Good morning…
“Good morning Sue,” she emailed me yesterday from Jacksonville, Florida. “Our hearts are in stereo again with the same verse. I shared 2 Corinthians 8:9 with my group of 7th grade girls on Tuesday.”
Remember? This is the same verse concluding our blog post yesterday. For you are becoming progressively acquainted with and recognizing more strongly and clearly the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (His kindness, His gracious generosity, His undeserved favor and spiritual blessing), [in] that though He was [so very] rich, yet for your sakes He became [so very] poor, in order that by His poverty you might become enriched (abundantly supplied).
Then she expanded upon God’s life-giving lesson: “I asked the girls to ponder, ‘Who is the most influential person in your life?’ I gave them a minute to consider the question before reading this great wisdom from Paul Tripp.”
Paul Tripp says, “Every day you preach to yourself some kind of gospel – a false, “I can’t do this’ gospel or the true ‘I have all I need in Christ’ gospel. No one is more influential in your life than you are because no one talks to you more than you do. It’s a fact that you and I are in an endless conversation with ourselves. We either preach to ourselves a gospel of aloneness, poverty, and inability or the true gospel of God’s presence, power, and constant provision. Today, when it feels as if no one understands, what gospel will you preach to you? It really is true – no one talks to you more than you do. So God in his grace has given you His Word so that you may preach to yourself what is true in those moments when the only one talking to you is you.”
Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart] (Philippians 4:8, AMP).
As we center upon a thought, before implanting it in our heart, God gives us our first filter: “If I have all I need in Christ, is this thought true?”
…Sue…
