Do you think with God ?
Or do you feel with God?
Impassibility (from Latin in-, "not", passibilis, "able to suffer, experience emotion") describes the theological doctrine that God does not experience pain or pleasure from the actions of another being.
Does God think with you?
Does God feel with you?
For many people, feeling God’s presence is one of the most profound and meaningful spiritual experiences. Feeling God’s presence often manifests as a deep sense of peace, joy, love, connection, or transcendence that goes beyond normal human experience.
Rejoice today with GOD without comparing your life to others.
A Deep Sense of Peace and Calm
When we feel the presence of God, it can bring an amazing sense of peace and calm to our lives, quieting worries and anxiety. God’s presence comforts us like a mother comforts her child (Isaiah 66:13). As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem."
With God, we see that the only limits are those we place on ourselves. This sense of living in infinite possibility is deeply renewing and empowering.
Conclusion
The presence of God can be sensed in many profound ways that go beyond our typical human experience. While the full depth of these divine encounters can never be completely captured in words, the feelings of peace, joy, love, connection and transcendence provide a glimpse into the mystery of God’s abiding presence.
When we open our hearts to receive it, we can be filled and transformed by the ultimate source of all beauty, truth and grace.
Are you a feeling-person? Or a thinking-person?
Feeling Wrapped in Unconditional Love
In God’s presence, many describe feeling wrapped in unconditional divine love. It’s an acceptance beyond anything we can fathom. Worry and fears no longer flood the mind when we know we are fully known and fully loved by our Heavenly Creator. There is a release to just be ourselves, flaws and all.
Quieting of Worries and Anxieties
With the noise and chaos of everyday life, it can be challenging to still our minds. Yet inviting God’s presence helps halt the spinning hamster wheel of constant thinking. A transcendent peace begins to wrap around us like a warm familiar blanket when we surrender and acknowledge a Power greater than ourselves is in control. Just releasing burdens to Him lightens our load.
Slowing Down of Thoughts and Mental Chatter
Trying to suppress or ignore our thoughts often makes them scream louder. But shifting focus to connect with God places a filter on the chaos. We recognize feelings and worries yet also sense a profound depth of stillness behind the scenes.
It can feel like “coming back to the haven of His presence again, like entering the eye of a storm.” In the absence of striving, there is rest. As thoughts begin to slow, we open more to simply receive God’s love.
Profound Feelings of Joy and Bliss
Feeling light, uplifted and ecstatic
When in the presence of God, many people describe feeling an incredible lightness and euphoria. It’s as if a heavy weight has been lifted and you are suddenly walking on air. There is a feeling of being carefree, uplifted and full of joy.
Some describe it as being high on life – completely energized and blissfully content. The sensations are similar to the “runner’s high” but exponentially more profound. You feel physically lighter, almost weightless or floating. Mental clarity increases along with creativity.
There is no limit to the possibilities of what you can achieve.
Being overcome with divine ecstasy is a transcendent rush. A feeling of exhilaration and rapture surges through your entire being. Some mystics describe it as a “divine drunkenness” – they are inebriated on the presence of God. It brings such euphoria that you can hardly contain yourself.
Some spontaneously belt out melodies or break out into song and dance as creative expression of their bliss.
Spontaneous laughter or tears of joy
In the presence of God, joy can be so overwhelming that it leads to spontaneous outbursts of laughter or tears. One begins having powerful spiritual experiences during which one weeps with sheer joy for hours on end. Such a display of emotion may seem uncharacteristic for the normally stoic character, but it demonstrates just how moved one is by being in communion with the Divine.
For many devotees, these bursts of laughter or sobs are a cathartic release of a lifetime’s worth of tension. In God’s presence, worries and anxieties accumulated over the years can evaporate in an instant. This brings tremendous relief, spurring spontaneous fits of mirth or tears.
Laughter also represents joy bubbling up from within – it just cannot be contained. The inner joy resonating through every cell of your being surfaces through childlike laughter.
A glow or warmth in the heart
A common sensation of God’s presence is a glowing warmth in the center of your chest, as though your heart is radiating light. Saints from many traditions describe a flaming heat or fire in the heart when connecting with the Divine.
It is about a “sweet fire” of love that “sets our minds ablaze” when experiencing God. And described an angel piercing one's heart with a golden spear, causing a rapturous pain that “burned sweetly.”
Think and feel the ecstatic “fires of longing” ignited by unconditional love of the Divine.
