Good day, friends!  Today I am very aware of God’s forgiveness and patience with me, and it makes me aware of how much I hope to be able to demonstrate God’s abundance of grace to those I encounter today.  My wife was sweet to encourage me about my help around the house and working hard as a husband and father.  It honestly didn’t hit me like other times when she’s encouraged me.  I was touched, but I was deeply aware of how kind God has been to me.  This is what was driving me this morning.  I’ve been camping out in the first few chapters of 1 Samuel in God’s Word, and I’m so moved by the difference between Eli and Samuel.  Fresh eyes to being God’s voice to God’s people I think really wakes up a young man.  My communications here on this blog and in other contexts aren’t anything like Samuel’s were for the nation of Israel, but I’m sobered that our closeness to God is what impacts our communications to one another about our God.

It has been moving to read the autobiography on Hudson Taylor.  His closeness to our Lord inspired faith and an enjoyment of God’s daily guidance.  I’ve begun testing to see where my faith is at, and it’s refreshing to see how near our God is.  There are little ways I’ve sought to see where my discernment of God’s Spirit is at, and He is showing up in even the smallest ways, revealing that He is very near and loves to work through us even in the smallest of things.  May God’s people more and more be suspended in the throws of God’s love for us, caught up in the delights of His tender and close voice, His present and consistent use of us for His glory.

In His deep delight, His awesome forgiveness, and His eternal glory,

– Torrey