both of these senses?

You see, James is making a very complex argument here. To us, these varying definitions make sense. We have two entirely different words. But the original Greek-speaking audience had very similar words that carried two very different theological senses.

As you read James 1 in English, it is obvious that these words carry different meanings, but James is doing something profound for the original reader. He’s saying you need to be careful with how you use this idea, how you understand trials and temptations. They are not the same.

The imperatives on both sides of the argument are too important for you to conflate them. We must remain steadfast under trial so that we receive the crown of life. And we must never attribute what comes from the evil in our hearts to God!

You may feel pressure, but know that pressure from the outside and pressure from the inside are not the same. One leads to death, one leads to life. And we must respond to each differently.

How Should We Respond to Trials?

My friends, when you experience trials, hear what the Spirit of God says: Count it all joy. Though your trials are various, your God is in control. When you feel the pressure of affliction, know that it is doing what 2 Corinthians 4:17 says it is doing: “preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”

You must have an eternal understanding of suffering. You must. You cannot think of suffering like the world does. You can’t look at trials like the world looks at them. Because suffering apart from Christ and suffering in Christ are two entirely different things.

When God sends the fiery trial upon you, you’re not surprised, and you know that the fire refines you as it refines gold. It doesn’t consume you. It makes you perfect and complete. And so you know how to rejoice.

Because the fire is so temporary. So you don’t focus on the flames, and your eyes are fixed on the one who holds you until the day that comes so soon when you will be in the fire no more, and all of your suffering in an instant will be gone forever. We know where trials come from: our Father. We know why they are there: our good. And we know how they end: the crown of life.

So we don’t grumble and complain about the trials. We don’t get angry at the God who tests us. We endure by rejoicing. We rejoice with endurance. We place our faith in God and wait on him.

How Should We Respond to Temptation?

Hear what the Spirit of God says: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God.'”

While the original audience may have been more inclined to jumble these ideas together because of their language, we might be more inclined, because of ours, to miss how these two ideas are connected.

The reason we address trials and temptation together is that trials have a way of revealing our temptation. Suffering has a way of uncovering our sin.

We respond to the pressure of trials, and we can respond righteously or we can respond unrighteously.

Biblical counselors have come up with many illustrations to explain this concept, but I’m gonna put my own spin on it.

We are like sponges, and when we are squeezed, what we were holding inside is revealed. Like a sponge when the pressure is applied, what’s inside comes out. And what comes out is sometimes our sin.

But the pressure is not to blame for the sin. The evil desire was already in our hearts; the trial just revealed it. And that gives us the opportunity to repent. We don’t blame the squeeze for the content in the sponge. That is the direct question James is addressing.

Who is to blame? Here’s his answer, summarized in the words of the Puritan commentator Matthew Henry:

He is not the author of the dross, though his fiery trial exposes it.

Matthew Henry⁶

To blame God is to imply that he can be tainted by sin. Far be it from us to make that implication. God is holy, and his trials are not temptations. He has not been too harsh to you by sending the fire your way. He has not been unkind to me when I walk through suffering according to his plan. His trials are for my good. His plans for me are right. He is holy in all his ways.

You’re not unfairly treated by God because he’s too harsh. You’re unfairly treated by God because he’s too kind! We do not deserve the grace of trials. He is not to blame for our sin; we are. Fully, completely, even if it is in response to great difficulty.

So what do we do when we sin? What do we do when we are enticed by evil? Repent. Like Job, we repent and trust in the sovereign plan of God.

In the end, Job responded to God and said:

I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. “Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?” Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. “Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.” I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

Job 42:2–6

We take temptation seriously by taking responsibility for it.

In your counsel, you will encounter people who mix up trials and temptations, people who blame God or God’s tools for the sin that they respond with. It is such a common thing, and I think it is fair to say that we all do this. Be prepared to address it. Be prepared to give hope to those walking through trials and point them to the crown of life God is preparing them to receive. And be prepared to gently help brothers and sisters see the sin that they don’t even understand is coming from their own heart.

Be prepared to help people understand the difference between temptation and trials.

Temptation is the pressure from within that comes from the evil desire in our hearts and entices us to sin.

Trials are the pressure from without that comes from our Father to strengthen us and lead us to righteousness.

One leads to death, one leads to life. We must get it right.

Christ Took the Blame

Though we, like Job, so often blame God for our sin, have you considered the incredible, mind-bending reality that the Son of God did take the blame for our sin? Think about that.

Have you considered that while you say, “Don’t blame me, blame everything else,” Jesus Christ on the cross said, “Don’t blame him, don’t blame her, blame me”? Children of God, my brothers and sisters, God is so good to us. Our sin will never be fully grown, because through trials God is perfecting us. Christ paid the price for our sin on the cross and took the blame for all of our unrighteousness and all of our evil desire, and now his sovereign hand makes us righteous through trials and by grace alone, so that we will stand before the presence of his glory blameless and with great joy.

That’s our God and Savior, and to him be the glory.

Christian, though it is the evil desire in your heart that leads to sin, it is not the goodness in your heart that God sees as your righteousness. When you do face judgment, you will be judged entirely based on the Son of God, who took the blame for your sin so that you could have his righteousness.

You will receive the crown of life. You will. By God’s grace, you will stand the test. You will be made complete. Because of the body and blood of Christ, pierced on the cross for you.

If you are not in Christ, there is nothing you must do to earn righteousness. Repent and believe.

Christ’s body was pierced on the cross as he took all of the blame for your sin, forever. Christ’s blood was poured out so that you may be blameless and righteous before him.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Joy is happiness. The difference between joy and happiness is that joy is abiding happiness. It’s unshakable, true happiness that is at the depth of your soul. And Romans 15:13 shows us where it comes from: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”⁷

In this post:

1. What Does Romans 15:13 Mean?
2. Where Does Real Joy Come From?
3. What Is the Difference Between Joy and Happiness?
4. What Is the Peace of God?
5. Why God’s Joy Beats the World’s Happiness
6. How Do You Find Real Joy and Peace?
7. A Feast of Joy and Peace

Redemption is a wonderful thing.

We are sinners who have incurred the just wrath of God. There was a debt so insurmountable that all of our efforts for all of our lives would not have eaten away at one small crumb of it. We had incurred a debt in a currency that we possess zero amount of, and the court of heaven would declare us guilty, guilty, guilty of infringement upon the glory of the Holy, Holy, Holy God.

But Christ paid our debt. The currency that we had none of was a priceless and precious currency, the blood of the Son of God. He paid in full to redeem us. Redemption is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Our guilt is gone.

But our guilt before God is not the only consequence of our sin. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were banished from the garden. Your body and soul, bottom to top, every aspect of who you are, was meant to depend closely on God, your creator. But sin has separated us. Our sin separates us from the Holy God that we were created to depend on (Isaiah 59:2).

Christ’s death must not only redeem us. If we are to be truly blessed to the fullest extent, his death must reconcile us to God. We need not only for our debt to be paid, but also to be reconciled with our Creator. Our souls need God.

The effects of sin mean that the soul of every person on this earth suffers from a lack of Jesus Christ.

And a soul that lacks Christ lacks joy, because he is joy himself.

A soul that lacks Christ lacks peace, because he is peace himself.

A soul that lacks Christ lacks hope, because he is hope himself.

Heart, mind, and soul are biblical terms that refer to one thing: your inner man. Your inner man is broken because of sin. Your affections, your thoughts, your soul are broken because of sin. The problems of the mind, heart, and soul are common to man because of sin.

They are real problems that the Bible identifies and defines, but more than that, the death of the Son of God has proven that they are also problems that God cares about. God cares about the state of our minds and hearts and souls. He cares to give joy to the joyless, hope to the hopeless, and to make peace where there was no peace.

My point is, God cares about the state of your soul. Christ’s death reconciled you to God so that life, joy, peace, and hope might reign in your minds and hearts.

If you are dealing with what feels like a difficulty in your inner man (depression, anxiety, grief), those are real problems of the soul. God cares about it. You can’t put those problems in their own box and say, “This is the box God doesn’t touch. I know he’s good and grand and wonderful, and he saved me, and salvation is wonderful, but it doesn’t have anything to do with this box over here.”

