Psalm 23 - Surely Goodness and Love Will Follow Me
Tom Shrader explores the final verse of Psalm 23, focusing on God's promise that goodness and mercy will follow believers throughout their lives. He emphasizes that God's love is unconditional, unlike human love which is often transactional and conditional. Shrader addresses the struggle believers face in accepting this promise when it seems too good to be true, encouraging confidence in God's unchanging character and faithful pursuit of His people even through life's difficulties.
“Biblical Christianity is entirely about God seeking man, the hound of heaven.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Psalm 23
Recorded: November 12, 2015
Duration: 39 min
Themes: shepherding, goodness, mercy, love, trust, faithfulness, provision, comfort, struggling with doubt, feeling unworthy, questioning gods love, going through difficulties, new believer, feeling abandoned, facing hardship, seeking assurance
Scripture: Psalm 23, Psalm 23:6, James 1:17, Romans 8:28, Romans 8:29, Romans 8:35, Romans 8:37, Psalm 13:5, Psalm 31:7, Psalm 86:5, Psalm 100:5, Psalm 106, Psalm 118:7, Psalm 109:8, Psalm 136, Philippians 3:20
Theological Themes: divine providence, gods faithfulness, unconditional love, covenant faithfulness, pastoral care, divine pursuit, gods character, assurance
Full Transcript
If you have a Bible, open it to Psalm 23. "The Lord is my shepherd"—that's the premise of this familiar passage. I think the girls, Lucy's four and I think they're already studying and memorizing the 23rd Psalm. So it's really familiar, and there are obviously really good things about familiar passages. You can go to them, you can draw from them. The downside is that familiar can become taken for granted—it's not that amazing anymore.
What's happened to me, and I don't know if it's the time of life I'm in or the people I hang with, but this Psalm is just really so good. And that sounds silly. Years ago there used to be a lot of Bible conferences with Bible teaching guys. I remember one time we were with Chuck Swindoll and Ray Stedman, I think MacArthur was there, Howie Hendricks—some of that great, I mean these are like the great names, like the Mount Rushmore of teachers. And I remember in the Q&A the question was "what's your favorite book of the Bible?" And virtually every one of them said "whichever one I'm teaching."
Well, that hasn't been my experience because I've taught some clunkers, and I think it was me, I'm pretty sure it was me. But some of these passages just seem to really come to life more than others. And Psalm 23 is one of those. I mean I think it's moved for me into that just standard go-to book now. Everything in there virtually relates to stuff we're dealing with all day long, and it implies hardship.
The Shepherd and His Sheep
"The Lord is my shepherd"—it's a personal relationship. And if He's the shepherd, then what? We're the sheep. And we had I think six or seven characteristics of sheep, but we could get it down to two: dumb and defenseless. It's not meant to be insulting, it's certainly not flattering, but it's true. And sheep are inclined to turn and go their own way, and a sheep without a shepherd is doomed.
So a little bit of assignment on that: in that day you might get an apprentice shepherd, a bad shepherd. You don't have just the expert shepherd—you have "the Lord is your shepherd," Yahweh. And that sheep is totally dependent for food, protection, rest, everything. Totally dependent upon that shepherd. The sheep tends to go his own way, relies on the shepherd to bring him back, relies on the shepherd's expertise. And God is my shepherd.
A Quick Walk Through the Psalm
So in summary here, we'll work our way through it real quickly to get to verse six. "The Lord is my shepherd"—so I have a relationship. "I shall not want"—I have supply. "He makes me lie down in green pastures"—that is, He gives me rest. "He leads me beside still waters"—there's rest and refreshment. "And restores my soul"—there's healing. "He leads me in paths of righteousness"—there's guidance. He does it all for His name's sake.
And then we said verse four, there's a shift. It's the first three verses—so if you want to kind of mark your Bible up, might put a circle around the first three verses or a note. But it's in there, it's as though God is talking to us—this is what the shepherd does. And then verse four, it shifts as though the shepherd is talking to God. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil." Why? "You're with me." There's testing, but there's protection. There's discipline, there's hope. "My cup runs over"—there's abundance.
And then today: "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life"—there's blessing. "And I'll dwell in the house of the Lord"—that's security. And how long? Forever.
Too Good to Be True?
"Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life." Now I made a note on that, and let me read you first a couple of the other paraphrases, and just kind of fill this out if we can a little bit. "Goodness and love unfailing, these will follow me all the days of my life." Here's another one: "I know that goodness and love will be with me all my life." One last one: "Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life."
Now I made a note here—that sounds too good to be true. That really is. I'm going to have goodness, and I'm going to have your love, your unfailing love, all the days of my life. That sounds too good to be true. And then when I hear that, I immediately think of my mom and dad, who taught me as a wee lad that if it sounds too good to be true, it what? It is too good to be true. But that's not the case here.
