Knowing God.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The whole Gospel in one sentence. God’s love isn’t earned. It’s given, and the gift is eternal life through believing in Jesus.

Live it: Read it again slowly with your own name in it. Then decide what you’ll do with that kind of love.

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Jesus didn’t claim to show the way. He claimed to be the way. Knowing God starts with knowing Him.

Live it: Bring God your hardest question about Jesus today, then read John 14 and let Him answer.

“But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God didn’t wait for you to get it together. He loved you at your worst and proved it at the cross.

Live it: Don’t wait until you’ve cleaned yourself up to come to God. Talk to Him today exactly as you are.

“You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

God isn’t hiding from people who are truly looking. Seeking Him with your whole heart always finds Him.

Live it: Give God ten minutes today with your whole heart: read, pray, listen. Hold nothing back.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.”

Jesus doesn’t force His way in. He knocks, and He waits for you to open the door.

Live it: Talk to Jesus today as if He’s right at the door, because He is. Open it.

“But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—”

Becoming a child of God isn’t earned. It’s received, and the right comes with receiving Jesus.

Live it: If you’ve never received Jesus, do it today. Tell Him you believe and you want Him as your Lord.

“that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Salvation isn’t complicated: believe it in your heart and say it with your mouth.

Live it: Say it out loud today, where you can hear it: “Jesus is Lord.”

“Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”

God invites you to experience Him, not just hear about Him.

Live it: Give God ten minutes today and pay attention to how He meets you.

“God intended that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.”

Paul told a crowd in Athens that God made people to seek Him, and that He isn’t far from any one of us.

Live it: Talk to God today as if He’s close, because He is.

“Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.”

Jesus calls Himself the bread of life. Whoever comes to Him will never go hungry for meaning again.

Live it: Notice what you reach for today when you feel empty, and bring that emptiness to Jesus instead.

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Everyone has sinned and fallen short. Everyone can also be made right with God by His grace through Jesus.

Live it: Be honest with God today about where you’ve fallen short. Then receive His grace.

“Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.””

Jesus says He is the light of the world. Whoever follows Him won’t walk in darkness.

Live it: Ask Jesus today to shine light on one area of your life that feels dark.

“Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.”

David asks where he could ever go from God’s presence. There is nowhere God isn’t.

Live it: Wherever you are today, remind yourself God is already there.

“So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.”

In Jesus’ story of the lost son, the father saw him coming from far away and ran to him. That’s how God responds when you come home.

Live it: Take one step toward God today. He’s already running toward you.

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.””

Jesus said He came to seek and to save the lost. You aren’t chasing God alone. He’s been looking for you.

Live it: Let yourself be found by God today.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.”

The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came so we could have life to the full.

Live it: Ask Jesus today for the full life He came to give.

““Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.”

God says, “Come, let us reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.”

Live it: Bring God what you’re ashamed of today. He’s inviting the conversation.

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!”

Anyone in Christ is a new creation. The old is gone, and the new has come.

Live it: Leave one old pattern behind today because you’re new in Christ.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Live it: Confess one thing to God today, specifically, and receive His forgiveness.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.”

Jesus says to ask, seek and knock, and it will be given, you will find, and the door will be opened.

Live it: Ask God one honest question about Himself today, and keep seeking the answer.

“Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.””

Jesus told a woman at a well that the water He gives becomes a spring of water welling up to eternal life. He satisfies what nothing else can.

Live it: Notice what you keep going back to for satisfaction, and ask Jesus for His water instead.

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace”

In Jesus we have redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.

Live it: Thank Jesus today for paying the price for you.

“As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

As far as the east is from the west, that’s how far God removes our sins from us.

Live it: Let go of a sin God has already forgiven. Don’t carry it again today.

“This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

God showed His love by sending His Son. Love starts with God, not with us.

Live it: Read these verses slowly today and let them sink in.

“He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

God saved us not because of what we’ve done but because of His mercy. Nobody earns their way in.

Live it: Thank God today that His mercy, not your record, brought you near.

“My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.”

Jesus says His sheep hear His voice and follow Him, and no one can snatch them out of His hand.

Live it: Get quiet for a few minutes today and listen for His voice.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. What we earn and what God gives are opposites.

Live it: Thank God today for the gift you could never earn.

“The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call out to Him in truth.”

The Lord is near to all who call on Him in truth. He’s one honest prayer away.

Live it: Call on God honestly today. Tell Him the truth about where you are.

“Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” And Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.””

A dying criminal asked Jesus to remember him, and Jesus promised he would be with Him in paradise that very day. It’s never too late.

Live it: If you’ve felt too far gone, talk to Jesus today. It isn’t too late.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Paul lists everything he can think of, death, life, angels, powers, and says nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ.

Live it: Read this list today and add whatever you’re afraid of. It can’t separate you either.