Tag: spiritual freedom

Life in the Spirit (Romans 8:1-11)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh [sinful nature] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (New International Version)

I feel tremendously privileged to be a Christian and to enjoy the very Spirit of God. The people of God are spiritual people, possessing God’s own Spirit. The Apostle Paul wanted Christians to know the privileges of life in the Spirit, as believers in Jesus.

No Condemnation

There is now no condemnation, no judgment, for us who are in Christ. God has pronounced a verdict, and that decision is final. We have been united to Christ by means of God’s Spirit. Since God condemns neither you nor I, there is no need whatsoever to condemn ourselves or other believers.

Since no condemnation is our reality as Christians, we are to believe this promise of God and swim in its wonderful privilege. Believe that the sin issue has been taken care of once for all through the life and death of Christ. And if you do not feel forgiven, then put yourself in a position to believe. 

It would be silly to go into the bathroom, turn on the shower, and then just stand in the middle of the bathroom without getting under the showerhead. It would be weird because you did not put yourself in a position to actually become clean. You may believe that a shower and using soap and shampoo will make you clean, but if you do not actually avail yourself of the privilege of actually taking the shower, but just stand there and look at it, you will not really be clean. 

We must put ourselves in a position to experience the privilege of knowing our wonderful state of cleanliness (no condemnation) by actually reading the Word of God on a regular basis; by praying in the Spirit on all occasions; by practicing the silence and solitude and other spiritual disciplines necessary to receive the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit.

Two people are declared “married” in a formal wedding ceremony. The couple then works out their shared union together over a lifetime. The minister does not pronounce condemnation at the ceremony; he declares a blessing. Yet, from that point forward, the two people must work on their marriage. They must believe their relationship is important enough to warrant putting themselves in a position to grow together. They will intentionally create date nights and conversations on the couch. They’ll seek to learn, appreciate, and participate in the other person’s interests and life. 

“Grace is not opposed to effort; it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone.”

Dallas Willard, The Great Omission

Just as we do not marry ourselves and pronounce ourselves a married couple, so we do not save ourselves. However, having a marriage license does not mean there is no effort to be done in the relationship. A marriage is both a legal reality, and a kind of mystical union between two married persons.

It’s a beautiful thing to be in a relationship where there is no condemnation. Because of Jesus Christ we are free to be the people God created us to be – forgiven and no longer burdened by the condemning voices of guilt and shame.

Freedom from Sin and Death

In Holy Scripture, sin is not only a personal struggle but a present ubiquitous reality in the world. The power and presence of sin is found everywhere. There is personal sin, institutional sin, and systemic sin. Because sin is everywhere, death is everywhere. Biblically, death refers to more than physical death because it is also a relational term. Death means relational separation from God. Conversely, life is relational connection with God. 

God did all the action necessary to make the union possible. God sent the Son. God became incarnate. God’s Son became a sin-offering, an atoning sacrifice for our sins. God condemned sin in sinful humanity. God met the righteous requirements of the law. God effects holiness in us by means of the Spirit. 

Rather than saving us from this terrible plight of sin, and then simply telling us to live a holy upright life, God the Father and God the Son sent God the Holy Spirit to indwell us so that we can live like Jesus. Therefore, we must put ourselves in a position to experience life through dwelling in the Scriptures and letting the Spirit and the Word work together to effect practical change in our lives (sanctification, that is, becoming holy). 

Having the Mind of Christ

A problem we all face is that we inhabit a fallen world. Our mindset can easily get screwy. If we want life and peace, we need the mind of Christ and the Spirit. Whatever our minds are occupied with is what determines whether we will have life and peace, or not. 

If the objects of our thoughts, interests, and affections are continually away from Christ and the Spirit, we will experience death, not life. If we put ourselves in a position to indulge the sinful nature (the “flesh”) we will miss real life. An undisciplined mind only leads to relational separation.

The addict knows there are two choices: either life or death. The first of the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is to admit that I am powerless over alcohol and that my life has become unmanageable.  The second step is to believe that a Power greater than myself can restore me to sanity. The third step is to turn my life and my will over to that Power. So, it is the same for us. 