No, the death of Christ purchased reconciliation that brings healing to your mind, your heart, and your soul. If you have such a box, then you have made the death of Christ and the heart of God too small, far too small.

God is a big God whose love has no depths nor bounds, whose counsel is full and whose work is complete.

What Does Romans 15:13 Mean?

And so he can answer big prayers that have to do with big problems in our souls. One such prayer is Romans 15:13:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Romans 15:13

There is something so particularly sweet about a blessing. When someone blesses you, they are addressing you. Look at the pronouns in this text: “May the God of hope fill you so that you may abound in hope.” Paul is talking to his readers, his hearers, to the Roman church. And what a loving thing to say to someone! But that is on the one hand.

On the other hand, he’s talking to God. This isn’t a request of the Roman church, but it is a request of God. It’s not passive speech. It actually is addressing, calling upon, making a request of God… and so, it’s a prayer.

That’s the particularly beautiful thing about blessings. What a way to fulfill the first and second greatest commandments, as you lovingly address God and man together!

I love blessings. I love that we end every Lord’s Day gathering by addressing God and you together, asking that he lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. I love it so much that I do it in my own home.

One of the traditions that I have had with my children since they were born is that each of them gets a biblical blessing that I say over them as I put them in bed every night. My son Silas has the Aaronic blessing that we say most weeks for the benediction. My daughter has this blessing from Romans 15:13, because this blessing is very precious to me. Our son that will be born any day now will have the blessing from Hebrews 13:20–21. I love blessings. And in particular, biblical blessings.

Because if blessings are prayers, then they are meant to be made as Jesus taught us to pray: in Jesus’ name, in faith, according to his will. And with biblical blessings, like with all biblical prayers, we know that this is a prayer we can confidently pray in Jesus’ name, filled with faith that it is according to his will.

Here’s the one thing I hope you take away: God can and will answer this blessing. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

To answer that prayer is God’s will. To pray that prayer in Jesus’ name is right. To have faith that God can answer that request is right. To believe that he will fulfill that request is right. We know that this blessing is a right blessing over God’s people.

Do you want to be filled with joy and peace? Just take a second to imagine the goodness of that.

You are not alone. If you desire joy and peace, you are not alone. Especially, hear me on this: if you lack joy and peace, you are not alone. Those are deep problems of the soul caused by the curse of sin. If you want an answer to why our souls are in turmoil within us, look no further than the first verse of Psalm 42.

The pains and problems of the soul can be summarized by the fact that, as a deer pants for flowing streams, our souls pant for God. Our souls thirst for God, the living God. Your mind and heart thirst for God.

Why is my inner man broken? Why is my heart distraught and my mind darkened? Because with every fiber of your being, you need God. And so you get an answer to your deepest pains: hope in God (Psalm 42:5).

Where Does Real Joy Come From?

What is the source of this great blessing in Romans 15? I want you to see it from the beginning to the end of the text. There is a reason why this is a blessing, an address to God. Where do joy and peace and hope come from? What is the source of the blessing?

It is the one being addressed.

“May the God of hope fill you,” he says. The Apostle Paul knows that the hope for every person in the church to have joy and peace is God himself.

Far be it from me to offer you a way to joy and peace aside from the God of hope.

I hope it is far from you to counsel people in need of joy and peace to receive it by any other means than the God of hope. I hope it is your heart’s desire, as it is the Apostle Paul’s, that those you know, those you walk alongside, those in your church that you have covenanted together with, would have joy and peace from God.

He is the source of this great blessing, and it is by his power that you may have joy and peace. So, he says, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.

From the beginning to the end, this text is all about the work of God in you.

But why? Why is it God? Why is it him and him alone? Why is the prayer addressed to him? Why is it his power that must accomplish the work of filling us with joy and peace? Because what a needy soul requires is a miracle.

The problems of our minds, hearts, and souls are a result of sin. And true joy is not found, real peace is not accomplished, real hope is not gained, and real healing does not happen by any means other than dealing with the problem of the sin that has separated us from the one our souls long for.

Hence, we need to be reconciled by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Hence, we need to have the benefits of that reconciliation applied miraculously by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The problems of the soul require a miraculous work that none but God can do. None but God can do.

None but God. No one and nothing but God has the power to give real joy and peace to a needy soul.

You require nothing short of the fullness of the power of God to bring joy and peace to your needy soul. The power of sin cannot be overcome by anything but the power of the Holy Spirit.

Moreover, God will have glory for the work that he has done at the cost of the blood of his Son. If the healing of your minds and hearts comes at the cost of the blood of Jesus Christ, he will not have his glory attributed to another.

He wants the glory that comes from the healing of your minds and hearts. He wants the glory that comes from the benefits of reconciliation between God and men.

Hence, Paul addresses God and calls upon his power.

If the real problems of the soul, the deepest pains and difficulties of your mind, are in that box for you that God doesn’t touch, what do you think is the possible source of joy and peace? What is it? Where else are you going to look? By what power do you seek to fix your soul? By whose hand do you seek to find joy? By what strength do you seek to find peace?

Stop looking. Here’s your answer: God. Look no further.

God is the source of the blessing. He is the one and only source. He is the God of hope, and there is no other. There is the God of hope, and there are a thousand idols of false hope. There is the one fountain of true and everlasting hope, and there are a thousand broken water carriers of hope devoid of anything real. There is one who keeps every promise and a thousand who promise hope and break it every time.

When I was in high school, I would often spend a good bit of the summer on a small hobby farm that my step-grandparents owned, and I would do chores. One time I was given the task of mowing a field, and it was a large enough field that even with this nice lawn mower, it would have taken most of the day.

I needed to put some gas in the very nice zero-turn lawn mower and get to work. So I went into one of the barns, and there were a bunch of red gas cans there. I picked one up. It was full, so I carried it over and filled up the lawn mower. Only I was stopped by my step-grandfather, who told me, “That’s water! Don’t you see the big W written on the side of the can?!”

Look, I’ll let you decide who was right and who was wrong, but I was in a little bit of trouble, and I ended up having to mow the field with a push mower. That was a lot less fun… and a lot less possible. I did not get through the majority of that field in one day with a push mower.

One of the common sayings in the biblical counseling world is that the first person to explain yourself to you wins you over. The world is full of explanations for why you don’t have joy, full of explanations for why you don’t have peace. Boy, do they have answers! Those answers are gas cans filled with water.

As someone in need of gas, it seems like a solution. It gives you hope for a minute when you see the gas can, but you run out of hope when the machine stops working. Now you’ve got a bigger problem than the one you started with.

Not so with God. He is the God of hope. He can fill you with joy and peace. His power can make you abound in hope. He and he alone can fill up the tank of your soul. As the great Puritan Thomas Boston preached:

Nothing less than a God in Christ can ever satisfy the cravings of an immortal soul, a soul which was created capable of enjoying an infinite good. And nothing but the blood of the Redeemer will ever give solid peace to your consciences.

Thomas Boston⁸

Do you have to look anywhere else? He is the source of the blessing of the soul.

What Is the Difference Between Joy and Happiness?

Maybe you think, “That’s great! God can give me real hope for spiritual things, real spiritual joy, eternal peace. But I still think there’s some kinds of joy in this life that God can’t give. This text has to be talking about some very specific kind of joy and peace, right? God’s the source of the spiritual kind, but there’s another kind of happiness in this world that I should look elsewhere for.”

Let me point you to three words in this text: fill, all, abound.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

This blessing is full. It is overflowing. The joy and peace that God provides are boundless. There is no part of your soul, heart, mind, or life that they do not touch. There is no box of stuff up here that the power of God does not touch. And if you think there is… the words fill and all and abound ought to take a bat to that box like a piñata.

What good shall your God withhold from you? The fullness of joy and peace that come from the hand of the Father in Jesus Christ are beyond comprehension. God does not merely want to give you a taste. He wants you to be filled with all of it, that you may abound.

Joy and peace are real blessings that come from him.

So what is this joy? Is it just some ethereal thing that we don’t actually get to experience in this life? Can I be joyful toward God but not happy in any other way? That’s how people maintain that box a lot of times: to say, “Well, I have real joy in Christ, but that doesn’t mean I get to be happy over here. That doesn’t mean I get to have real joy over here.”

