Your Morning Coffee 03/26/2026

Good morning!

Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father remind of us how strong and powerful He is, and that with all of the strength, He loves us! Father, thank you for loving us beyond our ability to comprehend. Please help us not to mistake our lack of full understanding for a lack of love. In our frailty and weakness, we so often get mixed up, wondering if you really do love us like you say you do in your Word. You do! In the name of Jesus, remind us today of your love for us, and the perfect power by which you act and move in our everyday lives. By the Spirit help us to see your moving and then seek you. Help us to pray. Help us to read our Bibles. Help us to worship you. Hold us close, Father. Amen.

Your Morning Song: "Joy of the Lord" by Rend Collective

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDx3gLeCiMJqI&v=x3gLeCiMJqI

Your Morning Scripture: 1 Chronicles 16:11

Seek the Lord and His strength;

seek His presence continually!

...

A child walks down a city sidewalk alone, head down. If it was day the rain wouldn't have been as bad. But at night? It made the shadows blur and deepen. Sounds as well, muted and slurred, giving no help. Was there someone there, in the alley? Was there a stray dog behind the dumpster growling? Or was that a car driving through potholes and puddles? A child wishes they would have listened to their mother and come sooner. And that their father was with them in the rain.

Have you ever been in a situation that was both extremely dangerous, and completely out of your control, BUT in the control of someone else, who could and wanted to protect you?

In the history of the world this has been a common occurrence, the immediate, real need to be protected by someone else.

But now?

For many of us this is a very rare experience. So, if I were to ask a seemingly odd question, it is only to make sure that we are on the same page about something most of us can only imagine.

If you want someone to protect you in a life-or-death situation, does proximity matter? Can they protect you from afar?

No. You must be close to them.

It makes perfect sense that we, in our culture, have misunderstood how God's strength works. We are consumers who think and move and breath in access and commodities. When we need and want, we buy and get with a casual ease. And if we need more, we simply go and get more.

And we treat God like this.

When we need something from God, we go to Him and get it and then go on our merry way. While He waits behind some spiritual version of glass that is broken if there is an emergency.

But this consumerist-Christianity doesn't work when we walk in the dark of despair and taste the bitterly sour shadow of suffering. And so, we try to get strength from God. We try to obtain and possess and are surprised when instead He allows us to starve and thirst in WILDERNESS.

God's strength cannot be found anywhere else but in His presence. In our sorrows and sufferings and struggles, we must seek His face. We must draw near to Him. We must get close.

Three truths can encourage us here.

• Our Father in Heaven wants us to do this, so He will help you do this. Part of coming close to God is that as you do, He also pulls you close. When my children reach out to be hugged, I reach for them as well. Why would God be any less of a Father to us in this way?

• Jesus our Lord and Savior already paid the price to make this possible. You can run to your Heavenly Father and know that you don't have to pay a toll or a price. It has been paid. We are welcome in God's presence. And have no excuse not to rest in and trust in Him.

• The Holy Spirit, He who comforts and guides and teaches us, will steal all our excuses away. To be clear is to be kind. And there is no one as kind as our God. The Spirit will help you to understand your situation, and turn your "What do I do?" into "Am I willing to do that?"

Have you been confronted with your own weakness and desperate need for God's strength? Run to our Heavenly Father. Rest in the love of our Savior. Rejoice in the comfort of He, the Spirit who leads into the peace of kindly clarity.

But do not forget, God's strength cannot be separated from Him. To seek His strength, seek His presence. And be lifted up in your heart and mind by God's joy at your closeness to Him.