Modern seekers also report a glowing heat or flames around the heart when embracing the presence of God. Some also perceive an invisible “force field” of energy surrounding the body, with the most intense glow around the chest area.
The warming presence resonates through the body down to a cellular level, energizing you with divine radiance. Beyond the physical sensations is the profound feeling of unconditional love and acceptance which melts even the hardest hearts.
A Sense of Being Loved and Connected
Feeling intimacy with all of creation
When we feel the presence of God, a profound sense of intimacy and connection with all of creation arises within us. We realize that we are not isolated beings, but are fundamentally interconnected with all living things.
There is a deep sense of oneness with nature, animals, and our fellow human beings. Boundaries soften as we feel that we all flow from the same Divine Source. This intimacy extends even to inanimate objects, as we sense the aliveness within all matter.
Describe beautifully: “We gradually realize that nothing stands outside of our loving concern, not because everything belongs to us but because we belong to Everything.”
Sense of oneness and unity
In the light of the Divine presence, superficial differences and separations between people dissolve away. We transcend the illusion of separateness and experience the truth that we are all One. One in Christ . One in Father. There is a profound sense of unity with all , not withstanding different races, religions, and cultures.
Historical differences and conflicts between groups fade into the background when God’s love illuminates the core truth that we are all children of the same Creator. As we rest in unity consciousness, we gain a heightened awareness of our deep interconnectedness.
We realize, that “The ‘I’ AM is part of a greater ‘We.'”
Feeling known and understood
In the presence of the Divine, many people experience a profound sense of being truly known and understood. On the deepest level, we feel totally accepted, recognized, and compassionately embraced by God, without judgment or conditions. What a freeing experience!
We can relax into our authentic selves, without pretense or hiding. We feel safely held in the heart of unconditional love. Many report feeling intimately known by God in a way that surpasses any human relationship.
There are no barriers; we experience what describes as “the place where everything is music.” This brings tears of joy and gratitude. Research shows that report feeling God’s presence in this deeply intimate way.
Moments of Awe and Wonder
Deep appreciation for beauty and goodness
When we experience deep awe and wonder in the presence of God, it is often when we contemplate something truly beautiful or good. According to research by psychologists, awe involves “vastness” and “accommodation”.
In the spiritual context, we feel awestruck when we perceive the vastness of God’s glory, goodness, love or creativity. Our minds have to expand and “accommodate” these extraordinary perceptions. We are left speechless, captivated and transformed.
These moments suspend our selfish concerns and instill an expanded sense of self. We may feel tearful in appreciating the preciousness of life.
For example, beholding a stunning sunset, a newborn baby or acts of great human kindness can fill us with awe of God’s creation. Christians believe that God is the Divine Artist. Contemplating great works of art, music and literature allows us to appreciate God’s gifts in humanity.
Experiences in nature such as standing before the majestic mountains, listening to the roar of the ocean, and gazing at the boundless night sky give us a sense of our smallness compared to the vastness of God’s creation.
Feeling small yet connected to something greater
Paradoxically, spiritual awe involves feeling humbled yet hopeful at the same time. We recognize our insignificance yet interconnectedness with all of life. Researchers describe this as the “small self” and the “interconnected self”.
The vastness we perceive overwhelms the ego and personal concerns of the small self. Yet we also feel lifted – that we are blessed to participate in something larger than our individual existence.
Standing before the ruins of an ancient civilization or sacred site, we may visualize the countless people who have come before us on the eternal journey of spiritual growth. Silently communing with nature, we sense that everything on our planet is interwoven in a beautiful but fragile web of life.
During worship we feel part of an ancient tradition connecting us to past and future generations.
A sense of amazement and marveling
Moments of awe make us pause and take notice. We are jolted out of the monotony and concerns of daily life. A 2021 study found that experiences of awe were associated with reduced stress and rumination.
By immersing us in the present, awe provides respite from worrying about the past or future. It renews our sense of curiosity and vitality.
Watching a brilliant sunset or meteor shower, we may exclaim “Wow!” in sheer delight. Seeing our child take their first steps or master a new skill amazes us at their rapid development. Marveling at the intricacies of a butterfly’s wing or the symmetries of a snowflake, we appreciate the wonders of God’s intelligent design.
Witnessing acts of forgiveness, compassion and sacrifice touch our heart. These moments stop us in our tracks, uplift our spirit and remind us there are always new surprises in God’s creation.