We are powerless over sin, which will, if left unchecked, lead to death. But in the Spirit (not the alcoholic spirits!) we have life. Sin, like alcohol, is a daily possibility, even after giving my life and my will to God. Yet, there is also the possibility of life. And that hope of life comes with possessing the mind of Christ and the Spirit. 

We have hope that through the Spirit’s power we will overcome the power of choices that lead to death; and instead, embrace choices that lead to life. So, whatever we put into our minds is vitally important. 

The Spirit Indwelling Us

The Spirit is the distinguishing mark of the believer in Jesus. The Spirit opposes the sinful nature and expects us to do the same. There’s no need to try and live the Christian life on our own power when we possess spiritual power. There exists an internal struggle within us that desires to do right but has a compulsion to do otherwise. Yet, the indwelling Spirit gives us victory. Jesus lived the life for us that we could not live. His life, as much as his death, achieved salvation from sin for us. The very same Spirit that helped Jesus live his life, and raised him from death, is the same Spirit whom we possess.

When I was a kid, I remember my grandmother canning preserves. I would sit on a stool in the kitchen and watch her, looking forward to having some grape preserves on my next piece of toast. I once asked her, “Why are you always melting that wax over the fruit?” I didn’t understand how wax could make my toast taste any better. Grandma answered, “The wax seals the jar tightly so the fruit can’t be contaminated. If I didn’t seal it, the fruit would eventually rot.” As an amateur in the canning business, I could see the importance of picking grapes, boiling them, and canning them. But I now know how important sealing and preserving are.

You and I are God’s preserves. God not only chose us, redeemed us, and called us to life in the Son – God also had a plan for preserving us as heirs of eternal life. God gave us the indwelling Spirit so that we can live as we ought, free from sin and doing the will of God through spiritual power working within us. 

I hope today that you have a deep appreciation for the privileges of no condemnation, freedom from sin, possessing the mind of Christ and the power of the indwelling Spirit. And more than that, that you will avail yourselves of this tremendous gift of the Spirit and experience life and peace.

Gracious God, fill us with the knowledge of your will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. May we live lives worthy of the Lord Jesus and please him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power according to your glorious might so that we may have great endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to you. For you have rescued us from the dominion of darkness and have brought us into the kingdom of the Son you love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Amen.

The Struggle Within (Romans 7:15-25)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (New International Version)

We can relate to the Apostle Paul. We, along with him, have said to ourselves many times, “I don’t understand why I act the way I do. I don’t do what I know is right. I do the things I hate.” 

Paul’s experience of uneasiness, his existential angst because of the struggle within, is a timeless description of our common human condition. There are times we seem completely unable to follow our conscience and do what’s right. It can be maddening, even to the point of experiencing a continual low-level discouragement or depression which underlies almost everything we do.

The prescription for dealing with this mental, emotional, and spiritual malady does not include the law. That’s right. Putting our willpower and effort into obeying commands gets us nowhere. Even if we obey laws and rules and commands for a time, our efforts eventually break down. We fail to do what we want, and end up doing just the opposite.

In all fairness, the law is good, not bad; it just doesn’t have the capacity to transform us. The law’s purpose is to show us how bad off we really are in this world, to give us an awareness of our true condition, so that we will seek help. 

We humans are a bundle of contradictions, doing good, then bad, and flip-flopping back and forth – all with great frustration. In such a miserable condition, what then shall we do? Who will help us? Is there anyone to save us from our plight?

Sheer willpower and obedience will not help us; it won’t work. It will only give us a false hope. Any success in using willpower only deludes one into believing they have the answer… until they yet fall again into the pit of their own inner darkness. But the good news is that there is a Savior, a Redeemer, a Rescuer who has the will and the power to deliver us from our predicament.

The grace of God in Christ is the operative power that changes lives, not the law. Freedom from the tyranny of our “should’s” and our misplaced desires comes from Christ’s forgiveness through the cross. 

Like a lover enamored with his beloved, our desires become oriented toward Jesus for his indescribable gift to us. That is the strength of grace. Transformation is relational; it is found in a person, not a program. And the only person and relationship which has the ability to change us is, I believe with all my heart and mind, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why? Because I myself have been transformed and changed by such a relationship with Christ. I, along with the hymn writer John Newton, can say, “I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

“Self-help” for all the good it really can do, is in many ways an oxymoron. We need a Savior to help us, and we need a community of people who encourage us. And even if we can do it ourselves today, that may not (and eventually will not) be true of us tomorrow. None of you got this far in life on your own – and you will continue to need God and others going forward.