What is biblical joy? What is the gift and blessing of joy in Romans 15:13?

Joy is happiness. The difference between joy and happiness is that joy is abiding happiness. It’s unshakable, true happiness that is at the depth of your soul.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote a book called Spiritual Depression.⁹ You can hear that and think that it’s a type of depression that is spiritual, but there’s a non-spiritual type that God doesn’t really get at. That’s not what that title means. Spiritual depression, as Lloyd-Jones used it, is depression that is so deep, it’s in the deepest parts of your spirit.

In that sense, God gives spiritual joy. Joy that is so deep and so true that it is at the deepest parts of your spirit. Joy that is so abundant and so wide that there is no part of your being that is not touched by it. The joy that comes from God is not a knock-off version of happiness. It’s real and deep happiness in your soul.

Happiness can be a facade. It can be faked. It can be temporary. It can deceive. You might be happy when you see that gas can, not knowing that it is filled with water. It’s fickle happiness. It will not last. God’s joy is a happiness that endures.

God cares about the state of your soul. His blessing of joy upon the soul is real, deep, abiding happiness based in truth, tied to such a strong foundation that the winds of the world cannot blow it away.

What Is the Peace of God?

And what about peace? Is peace something real that I can experience in this life? Is this talking about redemption only, peace with God, or is it talking about reconciliation, peace that I feel in my soul that comes from being with God?

The answer to that question is both. The peace that comes from God is boundless. He wants to fill you with all peace so that you may abound. Peace is real calmness, steadiness, and contentment that we have as the gift and blessing of God to the soul. It is real peace.

It’s peace that endures. Peace that goes to the depths of who we are. Peace that cannot be shaken by the world.

Do you see how that could connect to problems that you experience, to the turmoil of your soul? What would real peace bring to your troubled soul?

Why God’s Joy Beats the World’s Happiness

Do you see that these are real blessings? These are things that, if you had a taste of them, you would crave for the rest of your life. These are the real answers to the real problems of the soul, the deep problems of the soul, the problems that all men deal with.

These are not cheap knock-off versions of good things. This is not Great Value joy. This is not Harbor Freight peace. This is the real deal.

Everything else is lesser.

The joy and peace that come from God are the things that are most desirable and most replenishing to a soul in need.

The false joys, the false peace that we get by any other means can feel real to a needy soul in search of something, but it is so lacking. Yes, the world has answers, and they may give false hope, false peace, false joy for a moment. But oh, are they lacking.

The Puritan Stephen Charnock used the analogy that those who have never seen the sun are amazed at a candle. And if I might add, had I never tasted Dr Pepper before, I would think sparkling water is pretty good.

Another look back at my high school days: I was in a youth group at a megachurch where they would plan pizza parties and hype them up for weeks. Teachers did the same thing when I was in elementary and middle school. They would plan pizza party days and get the class really excited for them.

The thing that happened at the church and at the school is that I’d be really excited to get pizza, wait in line for it, only to get up there and realize that they had brought their own pizza cutters and cut the slices in half and limited you to two slices. You essentially got a single slice of cold pizza… an incredibly disappointing amount of pizza. Which is why I now always order way too much pizza whenever I have people over.

There are a lot of answers in the world for the state of your soul. A lot of hype and a lot of promises made, but the promises are not kept. They are:

• half slices of cold pizza
• sparkling water
• candles compared to the sun
• gas cans filled with water

God is the God of hope. The peace of God is better than the peace of the world. The joy of God is better than the joy of the world.

His joy and peace are more real, not less real. They are better answers.

Many believe God is not enough. Many believe that there are problems of the mind, heart, and soul that are beyond him.

Are you one of them? Or do you believe that God can and will answer this blessing?

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

Is this blessing in vain, or is it truly in Jesus’ name and according to his will?

Is there a problem of the soul that is not answered by Christ’s reconciling work on the cross? Or can God fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope?

What do you think?

How Do You Find Real Joy and Peace?

The question that I would imagine you’re asking is: what do I need to do to get the joy and peace that come from God? In fact, maybe you’re thinking, “How do I really experience them, because I feel like I haven’t?” Maybe you feel like you have them sometimes, but not deeply, not in your day-to-day life. Let me begin with one encouragement.

I want you to know that if Christ died to reconcile you to God, then he has already purchased this blessing for you. There is nothing left for you to do, which is why, for all eternity, there will be no more sorrow or tears or pain or problems of the soul. Your soul will have its deepest need and longing for Christ satisfied forever.

But in this life, we can’t escape the effects of sin fully… That doesn’t mean we can’t find freedom from the effects of sin particularly. That’s very important.

Let me give you an analogous doctrine that I think will help you understand what I mean. You will not be free from sin until you die. I would be a terrible pastor if I told you that you can be perfect in this life. But there is no sin in your life that cannot be defeated. I would also be a terrible pastor if you were sitting in front of me confessing sin and I just said, “Until you die, that’s your lot.” No! There is no sin that has so much power over you that it cannot be defeated, because you are transformed from one degree of glory to another throughout your life.

So it is with the effects of sin upon the soul. Will you ever be free in this life fully and finally? No. You have that to look forward to in eternity. But is there a problem in your soul that you’ve identified that you cannot find freedom from now? No! Ought you to have hope that you can have real joy and peace now? Yes.

The Spirit is transforming you by his power. He can and will answer this blessing. So let me leave you with three things from this text that are an answer to the question, “How do I get this blessing?”

Prayer

First, look at what this blessing is again. Back to the beginning. It’s a prayer.

Why don’t we start there?

If it is truly God and God alone who can perform the miracle by his power of shining light upon souls longing for joy and peace, why not go to him? Why ask anyone else before we approach God? Is anyone more kind than God? Would anyone be as delighted as God to give you joy and peace? Is anyone as able as God to give you joy and peace? No, no, no.

If this prayer is in Jesus’ name, pray it in Jesus’ name. If this prayer is according to his will, pray it in faith. Pray it in believing. Do not grow weary of prayer. Do not grow weary of asking, searching, knocking. Pray, pray, pray. Go to God.

In Believing

Second, notice where joy and peace are. Look at the text: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.”

Let me point you to where that joy and peace are. They are in believing. In believing.

Many people think that what you believe has nothing to do with the state of your soul. They are wrong. What you believe is the most important thing for the state of your soul. In particular, what you believe about God is the most important thing for the state of your soul.

Your mind and heart are affected by your doctrine. Doctrine is not insignificant. Counseling the truth of God’s word is not irrelevant. Have you ever thought that? Have you ever been tempted to think that giving people the truth of God’s word is not really relevant to the problems that they have, the pain that they feel, the joy that they lack, the peace that they need? Have you ever thought that?

It’s the opposite of the truth. Joy and peace are found in believing. Your doctrine can make your life joyful or miserable. What you know God to be can create chaos in your soul or bring peace to your soul. Your theology changes the state of your mind. What you believe about the truth affects your heart.

So, what is missed in secular counsel that takes no account of our beliefs about God? The most important thing! If you don’t take into account what you believe, you have made shipwreck of your counsel.

This is what J. I. Packer wrote:

What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves in life? To know God. What is the “eternal life” that Jesus gives? Knowledge of God… What is the best thing in life, bringing more joy, delight, and contentment, than anything else? Knowledge of God.

J. I. Packer¹⁰

Or simply look a few verses earlier in our text:

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Romans 15:4

Are you dealing with deep problems of the soul? Joylessness, lack of peace? Do you need hope? Get acquainted with the truth. Come to a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ. Look deeply at his word, dwell on it, dwell in it, let it dwell in you. His word is truth that calms troubled souls. The knowledge of God is a knowledge that calms raging storms within us.

Hope

Third, notice that this blessing starts and ends with hope. It starts with the God of hope, and it ends with you abounding in hope.

God is the God of hope, not only because he gives hope, but because he is our hope.

Does God give hope? Yes. God gives hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Hope that is abounding. Hope that is overflowing. Hope that is certain and sure.

But when God gives you hope, what is the hope that he’s giving you? Himself. Jesus Christ is our hope. He is the answer. He is the one. He is everything. Christ is our hope in life and in death. He is our hope before the judgment seat, and he is our hope now. He is our hope for eternity, for our justification, and he is the hope for our blessedness. He is the hope for our redemption and the hope for our reconciliation. He is the hope for our soul’s eternal delight in God and the hope for true joy and peace now.

