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Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. — Romans 12:4-5 Thoughts on Today's Verse... Three key realities of our discipleship are belonging, usefulness, and connectedness. Each of us belongs! We belong to God. We belong to Jesus. We belong to Jesus' body, the Church. We belong to each other as members of Jesus' body. The Holy Spirit not only cleansed us when we were given new birth in Jesus' family ( John 3:6-7 ; 1 Corinthians 6:11 ), but the Spirit also gifted us ( Ephesians 4:7 ; 1 Peter 4:10 ) and connected us with everyone else in Jesus' body! We each have a place and a purpose for the Church to function as Jesus' bodily presence in our world today. We each have something to bring to the other believers who make us Jesus' body, the Church. Each of us belongs! Each of us is needed! Each of us has an importan...

Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble. — Psalm 119:165 Thoughts on Today's Verse... My doctor likes to tease me when I come in for a checkup: "What is your problem with gravity?" You see, from an early age, my nickname was "Trip"! I am someone who has had several very clumsy stages of life and taken some pretty nasty stumbles. So, I hope you will join me in hearing this most beautiful promise from today's Scripture. For me, this promise is almost beyond believing. "Nothing can make them stumble." When it comes to life, God gives us this promise: as we know, love, and do his will, nothing can make us stumble. There is great peace knowing that the Father loves us and doesn't want us to stumble. Even when we do begin to stumble, if we go back to God and confess those stumbles and sins, he forgives them and makes us clean. It's as if they hadn't happened ( 1 John 1:9 ). God no longer sees it as a stumble...

I love the LORD. He heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. — Psalm 116:1-2 Thoughts on Today's Verse... Understanding the LORD's love, presence, and nearness should lead us to serve him and to deepen our relationship with him. While we love God for many reasons, we especially want to express our love to him today for his personal concern for us - individually for each of us! In a world where important people refuse to spend time with those they consider "beneath them," we are truly blessed with an incomparable God who listens to our every cry, recognizes our distinct voice, and tunes his ear to hear every one of our whispers. Yes! I will call on the LORD! I will praise him, thank him, confess to him, and speak of him and his grace as long as I live! My Prayer... Father, you know each hair on my head and every thought in my heart. Thank you for hearing my prayers. Thank you for answering so many...

When I said, "My foot is slipping," your love, O LORD, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul. — Psalm 94:18-19 Thoughts on Today's Verse... We are amazed at the vastness of God's reach, the awesome breadth of his power, and the glorious sweep of his majesty. An additional truth is God's personal nearness, tenderness, and attentiveness to our needs - his continual support and consolation. Our Father chooses to know us and be actively involved in the trials and triumphs we face each day. Imagine how today and every tomorrow will be different because we are aware of his presence and certain of his companionship in our lives. Realize the difference knowing that God supports us when our feet slip and how near God's consolation is when our anxiety and fear rise in our hearts. God, the Master of all creation, knows each of us and intervenes in each of our lives to support and console us! My Prayer... Loving God, you a...

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, give us all things? — Romans 8:32 Thoughts on Today's Verse... If God gave up his Son to save us, what will he not do to bless, guide, and keep us? That's Paul's point in our verse today. God bought us out of bondage to sin, death, and hell so that now we are holy to him ( 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ). Paul was telling the Corinthians that God's overflowing grace should motivate us toward holiness, living wholeheartedly and unabashedly for God while using our bodies to glorify him as a temple to God in the Holy Spirit. In our verse for today, Paul is seeking to motivate us to live for God while also giving us assurance. God was gracious to redeem us when we were undeserving ( Romans 5:6-11 ). Now that we are his children and seeking to honor him, we can trust that he is doing everything to bring his salvation in us to completion! God's initial grace saves us while his ong...

By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me — a prayer to the God of my life. — Psalm 42:8 Thoughts on Today's Verse... I have always loved music. To this day, songs help unlock the part of me that is most open to God. Songs help me declare my love for him and offer my praise to him. But as the psalmist said so many centuries ago, and I find it is still true for me today: his song is with me at night, especially on those nights when sleep is hard to find and I need reassurance of his love. Even when I can't remember what I dreamed the previous night, I often awaken to a praise song that had been sung over me ( Zephaniah 3:17 ), with me, and by me in my sleep - "...at night his song is with me - a prayer to the God of my life ... the LORD [who] directs his love" to me! Video Commentary... ToGather Worship Guide | More ToGather Videos My Prayer... O God of my life, thank you for music and song. Thank you for giving me so many good things to sing j...