Youth ministry can come with a lot of worry: over our students, our ministries, and our churches. So youth minister, we pray you will hear these words from Paul David Tripp and breathe a sigh of relief and reliance on the one who carries your burdens.
If you’re God’s child, you can rest assured today that both your standing before God and his rule on your behalf are sure and secure.
There are two things in life you simply don’t have to worry about anymore, two big concerns that you just don’t have to carry. Every day, you and I carry important life concerns. No, I’m not talking about being crushed with worry, but rather about taking important things seriously. It’s right to be concerned about your finances. It’s important to carry the concern that your marriage would be all that God means it to be. It’s good to focus much concern on the welfare and development of your children. It’s vital to take your church and your relationship to the body of Christ seriously. It would be silly not to see your physical health as an important concern. It is responsible to carry these concerns. It would be unwise not to consider all of these things as important and worthy of your attention.
But you do not have to carry the two most significant and important things in your life as concerns. You do not have to burden yourself with worry about these things. You do not have to plague yourself with the thought that though these things are yours today, they might not be yours tomorrow. You can wake up morning after morning after morning with a smile on your face put there by the knowledge that the most important things in your life are simply never, ever at risk. It is one of the sweet gifts of God’s grace that you can rest assured that these things that now define you and your life are yours forever. You can lose your house, your job, your family, your friendship, your health, and your church, but you will not lose these things. You can face disappointment and loss, but these things will remain. You can suffer the pain of defeat, but these things will still be yours. You can lose it all, but nothing can take life from you, because what defines life is simply not for the taking.
There aren’t two things in all of life more important than these—that grace has purchased for you a place in God’s family and that, because you are in his family, God rules over all things for your good. You could never have earned these two unshakable realities. They are only ever yours by grace. It is because of grace that you have a forever place in God’s family. It is because of grace that your life is under the careful administration of the King of kings himself. It is because of grace that on your darkest day, you are still loved and accepted. It is because of grace that when nothing in life makes sense, your life is still under his control. There is much for you to be concerned about, but not these two things. His love will never fail, and his rule on your behalf is eternal.
For further study and encouragement: Romans 8:31-39