Christ Jesus is the answer, the one, the truth, the way, the life, the everything. The hope that we have is in Jesus Christ. There is no other hope. There is no other hope. The world can offer no other hope. The world can give you no other hope. There is no other answer. There is no other one. There is no other way. There is no other truth. There is no other life. There is no other name. There is no one but Jesus Christ who is the answer for troubled souls.

That is why we are passionate about biblical counseling: it’s Christ or nothing! It is the Prince of Peace or no peace at all, the fountain of joy or no joy at all. But he is real hope, and Jesus Christ is everything that we need. To have Christ as our answer and no other answer is not to lack a thing, but to have everything.

If someone is dealing with the deepest, most difficult problems in their mind, heart, and soul, and you have Christ to give them, you have everything to give them. That’s why you are competent to counsel. That’s why you can be mentors and disciple makers and counselors.

As Charles Spurgeon wrote:

He is not only one out of two good things, but he is both… You shall find in Jesus Christ everything that will be wanted between hell and heaven. All the way, from the bars of Tophet to the pearly gates of paradise every want of every pilgrim is met in him.

Charles Spurgeon

Many in this world will make promises they cannot keep, offer joy that does not last, and peace that cannot endure. The promises of God outweigh all of the promises of the world, and all of the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ Jesus, our hope.

Again, I ask you: do you believe God can and will answer this blessing? “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

A Feast of Joy and Peace

I want to let the Puritan Thomas Boston close us out with a wonderful call that sits so well with this beautiful blessing. He said:

We would exhort all hungry hearts who are suing for satisfaction in the world and their lusts, and whose consciences have no solid resting-place, O! come to Jesus Christ in his covenant, and sit down to this feast prepared for you… Consider, if you will come, you shall be happy for time and eternity. When the lower table is drawn, you shall sit down at the upper. If not, you shall never know satisfaction, nor find rest to your souls.

Thomas Boston¹¹

There is a feast at the table of Christ: a feast of joy and peace and hope, a world without end. Because we have such a table prepared for us for eternity, we sit each week at the table of the Lord’s death in remembrance of what it cost to provide such a bountiful meal.

If you are not in Christ, consider that call from Thomas Boston and come to Christ. Come to Christ now.

His death reconciled us to God. His death satisfied the wrath of God and paid the penalty for our sins. His death brought light to darkened minds, life to dead hearts, and peace to needy souls. The healing of our minds and hearts required nothing less than the blood of the Son of God, which he did shed in time, in history, in reality, for us before God.

His body was crushed so that we might be redeemed and find eternal life and life to the fullest. His blood was spilled so that we might be reconciled to God and quench every thirst of our needy souls.

Christ is coming again, and on that day we will have no more felt needs, no more tears, no more sorrow, no more pain. In Christ, we hope for that day with a true, certain hope.

Memento mori is Latin for “remember that you will die.” Christians have used the phrase for centuries, and Psalm 103 shows us how to practice it: remember death, but remember heaven. We endure for a moment, and we enjoy for eternity.

In this post:

1. What Does the Bible Say About Life Being Short?
2. Why Is Life So Short?
3. If Life Is Short, Shouldn’t We Just Live It Up?
4. What Does “From Everlasting to Everlasting” Mean?
5. What Will Heaven Be Like?
6. If This World Is Not My Home, Where Is?
7. How Should Christians Practice Memento Mori?
8. The Christian Memento Mori: Remember Death, but Remember Heaven

Do you ever get so deep into a task that you kind of get lost in it and lose track of time? You’re dialed into something for 30 or 60 minutes, and you’ve completely neglected the next thing you had to do. Or you get dialed in on your phone and don’t realize you’ve spent half an hour scrolling when you should have been with your family. We tend to get really sucked into whatever is right in front of us.

Here’s a confession that may damage my reputation with some of you: I am a mall person. I really like malls. I like to take my family, have a meal, grab coffee, and walk around. That’s the fun thing for me to do.

And sometimes, before we go, I’ll tell my two toddlers, “Hey guys, go to your piggy bank and get out a little bit of money. If you see something you like at the mall, you can buy it with your own money.” So they grab the $5 or $10 bill they got for Christmas or a birthday.

I bet you can guess what happens when we get to the mall. They spend it at the very first toy kiosk they see. So I try to give them the full picture: “Hey, you know there are a lot of toy stores in this mall. There are other kiosks. There are candy stores. You might want to hold on to it and see everything you get to choose from today.”

But no. No, no, no. The very first toy has captured them, and unless a parent intervenes, that’s where the money goes.

My friends, we are just big children.

That’s just as much in my nature as it is in theirs, and it’s just as much in yours. We focus on, we think about, and we invest in what’s right in front of us. The first thing we see. Not just in the little things, but in the big things.

Here’s the problem with that. The only thing we have seen since the day we were born is this world. We were conceived in iniquity (Psalm 51:5), born under a curse (Ephesians 2:1–3), into a creation groaning under suffering and sin (Romans 8:20–22). You know suffering and sin very well. You’ve seen them every day of your life. It’s all you’ve ever known.

And you know the kingdoms of the world very well, and what they value. Like that first toy kiosk, everything in front of your face has been worldly: worldly gain, worldly wealth, worldly power, worldly authority, worldly comfort. Do you see the problem, if we are big children who focus on what’s right in front of us?

Jesus tells us in John 17 that we are in the world. But even though the world is right in front of our faces day and night, we are not of the world (John 17:14–16). This is not our true home. And that’s a real problem for big kids who focus on what’s in front of their eyes, because we have not seen our true home. We’re far more acquainted with this cursed world than we are with our eternal one.

Martin Luther is quoted as saying this:

We know no more about eternal life than children in the womb of their mother know about the world they are about to enter.

Martin Luther¹²

And so we need constant reminders of the world we are about to enter. It’s why God gives us the regular rhythm of Lord’s Day worship. It’s why he gives us his Word and calls it daily bread. It’s why he surrounds us with brothers and sisters who are told to encourage us every day. We need constant reminders that this world is not our home.

So I want to be one more of those reminders for you. Christians have long had a name for this kind of reminder: memento mori. I want to remind you how short life is on this earth, and how sweet life is in eternity.

We endure for a moment, and we enjoy for eternity.

That brings us to Psalm 103, which is especially helpful because the whole psalm is set up as a reminder. It opens by telling us to “forget not all his benefits” (Psalm 103:2). So here we are, forgetting not. Remembering.¹³

As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.

Psalm 103:15–19

What Does the Bible Say About Life Being Short?

Life on earth is short, and our lives are fickle. You might read verse 15, land on the word flourishes, and think, “God’s telling me that I flourish like a flower.” But that’s not what it’s saying in context. The flourishing of a flower doesn’t last. That’s the point.

It takes very little to upend this flower of life. It takes a wind. Not a hurricane. Not someone coming by with a shovel, and certainly not a plow. It takes a wind, a breeze passing over it, and the flower is gone.

So as for you and me, our days are like grass. We’re not promised tomorrow. We’re not in control of the wind. We are not self-existent, and we don’t uphold our own lives. We will not escape death. The wind cannot be stopped. And when it passes over us, we flowers of the field are gone, and our place knows us no more.

Memento Mori Bible Verses

The Bible always talks about life this way. You do see the blessing of long life in a few places, but I can’t think of a single place where God tells us to consider our lives on earth long. Here is how he does describe them:

• A flower of the field that the wind passes over, and then it’s gone (Psalm 103:15–16)
• A breath, and a cloud that vanishes (Job 7:7, 9)
• A mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes (James 4:14)
• Smoke, a shadow, and withering grass (Psalm 102:3, 11)
• Days we are told to number (Psalm 90:12)

God wants you to regard your days on this earth as few. And the description is supposed to shock you. You are a human being made in the image of God, and you are being compared to grass. Do you think of your life in such fickle terms? That’s how God thinks of it, and he wants you to think of it that way too: a flower with no deep roots, gone when the wind passes over.

