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In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace. Ephesians 1:5-6 Dear Lord, I praise You for Your amazing grace. When I think deeply about the truth of eternal realities, it is just overwhelming and stunning in every sense of the word. We aren't just free falling in the dark of this world, rather we are sons and daughters of God, heading for glory in Your light. You have existed throughout all of eternity, and as long as You have been God, You have loved us. And You will love us unto glory and forevermore. It was that eternal love that You have always had for us that made You choose us. The adoption into Your kingdom is the highest privilege the gospel offers. You can’t get any higher than to be a son or daughter of God eternally, and one whom Jesus will call brother and sister. It’s an unspeakable, incomprehensible blessing to be granted spiritual life, to be freed from sin, and to be declared righteous in your Son, Jesus Christ. This kind of blessing given to me, just staggers the imagination and leaves me in wonder and awe of You. It truly is the grace of all graces. For this I worship You, I praise You, and I thank You for this first and greatest blessing of being chosen by You to belong to Your awesome Kingdom. Please help me be bold and unafraid to share the gospel when opportunity arises; so that I may help others see the glory of Your Kingdom too by You grace. All honor and glory belong to You, Lord. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen. Love, Jenna

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 Dear Lord, Hallelujah! He is risen! There is nothing more precious, nothing more glorious, nothing more magnificent than the hope You have blessed me with - through the death and resurrection of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Christ is life itself! For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life! Romans 5:10 The more I study and find treasures in the Scriptures, the more I begin to comprehend Your profound grace and lavish gift of love to sinners like me. The more knowledge and wisdom I gain from Your Word, the more I am in awe and reverence of Your holiness, Your righteousness, Your justice, and Your infinite, perfect love....which I have not even begun to scratch the surface of Your glory. Eternity won't be long enough for me to comprehend the magnificence of Your glory! That means, the best is always yet to come! For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him (John 3:16-17). Lord, I know there was never a time where You did not exist. Before You ever made the world You already existed: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has infinitely existed, and it is far beyond what my finite mind can even begin to grasp. What Scripture makes clear is that love has always been an attribute of Your nature. You didn’t become a God of love, but You have always been a God of love. And the object of Your affection has always been Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ. You loved the world so much that You sent Your perfect, sinless, blameless Son to save a wretched sinner like me. The love that You have is so big, so tremendous, that it will take me all of eternity to understand. Lord, You saved me from Yourself, by Yourself, and for Yourself. You gave me an escape from death and a way to life, and that is through believing in Your Son by the gift of Your grace. The greatest evil that has ever occurred was used by You to bring about the greatest good imaginable – and that is the redemption of sinners all for Your glory. Everything, Lord, is all for Your glory! The gospel is not Jesus plus anything. The gospel is just Jesus. The gospel is not “What can I do?” The gospel is “Jesus has already done.” I pray that people abandon any and all hope in themselves and in their own works and human merit, and trust in the person and work of Christ alone. Hallelujah! He is risen! I want to glorify my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ forever and ever. Christ is life because God is love. In Jesus’ name I pray Amen. Love, Jenna

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 Dear Lord, I have sinned, I see my sin, and I confess my sins to You. I praise You for Your mercy that You have on me, for Your mercy triumphs over judgment. I pray that You deliver me from sin in all of its deceiving sweetness, as well as its bitterness underneath its mask. I pray for humility and meekness, and I ask for You to help me recognize when pride starts making its way into my heart and mind as it so easily does. Please keep me from being prideful and content with my own strength, my own ways, my own self, apart from You, Lord. Please help me from ever getting to the point where I think I have reached or can reach my own perfection through my own works and human merit without You. I can do nothing apart from You, my Lord. Search my heart O Lord, try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me to the way everlasting – to You. For you alone, Lord Jesus, is the way, the Truth, and the life. When things are shadow, You are substance; when things are shifting, You are firm; when things are quicksand, You are a rock; when things are blind and ignorant, You are wisdom and Truth. I praise You for loving me so much that You sent Your perfect Son, Jesus Christ, to die for my sins. You made Him who had no sin to be sin for me so that in Him I might become the righteousness of God. I praise You that through His resurrection I may have everlasting life by the gift of Your grace through faith. Jesus Christ is the most glorious hope that You have given to the world out of Your love, and I am immeasurably blessed to be in Christ, for He is life. Through Him, I have everything I will ever need - now and throughout all of eternity. Jesus is the greatest gift imaginable and the most glorious hope ever known. I pray that I am able to be an honorable, humble, and gentle vessel of Yours and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others so that they may have hope and joy through You too. I am so thankful to You my Lord that I do not have the words to express that depth of gratitude and joy I feel in my heart for the everlasting life I have in Christ Jesus. I am blessed beyond measure all because of Your saving grace. All glory and honor belongs to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen. Love, Jenna