This is one of those things, and I feel a frustration in my ability to communicate this, and part of it isn't me, I think it's human nature. I taught Sunday at Gilbert, I'm teaching this Sunday at New City, so downtown, and this is great. So that's at McDowell and Central, and the topic they gave me is happiness. I'm who you think of when you think of happiness. We'll see how this goes.
The Power of Fresh Eyes
But I taught Sunday, and there were baptisms—there were 52 baptisms Sunday over the three services. And so after I taught, I sat in the front row right in the middle where I could see the screen, because we baptize over to the side, and that's a hassle, and people with cameras, their kids, and they should have that spot, not me. So I sat right in the middle, big screen, and I'm watching these faces of these people, and they're talking to them. And you know they're saying, "You're a sinner, and you understand you're a sinner," and yeah. "And your sin has separated you from God," yeah. "But Christ died so you can have everything," and there's 52—I've been in at least half of them. The tears are just pouring down their face, and there's this huge smile, and I'm thinking, this is incredible.
I remember that night with Dr. Mitchell baptized me, and it was just this awesome night. But I don't think when I hear "I'm a sinner and God saved me," I still don't cry and smile like that. You know, I'm familiar with it now. That's the challenge—is to make this as new and as fresh as the first time you ever heard it. "Goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life." It sounds like, this whole psalm is a lot like the wedding vows. I did a wedding—
A month ago down at Lincoln and Tatum, I performed a wedding ceremony. They wrote their own vows, and this young man getting married was just so sweet. I mean, he was incredibly sweet, and this girl was just charming. She was incredible, and I can't imagine—they could be a spiritual power couple maybe. I don't know what God's going to do.
He read these vows. He's a shy guy who wanted none of this. I mean, he didn't want to be up front, but he read these vows, and they were incredible. Then she read her vows: "I'll love you forever, and I want you every day to know how much I love you, and every night I want to prove to you how much I love you." I'm tearing up, and so I got off script. I said, "You know, those are easier to read now than five years from now when you have two kids and a mortgage." The whole thing just fell apart.
The Reality of Hardship in Life's Vows
It's a little easier when you're writing vows having a glass of wine or whatever it is you do—a Coke by yourself. But the traditional vows—better, worse, richer, poorer, sickness, health—they imply hardship. Psalm 23 implies hardship. "Walk through the valley of the shadow of death. It won't be easy, but I will be there."
Let me just read you six references I pulled out of the psalms. Psalm 13:5: "I trust in your unfailing love." Psalm 31:7: "I rejoice in your love." Psalm 86:5: "You're forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call on you." Psalm 100:5: "The Lord is good, and His love endures forever." Psalm 106 says essentially the same thing: "His love endures forever." Psalm 118:7: "I trust in your love."
Psalm 136: "Give thanks to the Lord for His love endures forever." Twenty-six times it's in there. God's word for tender affection is a term used in the ancient world to mean love that flows out of deep emotion rather than duty.
The Certainty of God's Promise
He says "surely"—not perhaps, not maybe, not likely—surely. Surely this will be with you. Surely this love will be with you all the days of your life. And just to remind you, God doesn't change. James 1:17 says with God there is not the slightest variation or shadow of inconsistency. That's the confidence we have. Isn't it an amazing truth?
I didn't watch the debate the other night, and not for any statement I was making. I didn't feel well and figured that would just make me sicker. But I got the highlights, and it's promise after promise: "I'm going to cut this tax and move this over here," all these promises. There's such an environment that when someone says "I'm going to speak for you," you don't believe that. We're so used to broken promises, and I don't even mean that in a malicious way. I don't mean somebody who says "I'm going to do it" with no intention of doing it. I'm just saying we're so used to broken promises, even from people who really mean it.
Personal Experience with Commitment
I caught up with an old friend the other day and he said, "I heard you're remarried." I said I am married. He said, "How's that?" I said, "You know, it's really good." We got into it—we'd been in it a couple weeks and I got really sick and was in bed. He said, "Wow, she didn't sign up for that." I said, "Well, technically I think she did because I was there and I heard her say 'better, worse, rich or poor, sickness and in health.'" Now, she didn't think it was going to happen in two weeks.
Everybody thinks—and this is my firm belief—everybody thinks they're the exception. You can counsel and counsel. There's a sense in which a lot of the premarital stuff is a waste of time, other than the surface problems, because you think you're the exception. You're going to love each other forever and you're never going to have any problems.