One of my favorite commentators on the Psalms quotes the early church father Gregory of Nazianzus, and I love this:

Our life on earth, brothers, is such that our existence is very transitory. We play, as it were, a game on earth. We do not exist, and we’re born, and in being born, we are dissolved. We are like a fleeting dream, an apparition without substance, the flight of a bird that passes, a ship that leaves no trace on the sea.

Gregory of Nazianzus¹⁴

That’s our life.

Why Is Life So Short?

Why are we like grass, or smoke, or a mist, or a breath? Why is life so short? I think you know the answer: sin.

Death came into this world through one man, our father Adam. God warned him, “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). It wasn’t exactly on that day. God had mercy, and Adam had a number of days. But death came into the world through his sin. Adam was our federal head (our representative before God), so his sin is counted as ours, and in Adam all die (1 Corinthians 15:22).

One thing I’ve had to teach my kids over and over, since they were as little as they’ve ever been, is this: nothing in this world lasts. Nothing. Toys are going to break. The art you made is not going to last forever. Everything breaks in the end, including people.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Romans 5:12

Death is part of the curse, and an inescapable part. We cannot cheat it. So tomorrow is not promised, but death is promised. Flourishing is not promised, and tomorrow’s flourishing especially is not promised. But a wind that passes over is promised. The wind is coming for us.

We can get so comfortable here that we feel like this is all there is, because it’s the first toy kiosk we’ve seen and we’ve got $5 in our pocket. But we will not be here long. Charles Spurgeon said it so well in a sermon titled, fittingly, “Memento Mori”:

There are a thousand gates to death, and the roads from earth to Hades are innumerable. From this spot in which I stand there is a straight path to the grave; and where you sit there is an entrance into eternity. Oh, let us consider then, how uncertain life is. Talk we of a hair; it is something massive when compared with the thread of life. Speak we of a spider’s web; it is ponderous compared with the web of life. We are but as a bubble; nay, less substantial. As a moment’s foam upon the breaker, such are we.

Charles Spurgeon¹⁵

How do you regard your life? How established do you feel in this world? How can it be your home, when the wind is coming to take you out of it so quickly and the world will forget about you?

The psalmist ends verse 16 by saying that not only is the flower gone, but “its place knows it no more.” Not only do we pass away; the memory of us passes away from the earth. Our roots do not run deep here, and our name does not endure, because this is not our place. If you are in Christ Jesus, this is not your place.

How immortal and invincible do you feel day to day? You may not be thinking it, but how much does your heart believe that your treasures on earth are going to last, that moth and rust won’t destroy and thieves won’t break in and steal (Matthew 6:19)? How sure are you that the status, the titles, the accolades, and the recognition you’ve gathered will always be there?

So we have to remind ourselves: life is short. My days are like a flower of the field that the wind takes as it passes over. I will be uprooted from this world, and I’ll be uprooted quickly.

If Life Is Short, Shouldn’t We Just Live It Up?

Now, the lesson of the brevity of life isn’t nihilism. It’s not “Our days are short, so let’s live it up.” Some wise people in the world do see that life is short when many others don’t, but that’s often the lesson they take away: “Might as well live it up. Invest in everything I can here, because I’m going to be gone.”

That is not the biblical lesson, because this earthly life is not all there is. The wind doesn’t destroy us. It takes us up. There’s a life to come, and the gospel is all about eternal life.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

So though death is part of the curse, God upholds human souls forever. A human soul cannot be extinguished. Not a one. We are immortal: not eternal like God, because we came into existence, but immortal. Souls in hell are not annihilated, and souls in heaven will never have eternal life snatched from them. For every person reading this, death is the end of life on earth, but it is not the end. And Christians know eternal life in Christ Jesus because God has eternal love.

What Does “From Everlasting to Everlasting” Mean?

But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.

Psalm 103:17–18

Yes, life on earth is short, but only and especially compared to life everlasting. Man’s days are like grass, but the love of the Lord is steadfast, from everlasting to everlasting. Our lives are fickle; his love is not. So when we taste death, it’s not evidence that God doesn’t love us.

In fact, God cares for us as fickle creatures. Just before our passage, Psalm 103 says this:

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

Psalm 103:13–14

The well of God’s love is so deep that your life on earth can’t hold it. If you are in Christ, this life was never God’s plan for you to taste the fullness of his eternal love. His love is from everlasting to everlasting, and so your experience of it will be everlasting too.

He loved you before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), before you ever existed. And his love is so great that he will uphold you forever and ever and ever, so that his everlasting love will be everlastingly poured out on you.

Yes, life on earth is short. But life with Christ is unsearchably long. Never-endingly long. Eternal.

Life on earth is all about endurance. It might feel long, but we don’t have to endure for long at all. We endure for a moment, and then we enjoy for eternity. That’s the point of the gospel. Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose again on the third day, conquering death and securing eternal life with him. He died so that when you die, you rise to life. The winds that pass over the fickle flowers of life take some to hell and take others up to Christ.

Why Death Cannot Hurt the Christian

So yes, Christians need to remember death. But in remembering death, we have to remember God’s eternal love. The Puritan Thomas Brooks put it this way:

Christ’s death is a death-conquering death. He has taken away the sting of death, that it cannot hurt you. And his death is a death-sanctifying and death-sweetening death. He has by his death sanctified and sweetened death to us.

Thomas Brooks¹⁶

You will die. Death cannot hurt you.

Christ’s death and resurrection make this short life not about this short life.

What would we have to do to earn that everlasting-to-everlasting love? The text tells us: keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. Here’s the good news. By Christ’s death, all of your covenant-breaking and all of your disobedience was placed on him, and it died with him. And all of his covenant-keeping and all of his obedience was credited to your account. That was always the plan, so that all whom the Father has loved from before time began, he will love forever and hold forever and keep forever.

And Christ did more than obey in our place. By his death and resurrection, he purchased the sanctification that enables us to keep the covenant and obey. His love makes us lovely. His obedience purchases obedience for us. That’s what verse 18 is describing.

Because Christ died and was raised, this short earthly life is about eternal life. It is preparing us to drink deeply, forever, of the love of God. We endure for a moment, and then we enjoy for eternity, and the enduring is all about the enjoying.

Like my toddlers at the mall, we have to remember there’s more than the first toy kiosk you run into with $5 in your pocket. This life is not the point. Eternal life is the point.

In The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian goes through all kinds of trials and tribulations, but the trials and tribulations are not the destination. The point of the journey is the Celestial City. He passes through the waters of death, and the journey is complete when he arrives there.

This life, Christian, is not about this world’s kingdoms, goods, comfort, rewards, accolades, power, or recognition. It’s about the eternal love of God, which is far greater than anything this world has to offer. And all of those earthly things will pass away, just like us. Treasures on earth don’t last. Nothing does. Kingdoms, kings, power, recognition, even our own names are gone from the earth when we go, because this is not where we belong.

So we live for another day, another home, another kingdom. This is why Paul can say, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Gain. Christ defines our life. And because he does, to die is gain, because Christ will define our eternity. His eternal love will be our reward.

What Will Heaven Be Like?

What a sad thing it would be if this were the best life you will ever have. From the moment you were born, all you’ve known is sin and suffering. How sad would it be if that were all there is? But if you are in Christ, it’s not. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. One day sin and suffering will be but a faint and distant memory.

I think there will be a day when the word cancer sounds jarring, because we haven’t heard it in thousands and thousands of years. Even the most enjoyable things in this life will be drowned out by the joys of heaven.

The home we’re going to is a beautiful, wonderful place with pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11), where we are with Jesus Christ forever. We cannot begin to wrap our minds around it. That’s Luther’s point: we’re like an infant in the womb trying to imagine the world it’s about to enter. It can’t.

That’s what faith is: the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). But the Bible does give us glimpses of that world, so that though we haven’t seen it, some of it has been revealed to us. This is one of the most potent:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

Revelation 21:3

If it stopped there, how amazing would that be? But it continues:

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Revelation 21:4

If you are in Christ, that’s your home. That’s where you belong. And it will be almost all you ever know of your life, though you haven’t known it yet.

Suffering will be a blip. Mourning and crying and pain will be a dot so small you can barely see it. Picture eternal life as an entire Bible. You would need a microscope to find a single atom of it, and your life on earth would be smaller still.