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17 Dear Lord, May you give me the grace to boldly share the Truth with others when opportunities arise. I know that people cannot come to faith by me giving my own personal testimony or from any of my own cleverness or persuasiveness with the gospel. Rather, people come to faith from hearing the Word of God, by the power of God. Lord, help me to simply be the messenger of Your Word and know that You are the only One who can work saving faith into the minds and hearts of people. So faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of God. (Romans 10:17) Faith Comes Through Hearing the Word of God In Romans 10, Paul writes that when someone does come to faith, it is through hearing what the Lord says through the words of Christ. There are steps that must occur to bring a person to the point of faith. God sends out a messenger to preach the gospel. When the gospel reaches a person's ears, he or she has the opportunity to believe the Truth or reject it. Those who believe are the ones who call on Christ as their Lord and Savior. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" (Romans 10:13-15) Choosing to Receive or Reject the Gospel Paul explains that not believing what God says amounts to disobedience. According to Scripture, this is the root problem when people hear the gospel and do not accept it. You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life (John 5:39-40). In reality, they are disobeying God in their unbelief. Those who disbelieve do so because on some level, they do not want to believe. They choose not to believe. Please Lord, soften their hearts so that they may come to saving faith in You. All glory belongs to You, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ Name I pray Amen. And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of me but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2 John MacArthur on Sharing the Gospel My favorite pastor is John MacArthur, and I have learned so much from him. He is a faithful pastor and true to God's Word. He tells us the parts of the Truth that are sometimes hard to hear, but absolutely necessary for us to know. Even when it offends, the Truth is the most loving thing there is. Here is John MacArthur on sharing the gospel from his sermon, "Bold Proclaimers of Gospel Truth - 2 Corinthians 4:1-6" (Check out the link below for the full sermon). “Paul knew the truth had such a self-evidencing power that even where it was rejected and hated, it commended itself to the conscience as true. And those who are sincere and declare the truth simply as how God has revealed it, commend themselves as truth tellers when they speak to the consciences of men. I’m not missional because I preach on sin. Look, people aren’t going to get saved unless you talk about sin. That’s why Paul said I’m not ashamed of the gospel. If you’re not willing to take the assaults you’re going to fail, and you’re going to lose heart. You can’t overcome consumer resistance. This is not a marketing exercise. People think it’s a marketing exercise because they have the product, the gospel, and you have to figure out how to sell the product to the consumers; how to overcome consumer resistance. You can’t do that. Consumer resistance is too profound, too deep. They’re blinded by Satan. You don’t save anybody. You can’t save anybody. Preaching is the sacrament of salvation, but only God does the saving. Certainty about the gospel is what drove Paul that kept him faithful. Certainty of the superiority of the new covenant. Ministry is a mercy of a pure heart. Have certainty about being accurate with the word of God, and expect hostility. Paul is certain that salvation is the sovereign work of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it’s veiled to only those who are perishing. The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel, which is the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4). We do not have the power to overcome the sinner’s resistance. There’s no amount of cleverness, no amount of manipulation, there’s no amount of oratory that can cause repentance and salvation. We can’t fight this battle with human weapons. Why is this true? Because they are the perishing. That’s a category of people. In other words, they’re in a category of people who can’t respond. They have no mechanism. They don’t understand the things of God because they are foolishness to them. Secondly, they’re blinded by Satan. They have been deceived by Satan. They’re of the father the devil who believes his lies. They love darkness rather than light, they’re under the wrath of God, and their minds are corrupted by their perishing status and the double blinding of Satan so that they cannot see the light of the gospel. So that’s the level of consumer resistance we have to attack. So what do we do? We do not preach ourselves, but we preach Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as our slaves for Jesus Christ. We preach Christ crucified. Because we know this; the same God who spoke in Genesis 1:3 - the light of world into existence - is the same God who has to speak spiritual light into the heart of a perishing satanically blinded person. Salvation is the sovereign work of God. We then do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord. We just preach Him. We’re not looking for gimmicks to overcome consumer resistance. The only way that you can commend yourself to the sinner is to hit his conscience and activate the law of God that strikes his conscience and makes him feel guilt. And that guilt validates the truth about what you’re saying about his sinfulness. And then you come to the saving good news of the gospel. But even with that, you have no ability to save the sinner. The sinner is too profoundly locked down by being in that category of a perishing person, one already being devoted to destruction and being blinded by Satan. Salvation is a creative miracle of God, just like the light He spoke into existence in Genesis. Don’t preach yourselves, don’t preach your ideas, don’t preach your insights, but preach Christ Jesus as Lord. Spiritual results don’t come from us. We preach Christ. That’s sufficient. That’s our calling. We preach Christ as the only hope for the sinner to escape judgment and hell. He who speaks from himself speaks his own glory. Listen to the preacher who gives all the glory to Christ.” - John MacArthur Check out the full sermon here:

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4-7 Dear Lord, You are such a good God. Even in the most difficult times, You are always good. In the darkest times, You are always light. And You are always with me wherever I go. My hope, my peace, and my joy is in You, Lord. I want to praise You through a song I heard that touched my heart. I pray that this song can be a blessing to others too! “Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul; Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole. Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God; Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load. Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace; Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase. No other work but Yours, no other blood will do; No strength but that which is divine can help me safely through. Your work alone, O Christ, can erase my weight of sin; Your blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within. Your love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee, Can rid me of this dark unrest, and set my spirit free. I am blessed in Christ, the Son of God; I rest on His love divine; And with an unfaltering voice and heart I call this Savior mine. Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in His tomb I praise the Lord for His grace; I trust His truth and might; He calls me His, I call Him mine, My Lord, my joy, my light. ‘Tis He who saves me, and freely pardon gives; I love because He loves me, I live because He lives.” - Horatius Bonar All glory belongs to You, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ Name, I pray Amen. Love, Jenna

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Thorn in the Flesh Prior to this verse, Paul experiences a profound heavenly experience (2 Corinthians 12:1-3). He gains incredible insights into the heavenly realms that he is not allowed to share with others. (2 Corinthians 12:4). To keep Paul from being prideful about possessing this divine knowledge, God gives him a "thorn in the flesh." Scripture does not specify what this "thorn in the flesh" is - whether it is physical, emotional, spiritual, or associated with sin and temptation. What Scripture does explain though is that a man of great faith and devotion to God is stricken by some ailment, causing him to cry out repeatedly to God for relief. (2 Corinthians 12:7-8) His Grace is Sufficient After Paul understands that God's answer to fixing his ailment is a definitive "no," he realizes the purpose of the thorn in his flesh. This weakness he has to live with is to keep him humble. Furthermore, through Paul's suffering, God says that His grace is sufficient to provide everything he needs to endure it. The Greek word for "sufficient" here is arkei, implying endurance, strength, or satisfaction. This Scripture reveals the constant availability of God's divine grace on a believer. God does not remove the thorn, as Paul has requested, but will continually supply him with grace to endure it. God tells Paul that His power is made perfect in weakness. This prevents Paul from boasting in his own self and glory, and in turn, Paul is glad to boast only in his weaknesses, knowing the power of Christ rests upon him. Why would someone like Paul be glad to boast about a painful struggle in his life? It's because the power of Christ becomes most obvious in areas where believers are the weakest. The weaker the human instrument, the more clearly God's grace shines forth. Paul takes no pleasure in the pain itself, but rejoices in the power of Christ that is revealed through him and his weaknesses. All for the Glory of God There are several truths revealed in this Scripture about how God works in the lives of Christians. First, God has ordained everything all for His glory, including evil. (God did not create evil, but He allowed for it). God makes use of the devil and his demons to achieve His own purposes. Satan's strategies to kill and steal from Christians through harassments, calamities, and temptations becomes a part of God's own strategies to accomplish His purposes all for His own glory's sake. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, (Genesis 50:20) Second, God's answers to our prayers are according to His perfect will. God may answer "no" to a believer's prayer request to relieve a burden, whether or not that burden is caused by the devil and his demons. If this particular suffering is causing a Christian to be more dependent on God, it may be accomplishing the exact purpose that God wants for His own glory. Third, it shows us that God's main concern for His children is not for an easy or comfortable life on this earth. God's main goal is that we trust Him! This means we are to trust God by allowing Christ to be strong in places where we are weak. And we are not to resent God for allowing us to experience these weaknesses. Rather, we are to boast about our weaknesses and even rejoice in our sufferings. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 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. (Romans 5:3-5) John 14:6 is the most powerful verse in the Bible to me personally, but 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 is one of my all-time favorites. It's in my top five! No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6