God is greater than anything we feel

1 John 3:20-22 (NLT)
20 Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. 22 And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.

Most of us have a conscience that is a self-reflecting, judgmental power that takes account of our actions and deeds and acts as witness, judge and executioner against us. It is a candle of God’s presence in us that draws us closer to God like a moth to a flame. Yet God is greater and is nobler in His evaluation of us. God sees our weaknesses and understands them and begs us to come to Him to find grace and mercy. If we allow our doubts to rule in our lives then we come to believe there is nothing God can do for us. Yet the truth is when we put away guilt, shame and doubt we will receive from God what we need because we obey and do what pleases Him.


Most people know about the passion of Martin Luther King Jr. for racial justice and nonviolent resistance. However, some people aren’t as familiar with King’s deep personal faith in Christ. In his book Welcoming Justice, Charles Marsh describes one of King’s profound encounters with the Risen Christ. [In January 1956, Martin Luther King Jr.] returned home around midnight after a long day of organizational meetings. His wife and young daughter were already in bed, and King was eager to join them. But a threatening call—the kind of call he was getting as many as 30 to 40 times a day—interrupted his attempt to get some much-needed rest. When he tried to go back to bed, he could not shake the menacing voice that kept repeating the hateful words in his head. King got up, made a pot of coffee, and sat down at his kitchen table. With his head buried in his hands, he cried out to God. There in his kitchen in the middle of the night, when he had come to the end of strength, King met the living Christ in an experience that would carry him through the remainder of his life. "I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on," King later recalled. "He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone … He promised never to leave me, no never alone." In the stillness of the Alabama night, the voice of Jesus proved more convincing than the threatening voice of the anonymous caller. The voice of Jesus gave him the courage to press through the tumultuous year of 1956 to the victorious end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. More than that, it gave him a vision for ministry that would drive him for the rest of his life. [Copyright © 2011 by the author or Christianity Today International]