That atom is not the point. The Celestial City is the point. Life is short. Eternal life is long. When the wind blows the flower of life away, from then on you will never stop tasting, seeing, and knowing the everlasting love of Jesus Christ. We endure for a moment, and we enjoy for eternity.

If This World Is Not My Home, Where Is?

In light of eternity, even life in this cursed world is short, and God will make all things new (Revelation 21:5). And it isn’t just our lives that are short. It’s the kingdoms of the world. They are puny next to God’s eternal kingdom. Think of Alexander the Great, Napoleon, the presidents of the United States, the Roman Empire that people thought would never fall. It’s as if the moment a crown is placed on a head, it’s removed again, as if it never touched them at all.

That’s how fleeting earthly kingdoms are compared to the kingdom of heaven. They are small, fickle, gone with the wind. They do not last. But it isn’t so with the kingdom of God.

The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.

Psalm 103:19

So here’s the thing. Even though the kingdoms of the world are all you see right now, that doesn’t mean your home doesn’t exist yet, or that God’s kingdom hasn’t been established. Your home exists. Just because you’re not there doesn’t mean it’s not there. It’s there.

Kingdoms, treasures, authority, and status on earth don’t mean there isn’t an ultimate kingdom, with a home prepared for you (John 14:2) and treasures being built up. In this season of endurance, things are not as they seem. God’s kingdom has been established.

The Already and the Not Yet

One day his kingdom will be established visibly, fully, perfectly, and the kingdoms of the world will be wrapped up and gone in an instant. Things will be as they seem, with God on the throne in the fullness of his power. In that sense, we live in the not yet.

But we also live in the already. God’s throne is established now. His kingdom rules over all, even though we don’t see it clearly with our eyes. God is sovereign now. God rules now. So you have a King right now: Christ Jesus, who claims lordship and ownership over all things. He is your Lord now.

So even while we wait for that day, we have an eternal home in this day. If this world is not your home, it’s because you have an eternal one. In fact, you belong to Christ’s kingdom fully now. Being in the world doesn’t mean you belong to the kingdoms of the world. You’re in the world but not of it. So where are you of?

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Philippians 3:20–21

Our citizenship is in heaven: present tense. And from it we await a Savior: future tense. Do you see the already-but-not-yet in that passage? It’s the same push and pull we live in. You will be transformed. You will be given a glorious body on the day we pray for and hope for. But your citizenship is in heaven now.

In other words, we already follow King Jesus.

How Should Christians Practice Memento Mori?

So the point of remembering death is not to live it up and grab all the worldly treasure we can. It’s that none of it is going with us, and so we can live right now as citizens of the kingdom we will live in forever.

Invest in What Lasts

We can invest in eternity now. Remember death, and you’ll remember how silly it is to pour everything into the comfort, wealth, and recognition of this world. It will all fade, and it will fade quickly. What a stupid investment that would be. It’s like putting your time and your money into a paper shredder. That’s what it is to store up treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. We remember death so that we know life is all about Christ Jesus. Again, Paul says, to live is Christ.

The applications are far too many to list, because remembering that life is short and God’s love is eternal is a lifelong, daily task. It affects everything about how we live. Are we investing our money in what is eternally meaningful? Are we spending our time on what matters most? Is our hope in what’s passing away or in what is everlasting? Are we enamored with the praise of people, or with the love of God that is ours forever? Are we grumbling about how long our suffering has lasted, or are we encouraged, as the Bible encourages us, that our affliction is light and momentary (2 Corinthians 4:17)? Do we believe that? Are our priorities earthly or heavenly?

These questions aren’t meant to be a checklist. They’re meant to show how much of a grip the world has on our hearts. Why do we care so much about this world if it is fading so quickly? Why do we care so little about heaven if it is our eternal home?

Dane Ortlund puts it perfectly in Finally Home:

This life is a hotel, not a home. Would any of us staying one night in a hotel get up early in the morning to plant flowers in the garden? Yet that is what we do when we plant our hopes in this life.

Dane Ortlund¹⁷

Do you spend the $5 in your pocket at the first toy kiosk you see? Do you get so dialed in to your phone that you forget there’s a world around you? Do you do that spiritually? Remembering death is like remembering that I have to check out of this hotel at 10 o’clock tomorrow morning. This is not my home.

Now, the point isn’t that we escape this world and have little to do in it. We have much to do in this world. But it’s eternal work, heavenly work, Godward work, obedience to our King. It’s not the work the world would have us do. It’s so easy for our hearts to be captured by small and insignificant things. That’s the nature of idolatry: elevating something small and puny above the infinitely glorious God.

Set Your Mind on Things Above

Here’s the foundation for all of it: a heavenly mindset. It starts with remembering, every day, that life is short and God’s love is everlasting. The battle begins in the mind.

You might hear those questions and grow weary: “I’ve got so much work left to do.” Of course you do. Sanctification (the work of God making you holy) is lifelong. That’s kind of the point of this life on earth. So here’s what you need to do today: remember. Constantly remember. Think about eternity.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Colossians 3:1–4

There it is again: we’ve been raised. This is not our home. Seek the things that are above. Invest in eternal things.

You have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light (Colossians 1:12–13). You are in the world, but you are not of the world. Your life is not here; it is hidden with Christ. You have died to this life and been raised to life eternal. Your home is not on earth. It is above.

So set your mind not on what’s around you, like a little child distracted by the first thing he sees, but on what is above, on what is unseen. Walk by faith in the Son of God, confident and assured of the things you do not yet see. That is the Christian life.

Remember, remember, remember, dear friends. Remind yourself often, and put yourself where you’ll be reminded often. If you are surrounded by the world all the time, you need the reminder all the time.

Lean on the Reminders God Has Given You

God has surrounded you with means of grace (the ordinary ways he strengthens his people) to remind you that life is short and his love is everlasting. Here are three of them.

1. His Word. He calls it daily bread, because you need constant reminders of how God sees your life. He wants you reading words like “As for man, his days are like grass.” Daily time in the Word and in prayer is how we live in the world without being of it. God’s Word is a tether to the kingdom we belong to, holding our minds and hearts to our eternal home.

2. His people. He places you in a church full of brothers and sisters who are told to exhort one another every day, so that worldliness doesn’t take hold of your heart (Hebrews 3:13). Are you connected to the people of your church, like your community group?

A particular word to young people: we who are young tend to think we’re invincible. We pour our effort, planning, and money into 5 years from now, 10 years from now, 30 years from now, instead of into eternity. Get around older saints who know life is short not just notionally, in their heads, but experimentally, from experience.

3. The Lord’s Day. If you are in Christ, God has placed you in a weekly rhythm of worship. On the Lord’s Day, the gathered bride of Christ reorients her mind and heart to eternity. Our worship is a foretaste of what’s to come. We sit under the Word, we hear again of the death and resurrection of Christ that purchased eternal life for us, and we pray together, “Come, Lord Jesus.” How are you doing at being there? You need a weekly reminder. That’s why God made a weekly Lord’s Day.

God has put Bible reading, prayer, Christian fellowship, church membership, and Lord’s Day worship into your life. How are you doing at keeping in step with those rhythms? We need those reminders, brothers and sisters. You live in a distracting world where sin and suffering fight for your attention, so you must fight with that same vigor to remember.

The Christian Memento Mori: Remember Death, but Remember Heaven

Spurgeon tells another story, a shocking one.¹⁸ Wealthy ancient Egyptians would throw extravagant banquets, feasting and drinking and partying. But after the meal, a servant would carry around a carved, painted corpse in a little coffin (in Plutarch’s telling, a skeleton, a Greek word that literally means a dried-up body, a mummy) and show it to every guest, as if to say, “One day you will be like me. This is coming for you. You may be feasting today, but you will look like me soon enough.”

Those ancient Egyptians knew how to remind one another that death is coming. They got the reminder part down. And I want us to have that level of vigor in reminding ourselves that death is near and life with Christ is eternal.

But I don’t think the Egyptians learned the right lesson. It seems they took it as “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32), though the historical sources conflict on that. So remember death like the Egyptians did. But then remember what death brings you to, and hope for that day.

We run the race because there’s a glorious moment when we cross the finish line. We are soldiers enlisted in the army of Christ, entrenched in difficult warfare, because there is a day when the war is won. A glorious day.