Transcendence and Expansion
Rising above normal perceptions
When we feel the presence of God, we may experience a sense of rising above our normal perceptions and limitations. This transcendence can give us an expansive perspective in which we see things in a new light.
We may feel lifted into a higher state of awareness where we have clarity about life’s deeper meanings. Our normal worries may seem to fall away as we connect with something greater than ourselves. This expanded perception allows us to see the bigger picture and understand our place within the grand scheme of things.
We may feel awe and wonder at the immensity of creation.
Feeling outside time and space
The presence of God can give us a feeling of timelessness, being outside of normal space-time dimensions. We may experience eternity, having no beginning or end. Our sense of past and future may dissolve into an abiding now.
With normal mental chatter quieted, we may feel fully present and aware in the current moment. This timeless awareness can allow for deep peace and stillness. We feel anchored in an eternal present, unbound by the constraints of time.
There may be a sense of infinite space, limitless and all encompassing. Our normal perceptions of space seem to expand outward without end. We may feel held in this infinite, luminous awareness.
Sense of infinite possibilities
When we feel immersed in God’s presence, we may have an empowering sense of infinite possibilities. We see our challenges in a new light, realizing that all things are possible with God. Limiting beliefs about what we can accomplish begin to lift away.
We understand on a profound level that we are deeply loved and supported to fulfill our divine potential. This emboldens us to pursue our dreams and act on inspiration. We feel called to be our highest and best selves, to boldly create the life we are meant to live.
With God, we see that the only limits are those we place on ourselves. This sense of living in infinite possibility is deeply renewing and empowering.
Conclusion
Yes God feels and thinks with me. And Gid enables me to feel and think with Him , too.
¶Does God Have Emotions?
Yes, God does have emotions.
Unpacking that truth, however, can be tricky. The discussion touches on an important point of theology: God’s impassibility. If you are familiar with that doctrine, you know the theology can get technical and hard to follow pretty quickly. And, complicating matters, theologians don’t all agree. For those of you new to the subject, impassibility is the doctrine that God is not able to suffer or be changed by involuntary passions.
The basic concern here is an important one: the Bible is clear that God is not dependent on his creation in any way (i.e., he is truly transcendent), and therefore he cannot be at its mercy, involuntarily affected by it, reeling in reaction to what he has made, and thus on some level controlled by it. In other words, what he has created cannot afflict him with suffering or make him feel anything.
Untangling Emotions
Untangling Emotions
J. Alasdair Groves, Winston T. Smith
This book sets forth a holistic view of emotions rooted in the Bible, offering a practical approach to engaging with both positive and negative emotions in a God-honoring way.
Right off the bat you might think that it actually sounds like God doesn’t have emotions. If God is unaffected by his creation, then—well—he can’t feel anything about it good or bad. But that isn’t what the doctrine of impassibility is getting at. The issue isn’t really whether or not God has emotions but what they are like. Does God experience emotions the way we do? Some theologians argue that he does and that this is basic to his ability to empathize with us. Other theologians argue that he does not experience emotions as we do at all. If he did, his emotions would make him as willy-nilly as we are, and we could no longer consider him reliably stable (i.e., immutable).
Does It Really Matter?
This can sound a bit abstract and philosophical already, and you might be wondering, does impassibility really matter? It does. It really matters both that God has emotions and that they are different from ours in important ways.
God Really Understands and Cares for Us
For most of us it matters a great deal that God has emotions for very personal reasons. At stake is whether or not God really understands and cares about our experiences, especially our suffering. To say that God is impassible seems to suggest that perhaps he doesn’t. Since he can’t suffer, how could he possibly understand? And if he doesn’t understand, how could he care? We want to know that God relates to us emotionally without having the problems that our emotions create for us.
So let us be clear: God does understand, and he does care.
Hopefully we’ve made it clear all along that Jesus provides the clearest understanding of both our emotions and God’s. In particular, Jesus’s role as High Priest demonstrates God’s commitment to relating with us emotionally. Hebrews 4 says:
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet was without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:15–16)
God’s empathy is rooted in Christ’s work. Jesus Christ is our foundation for understanding how God relates to us emotionally.
God cared enough about understanding us that God the Son stepped into our shoes by taking on a human nature. Jesus’s flesh and bone are proof that God has established a deep connection to our emotional experience and he wants us to know about it. In fact, he demonstrates his solidarity with us, in particular, through Jesus’s suffering. Jesus’s trials and temptations validate the bond he has with us as our Priest, the One who can truly represent us to God in our misery. Jesus really suffered as a flesh-and-blood human being. He really gets it, so when he tells us that he cares, we can know that he means it. And because he really gets it and experienced suffering without sin, God the Son can faithfully communicate that experience to his Father.