God says, "No, I created the world and created you, and I know life. Here's what you need to know: this stuff is going to come, but in the midst of this, you need to understand that I'll be there and I'll protect you." Surely, confidently, take it to the bank with a promise made—not by somebody who either has no intention of keeping the promise or not the ability to do it, but by the One who's the sovereign God. He will keep this promise. You'll have goodness and love all the days of your life.
Goodness and Mercy as Divine Guardians
What follows the word "surely"? One author writes: goodness and mercy. If the Lord is the shepherd who leads the flock, goodness and mercy are the two sheepdogs that guard the flock near the rear of the flock. Goodness and mercy—not goodness alone, for we are sinners in need of mercy; not mercy alone, for we're fragile in need of goodness.
God's goodness will follow me. The idea here literally is to pursue me. This is what makes biblical Christianity different from every religion in the world. I really believe if you start to lay these out, you've got biblical Christianity and then everything else. Everything else has some version of man seeking God. Biblical Christianity is entirely about God seeking man—the hound of heaven. He won't let you go.
A Pattern of Divine Love
We live in that fragile, broken, conditional world. I've got five books sitting on my table right now that came to me in five very different ways. I didn't orchestrate it, I didn't pick them. Guys sent them, or I'm in a meeting and a guy said, "I just read this book and this really..." I'm looking at them last night trying to figure out what to read, and I ended up turning it off and watching the Golf Channel. I don't know why—I can't even play.
But I'm looking at them thinking either God's telling me something, or these people are telling me something, or something's going on. They're all about love. They're all about unconditional love. Maybe it's because I need to hear this, and so I assume if I need to hear it, maybe you do too.
We live in this totally fractured, conditional world. When I was back in Iowa this summer, every person I talked to wanted to fire the coach. "He was good, he's no good now. He was good, he's a bum." Well, you go back down and now they're ready to run him for governor again, which can all change Saturday night. I've been through this movie a thousand times, haven't you? I almost took a sip of the Kool-Aid on ASU football, and it's not as electric as it was in August.
I was talking to Sandy, and I said, "I really love you." I wasn't manipulating—I felt like I was supposed to say that right there. She said, "Okay." Then she said, "Why do you love me?" That's not a discussion question—that's a deal-killer to me. I need to go to Walgreens right now and get a card, because I'm not sure why, but I know somebody in Kansas City's written out what it is.
So I said, "Well, you're really smart." She said, "Would you love me if I was dumb?" I said, "I feel dumb right now having this whole conversation." I said, "Yeah, in a different way." Then I said, "You're really in great shape," and she said, "Would you love me if I was fat?" "There would be more of you to love, I guess." "What else?" "Well, you're just a great person. You put things together. You're so sensitive with people." "Would you love me if I wasn't?" I said, "Okay, I don't know what to do right now."
The Reality of Conditional Love
You can laugh at that conversation because you've been on one of the two ends of it. You're either the guy blabbing around saying "I love you because you're beautiful," or you're on the receiving end getting it. But whatever it is, it has this feeling of conditionalness to it.
Most of us in this room are a little bit older, and our generation was raised this way. You were raised in a transactional "if you do this, I'll love you" environment. If you get an A, I'll love you. If you hit the home run, I'll love you. If you look nice, I'll love you. Cut your hair. I heard that as an adult, but I heard that all through college. Cut your hair. Take a bath. Why are you wearing those jeans?
God's Unconditional Pursuit
Here's what we inevitably do: we come to God with that little flinch. You're that dog where the guy raises the paper and you start to crouch because you've never had—nor could you ever experience—the love that God has for you. It's this unconditional love. It's beyond comprehension.
I love you—and I use this phrase all the time, though it doesn't have the oomph it should—I love you in spite of you, not because of you. These words are overwhelming: I love you, that's it. I love you when you sin and screw up. I love you when you're doing the greatest thing in the world. He pursues us. Goodness and love will follow you—think of that as pursuit.
Who's the ultimate illustration for us of God's pursuit? Jonah. Jonah's that great "I'm gonna get you, I'm gonna put you in the belly of a fish, throw you up on land"—He's the God of the second chance.
Trusting Without Understanding the How
A.W. Tozer writes this: "The man or woman who is holy and joylessly surrendered to Christ cannot make the wrong choice"—meaning the choice to follow Him. To depend solely on God takes a special kind of humility on our part—that we can't control our lives, we can't control our circumstances, we don't have the answers to the hard questions, and we are powerless to affect eternal results. All we can do is trust our Shepherd.
George MacDonald said, "He will help you. Do not fear how." Because isn't that where I go? The minute I hear He'll pursue me, follow me all my life, I think, "How's that gonna work? He's gonna guide me, lead me—how will that be?" The how part of this doesn't matter.