Remember death. But remember heaven. We endure for a moment, and we enjoy for eternity.

Every time we eat and drink at the Lord’s table, we remember the Lord’s death, and in remembering, we proclaim something (1 Corinthians 11:26). We proclaim that he will come again. We proclaim that he will make all things new. Through his death we have died to the kingdom of darkness and been raised to new life in the kingdom of light. And so, with our minds set on the heavenly kingdom, we await a Savior from heaven.

There will be a glorious day when the battle is won and the finish line is crossed. He will usher in a new heavens and a new earth. And on that day, as will be the case a million years from that day, our eternal enjoyment will have only just begun. What a day! What a thing to proclaim, in remembering the death of Christ that purchased that day for us.

Christ’s body was broken so that the world’s claim on us might be broken, and so that we might belong wholly to God. Christ’s blood was spilled so that we might be redeemed to eternal life, where we enjoy the eternal love of God forever.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Do you believe in aliens? If you don’t, you are in the minority. At least 65% of Americans believe that there is intelligent life outside of Earth.¹ What was once considered conspiratorial and relegated to the weirdest conversation spaces on the Internet has become mainstream. For one example of this, consider that the most popular podcast in the world—Joe Rogan Experience—regularly features guests who argue for the existence of extraterrestrial life. For another, consider that the world is abuzz at the coming release of the newest Spielberg movie: Disclosure Day.²

The alien conversation has transitioned from carrying some level of stigma to being normalized, even at the highest echelons of leadership. In February 2026, former President Barack Obama was a guest on a podcast where he was asked about the existence of aliens, and his response was “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them.”³ Following the release of that podcast episode, current President Donald Trump said this:

“Well, I don’t know if they’re real or not. I can tell you [Obama] gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that. He made a big mistake. He took it out of classified information.”⁴

This interaction between the two presidents didn’t come out of nowhere. We’ve been building to this moment as a culture for a long time. And this interaction isn’t the end. There have been many newsworthy events to follow, and there are still more to come.

Christians, your ability to speak into the alien conversation with the truth of the Bible may soon be tested more frequently than you realize. Does the Bible’s teaching preclude the existence of alien life? Would it shake the foundations of the church if contact with alien life was made? Also, what is this conversation revealing about our cultural moment? How ought we respond?

I’ll do my best to answer those questions, but first, it’s imperative that we understand how we got here.

Where is the alien conversation coming from?

The alien craze started in the mid-20th century with Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) sightings becoming more and more common. Things started to take shape even more when people started claiming to have encountered alien life by being abducted or visited by an extraterrestrial.

It’s easy to write off all these sightings and encounters as the claims of crazy people, at least until you look into them. At least some of them seem remarkably credible, and the volume of claims is probably much higher than you think—in the millions.⁵

But why did the sightings and encounters only start then? And why are the claims so localized? After all, UFO and alien encounters have really only become common in the West.

I think both of those questions can be answered, at least with some level of confidence, if you notice one thing: the timing of this craze coincided with the explosion of materialistic humanism as the undergirding ideology of our culture.

Following the industrial advancement of the 19th century came rapid scientific advancement in the 20th century. The field of medicine exploded with innovation, like the invention of X-rays and the introduction of Penicillin. In the span of 50 years, humans went from taking flight for the first time to using jet-engine-powered planes. Automobiles made it easy and cheap to travel, the first home air conditioners were installed, and flush toilets became standard.

Problems that have existed throughout most of human history were being solved at a dizzying speed. That’s not to mention the advancements in just enjoying life, like the introduction of radio and television. Is there any problem that can’t be solved with science and human ingenuity? Many started asking that question.

The waterfall of God’s kindness fell upon our society in many ways. But rather than deepen our gratitude for the generosity of the Creator, we deepened our faith in his creation. “There’s no need for spiritual things now,” many thought. “Science can explain everything.”

Right when the seeds of that godless thought began to sprout, UFOs and aliens entered the picture.

Other-worldly advanced technology could be like a north star—proof that materialism was right! If we just invest in science and technological advancement, someday we’ll be like them. Someday, we’ll have solved all of humanity’s problems. Did the popularity of UFO sightings come from our increasingly materialistic worldview, or did the popularity of UFO sightings increase the materialism of our worldview? Yes, both.

But it gets more clear when you look at the alien encounters themselves. The messages these aliens would give bolstered a belief in humanity’s ability to solve all of our own problems—not just technological problems, but problems of violence, war, and hate. They frequently promoted peace, unity, environmental responsibility, and an investment in our advancement as the human race. Did these alien messages come from our increasingly humanistic worldview, or did these alien messages increase the humanism of our worldview? Yes, both.

UFO sightings and supposed alien encounters ever-so-slowly turned up the dial of materialistic humanism.

So, what do we make of this? Why would aliens have any interest in perpetuating our godless ideologies? I don’t think these were aliens at all. I think that many people truly experienced demonic deception. It seems the principalities and powers in the heavenly places wanted to twist the knife of materialistic humanism more deeply in the back of Western civilization. That was the playbook of darkness.

But, now, it seems that playbook may have been adjusted.

Are aliens demons?

For those with eyes to see, supposed alien encounters have always been overtly spiritual and demonic, though shrouded behind a thin veil. It seems that veil is being removed, and people are realizing that these UFOs and aliens are spiritual encounters as much as (if not more than) they are physical encounters.

Even the names have changed:

• The term “UFO” has given way to a newer, more spiritually-inclusive term: Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP).
• The terms “alien” and “extraterrestrial” have given way to a newer, more spiritually-inclusive term: non-human intelligence.

These beings are often described in spiritual terms by virtually everyone involved in the conversation. Government officials have even referred to these entities as “interdimensional.”⁶

Vice President J.D. Vance has shared that he was very interested in UFO files before coming into office, but now, appearing as a guest on a podcast, said this: “I don’t think they’re aliens. I think they’re demons anyway.”⁷

It seems like we will all know a lot more about UFOs and aliens soon. In February 2026, President Trump ordered his administration “to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs)…”⁸ Many documents have now been released, and it seems we can expect many more to come.

If the original demonic strategy was to deepen our materialistic humanism, why change the strategy? And why now? My answer to those questions is this: I don’t think the strategy has changed entirely. It seems to me that materialism is no longer working, but humanism is still winning souls for the darkness. So, it makes sense to just keep the humanism and drop the materialism. It seems the demons believe this will still deal quite the blow to the church either way.

In fact, there has been another weird story to come in recent days. A number of so-called “Pastors,” largely from prosperity gospel and Pentecostal backgrounds, claimed that high-clearance intelligence officials invited them to a secret meeting to brief them on what might be revealed in the government files that will be released.⁹ Whether the claims are believable is hotly debated. But if the claims are true, it seems that some informed government officials may foresee that the information to be released regarding UAPs and non-human intelligences might pose a threat to Christianity, and the government would like for the church to have just a tiny heads up.

If this really is a demonic strategy, shouldn’t the church be on the front-lines of resisting it? If this information might make people ask questions of the Bible, shouldn’t the church be ready to answer them?

I don’t think we need to be alarmed. Christ has established his church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). But demons do like to deceive. It was the first strategy Satan used to lead Eve into sin, and it has been the predominant strategy since (Genesis 3:4-5). The church needs to be ready to refute his lies.

So, what does the Bible have to say about all of this?

Does the Bible allow for alien life?

Maybe the question you’ve asked as you’ve read this article is, “But what if some of the alien encounters were not demonic? Why can’t there be intelligent, extraterrestrial creatures? After all, isn’t God powerful enough to create any beings he wants to create?”

Those are fair questions, and many Christians would probably respond to them by saying that the Bible has relatively little to say about alien life, which implies that it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility. I, however, would disagree with that claim.

It’s true that there’s no chapter in the Bible dedicated to the question of extraterrestrial life. But it’s not true that the Bible has nothing to say on the matter.

The Bible teaches us that there is an order to creation. God created the universe and populated it with galaxies, stars, and planets. He created the Earth and populated it with plants, animals, and people. And he put someone in charge of this creation: mankind.