Love must be completely sincere. Hate what is evil, hold on to what is good.Love one another warmly as Christians, and be eager to show respect for one another. Work hard and do not be lazy. Serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion. Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times. Share your belongings with your needy fellow Christians, and open your homes to strangers. (Romans 12:9-13, GNT)

We have an incredible capacity for good and vast internal resources within us. And yet, we too often lack awareness of this reality, for which we can tap into. When it comes to an outright metamorphosis, we need a new heart – and we can no more simply decide to change our lives any more than we can perform heart transplant surgery on ourselves.

People need the Lord.

Whenever the foundation of a house is about to crumble, it won’t do to rearrange the living room furniture and do a bit of spruce up painting. We deceive ourselves if we believe that all our efforts at landscaping the property and having a great curb appeal will do the trick. If the foundation crumbles, and the house implodes, all efforts at curb appeal won’t matter.

Jesus is our cornerstone. Without him, we are at risk, about to fall and without hope. With him, true restoration and renewal happens. And then, when the house is repaired and in order, we set about the task of being good stewards and maintaining and caring for the wonderful changes which were made.

Freedom from a dilapidated soul and misplaced energies to consistent times of peace and contentment, calmness and confidence, satisfaction and settled peace, comes by growing ever closer to the Savior who exudes all those qualities, and more. For the Lord not only saves and delivers; he also sanctifies and encourages.

In Christ, the uneasiness and unsettling experience – the existential angst – becomes a thing of the past because of the grace of merciful deliverance and continual help.

Saving God, I thank you for delivering me from sin, death, and hell through your Son, the Lord Jesus. May your Holy Spirit apply the work of grace to my life every day so that I can realize practical freedom from all that is damaging and destructive in my soul. Amen.

Free to Live a New Life (Romans 7:1-6)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

You shouldn’t have any trouble understanding this, friends, for you know all the ins and outs of the law—how it works and how its power touches only the living. For instance, a wife is legally tied to her husband while he lives, but if he dies, she’s free. If she lives with another man while her husband is living, she’s obviously an adulteress. But if he dies, she is quite free to marry another man in good conscience, with no one’s disapproval.

So, my friends, this is something like what has taken place with you. When Christ died he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to “marry” a resurrection life and bear “offspring” of faith for God. For as long as we lived that old way of life, doing whatever we felt we could get away with, sin was calling most of the shots as the old law code hemmed us in. And this made us all the more rebellious. In the end, all we had to show for it was miscarriages and stillbirths. But now that we’re no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, we’re free to live a new life in the freedom of God. (The Message)

The goal of salvation is to be delivered from oppressive bondage so that we are free to live a true and beautiful life – a holy life, set apart for good.

Romans chapters 6-8 are the Apostle Paul’s pointed discussion of how we become holy in a real and practical way. The theological word we typically use for this is “sanctification,” which means “to become holy,” and “set apart” for God. To be delivered from sin, death, and hell through the person and work of Jesus Christ is not the end of the story; it is just the beginning.

Becoming holy and good in our everyday lives boils down to this: identity and belonging.

One of the healthiest ways of looking at the entirety of the Bible’s message is that we belong to God. Our identities are thoroughly wrapped around Jesus. The process of realizing this, and coming to grips with it, is how we grow as people in holiness and righteousness.

Because of Christ’s finished work on the cross, we have been delivered from the realm of sin. Our change in status from condemned to accepted provides us the awareness to make daily affirmations of faith and live a new life.

Yet, the sinful nature (flesh) or the old person is still there. Although it is now toothless, our past can, and may often, exert a powerful influence on us. Even though there is a medium-rare T-bone steak on the table for us to enjoy, there are times we go back to the old bologna sandwich with stale white bread.

We no longer need to fall short of our true humanity. That’s because we belong to God. We are adopted into God’s family, having been orphaned by sin’s cruel influence.