God’s Emotions Are Different
But impassibility matters for other reasons as well. Some important attributes of God are at stake. In particular, whatever similarity exists between God’s emotions and ours ought not undermine God’s unchanging character (immutability), which undergirds His faithfulness and ability to save us.
So in what sense does God have emotions? Traditionally theologians have made a distinction between passions and affections. Historically passions described the more physical aspect of emotions, which, as we explained earlier, means that to some extent our bodies are always shaping our emotions. We don’t want to say that about God, though, because Father God does not have a body, and God doesn’t get cranky when his blood sugar drops. The church fathers used the term passions to describe what God does not have in order to defend against heresies which taught that the Father suffered on the cross ¹ or that God compromised His divine nature ² in order to accomplish salvation. In this sense, we ought to deny that God has passions. He is impassible, meaning that the creation or His creatures cannot push Him around emotionally.
God’s impassibility is actually the grounding hope of our ability to know and trust His emotions.
At the same time, this does not mean that God lacks affections, which we today might call “feelings.” Traditionally, the word affections has described an emotion rooted in a moral value. Pastor and theologian Kevin DeYoung explains:
If we are equating emotions with the old sense of passions, then God doesn’t have emotions. But if we are talking about affections, he does. God’s emotions are cognitive affections involving his construal of a situation. Most of what we call emotion in God is his evaluation of what is happening with his creation. ³
DeYoung goes on to capture the core beauty of God’s impassibility by saying that God “is love to the maximum at every moment. He cannot change because he cannot possibly be any more loving, or any more just, or any more good. God cares for us, but it is not a care subject to spasms or fluctuations of intensity.” ⁴ Thus, while it might appear at first that the doctrine of God’s impassibility will leave us with a cold, distant, and disconnected deity, instead the exact opposite is true: the glorious fact that God cannot and does not change means we can completely rely on His heart bursting with love, compassion, pity, tenderness, and anger at injustice; we can delight in His works, knowing He will always do them with these attributes without tiring. God’s impassibility is actually the grounding hope of our ability to know and trust his emotions.
Isaiah 49:15 says:
Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
One applies this passage to God’s emotional life:
When we argue that God is impassible in the sense of being insusceptible to involuntary emotional manipulation, we mean that he is impassible not because he is affectively weak, but rather because he is affectively strong and full. God is more passionate than we are about the things that matter most.⁵
In other words, God doesn’t have passions in that he is not jerked around by creation. God doesn’t have “good” days and “bad” days. The early fathers were not arguing that God is dispassionate but rather speaking in a philosophically credible way about how God is different from creatures. But these impassibility formulations should not compel us to say that God is in no way like us emotionally. We are passible and God is impassible. God is not like us in some important ways, and he is like us in important ways. God is energetically enthused and emotionally invested in creation by his own free and consistent choice, but God’s emotional life does not compromise his character or change his essence.
The Mystery of Faith
All Christian doctrine is at some point an expression of mystery. God is not just a different version of us; he is distinct from us as the Creator. Whether you’re talking about the doctrine of the Godhead, the incarnation, or the problem of evil, everything is going to have a mystery at its bedrock. The goal of this appendix is not to say everything that can be said, but merely to point out that in order for us to know God as God, we must admit that we are knowing The One who transcends our complete understanding. While we affirm that what can be said about God can be said truly and accurately in so far as God has revealed Himself to us, we must draw the line of mystery where God stops speaking.⁶ In fact, He never cease to speak through His creation and marvel.
A Simple and Certain Hope
Let’s return to the issue at stake for most readers: When you’re suffering, does God care? Of course God cares if you’re suffering. Not only does he care; he cares that you know he understands. Because Jesus is our High Priest, Jesus in his human nature understands suffering existentially and physically. Because of both Jesus’s purity and his human passion, God is uniquely qualified to empathize with you in Christ.
In order to keep a balanced view of God’s emotional life, always return to the oneness of the Godhead bodily as the picture of the divine emotional life. The Father sympathizes with you and sends Christ to take an active role in your life. The Son empathizes with you directly through his human nature. And the Holy Spirit empathizes imminently through his indwelling in you (Romans 8:26). In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. Romans 8:26 explains that the Holy Spirit assists us in our weaknesses, especially when we don't know how to pray. The Spirit intercedes for us with deep, unexpressed groans, highlighting our reliance on divine help in prayer.