Humans are unique among all of God’s creation. We alone are said to have been made in his image and according to his likeness (Genesis 1:27). We alone were given the task of taking dominion over the Earth (Genesis 1:26). We alone were the recipients of the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, and we alone were given Christ as a mediator (1 Timothy 2:5). Consider the meditation of King David recorded in Psalm 8:3-8:

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

According to that text and others, mankind was made a little lower than the angels and given responsibility as God’s image-bearers, his representatives. So, unlike any other created being, our actions have consequences that affect all of creation. When we fell, “the whole creation” was subjected to a curse, and all of creation still awaits redemption from the curse that was brought about because of the actions of mankind (Romans 8:19-22).

So, the created order looks something like this:

1. God is the sovereign Lord over all of creation. (Colossians 1:15-17)
2. Angelic beings are God’s direct servants who inhabit the spiritual realm. (Psalm 8:5)
3. Mankind are God’s image-bearers and representatives. (Genesis 1:26-27)
4. The whole creation is placed under mankind’s dominion. (Romans 8:19-22)

So, what does this have to do with aliens? It means that any aliens must also be subjected to the curse, which means no aliens with the moral responsibility and culpability of mankind. No other created beings sit on the same rung of the created order as mankind. 

For that reason, there can be no aliens with the creative, intellectual, or volitional capabilities of mankind.  Aliens with those capabilities would have nowhere to sit in the created order. How could there be an alien people who are subjected to our curse, under the dominion of man, yet possessing those unique aspects of human nature that are intended to reflect the glory of God as his image-bearing representatives?

Human-like aliens would break the created order that God has revealed in the Scriptures. The Bible doesn’t preclude the existence of all alien life, but it does preclude the existence of the kind of alien life people generally get excited about—namely, “non-human intelligences.”

Maybe we’ll find bacteria on Mars someday. Maybe there are animals roaming a planet in a distant galaxy. I have my doubts about either of those. But there is zero chance there are other creatures anywhere in the universe that are human-like in any meaningful way.

So, what if we made contact with alien life?

If I’m reading the news and understanding the demonic strategy correctly, it seems that leaders in our world believe that they have made contact with non-human intelligences. And it seems that if the public is made aware of that, then these intelligences will be presented as extraterrestrial beings.

If we understand our Bibles correctly, we know that this poses no threat to the veracity of the Christian faith. But this kind of disclosure would deceive many who don’t understand the Bible or share the Christian worldview. The church is the pillar and buttress of truth (1 Timothy 3:15). It is our responsibility to stand tall and strong as the winds of culture change.

Satan is skilled in the art of deception. He knows how to pose as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). If there is a disclosure of non-human intelligences, what if they come bearing good news? What if they come with scientific knowledge that helps us solve more problems? What if they seemingly do not oppose Christ or his church in the beginning? All of these things have been done before. It should not surprise us, and it should not deceive us.

But I want to give special attention to one other possibility: What if they come as physical creatures? What if they don’t seem at all spiritual? What if they have bodies, eat, drink, and walk about like humanoid beings? Even that has been done before. Lot played host to two angels for whom he made a feast that they ate (Genesis 19:3). Likewise, God exhorts us this way in Hebrews 13:2:

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Angels have the ability to appear and interact with physical creation as human-like beings, though this is not their normative mode of operation. Now, remember that demons are fallen angels and maintain the angelic abilities they had before the fall—they are even referred to as Satan’s angels twice in Scripture (Matthew 25:41, Revelation 12:9). Remember Paul’s words in Galatians 1:8: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.”

Could demonic beings pass as alien life forms? I think so. Will they attempt to deceive the masses by doing so? I can’t know for sure, but I am writing this article because I think it is at least a possibility. This entire moment could end in dramatic anticlimactic fashion with a big bowl of nothing. Or, if you’re one who doesn’t believe in aliens, you may have the strength of your disbelief tested sooner than you think. I don’t know the future, and I cannot perfectly predict what these disclosures by our government might contain or how demonic powers might shift their strategy in the future. I’m not meant to know the future perfectly, and neither are you. But we are meant to be equipped at all times with confident faith in God and a robust understanding of his word.

Do not be deceived, dear brothers and sisters.

No matter what may come, God will always sit on his throne, the church will never be prevailed against, and Christ the Great Shepherd will always perfectly keep his sheep.

But, why now?

The final question is another “Why?” question. Why has the government chosen this moment to declassify information related to UAPs and non-human intelligences? What’s the goal?

There are varying layers to the question of why anything that happens happens. In this instance, I think we can point to three layers.

The first layer is the motivation of the human leaders who have access to this classified information and the power to declassify it. Why is President Trump ordering the release of these files? The truth is, we don’t know. Maybe it’s a topic he’s passionate about—he did seem to hint that he would release this information if elected for a second term.¹⁰ Maybe it’s a good time to distract from bad press. Maybe he believes this is a politically advantageous move. Maybe something is coming that the government wants the populace to be prepared for. At this level, it’s all conjecture.

The second layer is the motivation behind the spiritual powers of darkness who seem to be involved. If this is a demonic strategy, why start showing their cards now? My best guess is that they think now is the time when it will work. They’ve played the long game, and 65% of people now believe in aliens. Perhaps it won’t be hard to deceive the population and get that number even higher. But even this is conjecture, and we already know that evil beings like to do evil things—like deceiving the masses.

The third layer, by far the most important, is the motivation behind God’s sovereign ordaining of what is coming to pass. God works all things according to the counsel of his will (Ephesians 1:11). He is King of Kings: “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” (Proverbs 21:1). Furthermore, demonic strategies don’t sit within a great chess match between the devils and the Divine. God’s purposes superintend demonic purposes. God’s strategies subordinate demonic strategies. He is Lord, demons are not. This is good news because we do know something about the motivation behind God’s actions: He works all things together for the good of those he loves (Romans 8:28). All things culminate in the great glorification of God and the ultimate joy of his saints. In God’s unfolding plan of the universe, all things happen in the right way and at the right time.

The strategic prowess and power and prominence of demonic activity in this world are far greater than you realize. We live in a world constantly embattled with spiritual warfare beyond what our earthly eyes can behold. But, praise be to God, the forces of darkness are nothing compared to the Lord of Hosts. Our King is enthroned forever, but Satan and his angels will spend eternity suffering in a lake of fire (Psalm 102:12, Revelation 20:10).

If this topic tempts you to fear, consider meditating on Psalm 121. The Lord is your refuge, strength, rock, fortress, stronghold, and keeper. “The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life” (Psalm 121:7). We have nothing to fear, but we have a responsibility to stay faithful to the truth. We must be confident in our understanding of how God has ordered his creation. We must be discerning in what we choose to believe from the world. We must be courageous to call out deception even when we are in the minority. We must be bold and unashamed of the truth.

If you belong to Christ, you have the privilege of helping others see through demonic deception. You’ve been entrusted with the gospel of God! So, be unshakable, unafraid, and ready to give truth and hope to a world in desperate need of Jesus Christ.

1. Pew Research (June 2021): https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/06/30/most-americans-believe-in-intelligent-life-beyond-earth-few-see-ufos-as-a-major-national-security-threat/ ↩︎
2. The Hollywood Reporter (May 2026): https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/disclosure-day-first-reactions-reviews-1236606758/ ↩︎
3. Politifact (February 2026): https://www.politifact.com/article/2026/feb/20/Trump-Obama-UFO-aliens-real/ ↩︎
4. Ibid. ↩︎
5. Skeptical Inquirer (January 1993): https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1993/01/22165151/p34.pdf ↩︎
6. Fox (January 2024): https://www.foxnews.com/politics/close-encounters-congressional-kind-lawmakers-struggle-grasp-alleged-interdimensional-nature-ufos ↩︎
7. Fox (March 2026): https://www.foxnews.com/politics/jd-vance-says-he-was-obsessed-ufos-believes-aliens-actually-demons ↩︎
8. X Post by The White House (February 2026): https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2024654469745480105 ↩︎
9. USA Herald (May 2026): https://usaherald.com/multiple-pastors-claim-u-s-military-intelligence-officers-secretly-briefed-them-to-prepare-their-congregations-for-uap-disclosure/ ↩︎
10. Newsweek (January 2025): https://www.newsweek.com/will-donald-trump-declassify-ufo-files-2020158 ↩︎