However, just because we have been saved from the power of sin, sin itself is not extinct. We still must deal with it. We are alive to God and need to take up this great spiritual reality and live into it, for the force of sin still exerts a powerful influence in the world.

We deal with sin’s continued presence (the world, the flesh, and the devil) through embracing God’s grace versus trying to overcome it with the law.

Paul used an illustration from marriage to expand our understanding of grafting grace into our daily lives. By law, a married woman is bound to her husband (keeping in mind this sense of belonging was the predominant view of marriage in the Apostle’s day). But if the husband dies, the wife is released from the legal marriage. If she were to give herself to another man while her husband is still alive and they are married, then she becomes an adulteress. However, if she is a widow, then marries again, she is not an adulteress.

Paul applies this understanding to our relationship with the law. Death has separated us from the law. We died with Christ. Therefore, we have been set free from the law and have become alive to grace. As believers in Jesus, God’s grace and love changed our lives:

  • We now “belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead.” (Romans 7:4)
  • “When Christ’s body hung upon the cross, when God spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all.” (Romans 8:32)
  • “Christ took on himself for us all the curse of the law which inflicted all of us.” (Galatians 3:13)
  • We died to the law. God’s grace has made the death of Jesus the death of all from the realm of sin. (2 Corinthians 5:14)

As a married man, let me use Paul’s illustration to get down to the gist of his teaching. Yes, I am legally married and belong to my wife. I made vows to my wife on our wedding day which bind me legally to do what I said I would do. Yet, if I fulfill those vows in a strictly legalistic manner, I can vouch for my wife that this would not qualify as an acceptable situation for her. You see, my wife (and, me, too!) are freely bound to one another in love and grace. I care for my wife because I love her deeply, and not because it is my legal duty to do so.

The Christian life was neither designed nor meant to serve as a bare legal contract or covenant between us and God. God forbid such a thought! Jesus died to clear us from all the legality stuff so that we could freely love and serve God with joyful abundance and gratitude.

I am follower of Jesus because I love him deeply. What impels and motivates me is God’s grace. The law is there and has its place. However, it is not the law that causes me to be a Christian; it is the love of Christ which saved me from myself and compels me to live like Jesus.

May the God of peace make you pure, belonging only to him. May your whole self—spirit, soul, and body—be kept safe and blameless when our Lord Jesus Christ comes. The one who chose you will do that for you. You can trust him. Amen.

Freedom from Sin (Romans 6:12-23)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master because you are not under the law, but under grace.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (New International Version)

The word “sin” is mentioned 10 times in these 12 verses of Scripture. It’s an important word, and so, we need to understand something of it. Discerning the concept of sin in the Bible is crucial to our spiritual growth and development as believers in Jesus. A better grasp of sin’s nature and power will help us to better understand and appreciate God’s grace and how to live the Christian life.

Sin Is Everywhere

We see the evidence of living in a broken world every day. Disaster, disease, and death are realities we all must deal with. The presence and power of sin is everywhere – in our hearts, our world, our institutions, and our families. It’s on television, the internet, social media, and moves in-and-out of smartphones. If it takes one to know one, we are all experts on being sinners.

Definitions of Sin

From the Bible’s vantage, sin is things we do (1 John 3:4) as well as things we leave undone (James 4:17). Sin is both actively breaking of God’s commands, and passively avoiding them. 

Christians throughout the ages have generally understood that the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) and Christ’s law of love (Luke 10:27) constitute a brief summary of God’s holy and moral instruction for humanity.  These laws are based in the character of God as a holy and loving Being.

Sin, then, may be defined as anything in a person, group of people, an institution or a system, which does not express, or is contrary to, the basic character of God. In short, sin is a pervasive force which exists everywhere, defined in the following acrostics:

Sinful actionsSinful thoughtsSinful inaction
StressStupidSpiritual
InducedInwardInsidious
NarcissismNoodlingNarcolepsy

Sin Is Contrary to God’s Character      

All sin, whether active or passive, is self-centered and lacks self-awareness. Sin exists wherever a person, group, or organization thinks more about itself than of God and God’s love and justice. Sinful attitudes bring consequences such as:

  • Obsession with lust (1 John 8:34; Galatians 5:16) Lust is the stance of having to possess something, instead of appreciating it without ownership.
  • Broken relationships (Romans 3:23; Galatians 5:17) Wanting something without any concern for it’s cost leaves a trail of broken relationships with God and others.
  • Bondage to Satan (1 Timothy 3:6-7; 2 Timothy 2:26) Obtaining the object of our lust brings slavery, not freedom
  • Spiritual death (Romans 6:23; 8:6) Death is separation from God and estrangement from others
  • Hardening of the heart (Hebrews 3:13) A hard heart happens by stubbornly holding on to what we want, irrespective of what God wants
  • Deception (1 Corinthians 3:18; James 1:22, 26) To be deceived is to believe that other people, even God, are the problem whenever things go sideways

This may all sound like a total Debbie-Downer. Actually, it’s total depravity. Being depraved does not mean we are never capable of doing good; it means that sin has profoundly touched everything in our lives, without exception.

Sin Is Not the Last Word

Paradoxically, experiencing true joy and comfort comes through knowing how great our sin is. We live above sin by being set free from it by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. To be redeemed from sin, a provision is needed. In Christianity, sin has been dealt with once and for all through the person and work of Jesus. Christ is our representative, taking our place and delivering us from sin (Galatians 4:4-5; Ephesians 2:5-6; Colossians 2:9-15; Hebrews 2:17-18; 1 John 2:1).

Jesus Christ is our ultimate substitute (Romans 5:8)…

Which resulted in our redemption (Galatians 5:13)…

Leading to a satisfaction of all justice (Romans 3:25)…

Bringing reconciliation with God (Romans 5:10)… 

And putting sin to death, making us complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10).      

Although sin destroys everything it touches and leaves terrible consequences in its wake, sin does not have the last word: grace does.

Words for Sin

There are 33 different words for “sin” in the original Greek language of the New Testament. Only one of them is used in the verses from Romans: ἁμαρτία (“HA-mar-tee-ah”) literally means “to miss the mark,” or to “fall short.” (Romans 5:12-21; 1 John 1:8-10; 2 Corinthians 5:21)

The concept of missing the mark gets to the heart of why persons, groups, institutions, and systems fall short of God’s standard. We fail to see who we truly are and what God has truly done for us in Christ. And so, sin deceives us into believing that our needs can be met outside of God.

Metaphors for Sin

  • Obstacle. Sin obstructs a truly good and beautiful life. It’s like a blockade that prevents us from entering the kingdom of God; or like large hurdles we have to jump to move forward. Sin is like a bear on our back which slows us down to a crawl.

Let us rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way, and of the sin which holds on to us so tightly, and let us run with determination the race that lies before us. (Hebrews 12:1, GNT)

  • Addiction. The word “sin” is an attempt to meet a legitimate need in an illegitimate way. Sin is an energy which we become fixated on in order to meet our needs for love and acceptance. If unchecked, the sinful method for meeting the need becomes the need itself.

We are tempted by our own desires that drag us off and trap us. Our desires make us sin, and when sin is finished with us, it leaves us dead. (James 1:14-15, CEV)

“Seek what you are seeking – but don’t seek it where you are seeking it!”

St. Augustine
  • Marketing scam. Sin is misleading. It’s a scam or a branding which looks good but the product is all wrong. Sin is a deception, and it leads us to deceive others in order to make ourselves look better than we really are.

When you give to the poor, don’t blow a loud horn. That’s what show-offs do in the synagogues and on the street corners because they are always looking for praise. I can assure you that they already have their reward. (Matthew 6:2, CEV)

Overcoming Sin

Victory over sin and the dark force of this world comes through faith. Believe that you have been set free from sin.

For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (1 John 5:4-5, NIV)

We need our ultimate faith to rest in God, and not in anyone or anything else. The Scripture says:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not rely on your own insight.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6, NRSV)

Eternal God, in whom we live and move and have our being, whose face is hidden from us by our sins, and whose mercy we forget in the blindness of our hearts: cleanse us from all our offenses, and deliver us from proud thoughts and vain desires, that with reverent and humble hearts we may draw near to you, confessing our faults, confiding in your grace, and finding in you our refuge and strength; through Jesus Christ your Son. Amen.