JULY 25, 2025

  “The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it. ” 

― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

PSALM 44-46

1God is our refuge and strength,

an ever-present help in trouble.

2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

3though its waters roar and foam

and the mountains quake with their surging.^c

ACTS 25

8Then Paul made his defense: “I have done nothing wrong against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar.”9Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges?”10Paul answered: “I am now standing before Caesar’s court, where I ought to be tried. I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well. 11If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!”12After Festus had conferred with his council, he declared: “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go!”

JOURNAL 

Reading Acts 25 and Paul’s unwavering resolve before Festus, what strikes me is not only his courage but his clarity. Paul isn’t grandstanding. He’s not trying to be something he’s not. He’s simply standing in the truth, operating fully within the gifts, training, and knowledge he’s been given. A Roman citizen, trained Pharisee, Paul uses all of it. And yet, beneath the boldness is something deeper: surrender. He is willing to die if necessary, but he’s not giving himself over to fear. He is giving his best and trusting God with the results.

That’s what obedience really looks like.

Psalm 46 declares:

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way…”

This is not the absence of trouble, it is faith in the middle of the earthquake, a choice to stand firm and do what we can while trusting God with what we can’t.

And here’s the key: God never asks us to become someone else to fulfill His will. He asks us to bring forward what we already have, however ordinary it might feel, and to use it with courage. Just like the boy with the loaves and fish. Just like Paul before Roman governors. Just like Jesus, whose surrender wasn’t about miraculous displays of power, but about obedience “unto death,” within a fully human frame.

The parable in Matthew 25 speaks directly to this:

“I was afraid and hid your gold in the ground…”

Fear convinces us to hide our gifts, to second-guess whether we’re “enough.” But God never critiques us for not having someone else’s talent, only for withholding what we do have.

And so, today, I surrender again. Not by striving to be impressive, but by choosing to be faithful in today’s choices, today’s responsibilities, today’s courage. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Just today.

If I live a life of surrendered “todays,” stringing together my best within the bounds of my own frame, then I will have lived a life that glorifies God.

And that is the best life I can live.

24“Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

26“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

 MATTHEW 25:24-27