Notes:
1. Patripassianism is an error of modalism, the belief that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are simply three “modes” of one being, rather than distinct persons; and so God the Father actually suffered on the cross.
2. Monophysitism is the heresy that Christ has only one nature instead of two, human and divine. Monophysitism would imply that Jesus suffered in his divine nature, making the divine contingent on the creation.
3. Kevin DeYoung, “’Tis Mystery All, the Immortal Dies: Why the Gospel of Christ’s Suffering Is More Glorious because God Does Not Suffer” (edited transcript of a presentation at the T4G conference of 2010), 11, www.google.com/search?ei=1fl5W8jTNdGO5wL FiqLwBg&q=T4G-2010-KDY-v_2.pdf. DeYoung provides a more technical but very accessible discussion of impassibility.
4. DeYoung, “’Tis Mystery All,” 9.
5. Rob Lister, God Is Impassible and Impassioned: Toward a Theology of Divine Emotion (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 215.
6. Incomprehensibility is the doctrine that God cannot be known exhaustively (see, e.g., Deuteronomy 29:29). The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:29 states that the secret things belong to the Lord, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of His law. This verse emphasizes the importance of obeying God's teachings based on what has been revealed to us.
Now feel, think , and received 100 Bible Verses about How God Sees Us
¹ But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
² For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
³ See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know HIM.
⁴ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
⁵ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of HIM who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
⁶ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
⁷ Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My Righteous Right Hand.
⁸ 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.
⁹ The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; Your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of Your hands.
¹⁰ But God shows His Love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
¹¹ “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in HIM should not perish but have eternal life.
¹² For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
¹³ “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
¹⁴ Even as He chose us in HIM before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before HIM. In love He predestined us for adoption to HIMself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will,
¹⁵ The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
¹⁶ Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
¹⁷ And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This HE set aside, nailing it to the cross.
¹⁸ Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
¹⁹ There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
²⁰ Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge HIM, and He will make straight your paths.
²¹ No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his Master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
²² The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
²³ And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
²⁴ But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
²⁵ For our sake HE made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
²⁶ So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
²⁷ Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,
Job 34:21 ESV / 31 helpful votes
²⁸ “For his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps.
²⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
³⁰ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
³¹ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
³² If we confess our sins, HE is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
³³ For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
³⁴ And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put His seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
³⁵ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
³⁶ To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. 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. ...
³⁷ But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,
³⁸ So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality,
³⁹A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want (lack anything) . He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...
⁴⁰ 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.
⁴¹ “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.
⁴² Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for HE who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
⁴³ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
⁴⁴ I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
⁴⁵ 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.
⁴⁶ And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.
⁴⁷ Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
⁴⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
⁴⁹ You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
⁵⁰ I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
⁵¹ And raised us up with HIM and seated us with HIM in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
⁵² And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
⁵³ The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
⁵⁴ We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
⁵⁵ For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.
⁵⁶ And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
⁵⁷ And, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
⁵⁸ Nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
⁵⁹ For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward HIM. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.”
⁶⁰ So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
⁶¹ But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
⁶² I praise YOU, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are YOUR works; my soul knows it very well.
⁶³ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
⁶⁴ For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
⁶⁵ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake HE made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
⁶⁶ Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
⁶⁷ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
⁶⁸ Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ...
⁶⁹ So that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
⁷⁰ Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
⁷¹ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.
⁷² For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
⁷³ So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
⁷⁴ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
⁷⁵ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through HIM who loved us.
⁷⁶ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
⁷⁷ Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
⁷⁸ Until now you have asked nothing in My Name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
⁷⁹ Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
⁸⁰ To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. 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.
⁸¹ Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.
⁸² For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,
⁸³ Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
⁸⁴ Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
⁸⁵ The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
⁸⁶ For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.
⁸⁷ The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.
⁸⁸ Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; His understanding is beyond measure.
⁸⁹ For YOU formed my inward parts; YOU knitted me together in my mother's womb.
⁹⁰ Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
⁹¹ Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.
⁹² For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
⁹³ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which HE loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
⁹⁴ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
⁹⁵ And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
⁹⁶ The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
⁹⁷ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
⁹⁸ For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
⁹⁹ Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
¹⁰⁰“For His eyes are on the ways of a man, and He sees all his steps. There is no gloom or deep darkness where evildoers may hide themselves.