How God Leads Us
How is He gonna lead you? He's gonna lead me through people. He's gonna lead me through circumstances. He's gonna lead me through His Word. And I understand how dangerous this is, but He's gonna lead me through desires and impulses. It's really scary when you sit down with somebody in the midst of a decision and ask them: "Any big ongoing sin in your life?" "No." "Have you talked?" "Yeah." "Have you prayed?" "Yeah." "Have you read the scripture?" "Yeah." "Then do what you want to do."
He doesn't care if you're at Discount Tire or Intel, or if you're at NAU or U of A or ASU, or you're in Iowa. He doesn't care. Be His man or woman wherever you are. This is something I've shared every time I've had a chance with high school students and college students: God is much more concerned with how you do what you do than what you do, as long
Confidence and Divine Leading
All this is based on confidence. I'm not an athlete—it's not like I need to announce that—but I hang around some and I'm around them and I read a lot. It's stunning to me how much they talk about confidence. "He's lost his confidence, lost his confidence in his throw."
I'm watching Peyton right now. Peyton's my fantasy football quarterback, and I'm watching Peyton. He used to never get hit, but now it seems like he's getting hit a lot. He's throwing a little pass like to the wall and it looks like he's having to throw everything to get it there. I don't know what he's throwing, but in the middle of all this, he's so confident. "I could do that." You talk to the golf guys all the time and it's these guys bombing this thing: "I lost my confidence."
And God comes along and says, "You don't have to worry about that." Romans 8:28 and following lines up the confidence: "We know God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:29: "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified."
"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?" Verse 35 of Romans 8: "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" Verse 37: "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us." And then He lists all these things and He said none of these can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. No turn of affairs, no change in identity, not death, not life, not war. I had a flashback apparently because I wrote "not a change in the prime rate"—we don't talk about that anymore—"not a subprime mortgage."
The Shepherd's Management
It's worth reiterating what Keller writes at this point: that sheep can, under mismanagement, be the most destructive livestock. In short order, they ruin and ravage land almost beyond remedy. But in bold contrast, they can, on the other hand, be the most beneficial of all livestock if properly managed.
God will lead you, direct you, guide you. How? I don't know. Sandy and I, at halftime of the Iowa game—I turned it off Saturday and they were up like fourteen—had to go to a wedding. That is really impressive, my friend. And I didn't have anything except the invitation with an address. So I went to the phone and I got my GPS equipment out. It said "start" and I put in our address, "end" and I put in the address, and then I hit this button and it tells me: "Go down here 300 feet, turn right on Mesquite, go down..." You know the drill, right? All this business.
And I thought, here's what God does. Here's your start, here's your finish, and I'll tell you how we're going to get there. You pray, you study, you talk, and then I'll lead you. And then comes what's real faith. Now I got to trust Him in that. Just grab my hand.
Trusting the Shepherd's Hand
It's so beautiful when you get the little kids and you got them. We're at the pumpkin patch and we're lost in a corn maze. By the way, I don't know what you're investing in, but pumpkin patch has got to be a good investment. I mean your overhead is zero and you're getting nine bucks a pop in there, and there's kids as far as you can see buying five-dollar kettle corn.
We're in there and lost, and Lucy said, "Papa, we're lost." I said, "No, just take my hand." And here's what's amazing to me: she did it. I'm lost. I got no clue. I'm going, "Hey Lee, hey Lee." And God says—I said, "God, I'm lost." He said, "That's all right, just take my hand." The difference is He knows.
Doubt as a Tool
Now what creeps in there is doubt. One of the authors writes this: doubt is not a first sign that faith has failed, but that it's being assailed. In other words, I'm running into these circumstances. And doubt is part of what God uses. Circumstance. It's a tool. It's a tool in the hand of a master builder.
Maybe it's an age thing. I came across this just the other day and I didn't know where I'd use it, so I stuck it in here because I know it goes somewhere. That's how I prepare. Dave Barry writes this about aging: "Dental problems, intestinal malfunctions, muscular deterioration, emotional instability, memory lapse, hearing loss, vision loss, impotence, seizures, growths, prostate problems, greatly reduced limb function, massive coronary failure, death, and of course, painful hemorrhoidal swelling. I'll be there by 9:15 this morning."
I keep coming back to this and I'm in it all day long, and so are you. That's all of life: that deterioration. But part of that is what God uses to create in us a thirst for heaven. Philippians 3:20—you know it's somewhere, but where is it? In the middle of it: "Our citizenship is not here. Our citizenship is in heaven."
Three Responses to Uncertainty
What do you do? Here's Max Lucado, and he's talking about these moments of uncertainty. What do you do? He has three things. I'll list the first one and see how familiar this sounds: Trust your faith, not your feeling. That sounds a lot like what you know trumps what you feel. The feelings are going to be deceived. It's going to be carried away. That's okay. But I trust in what I know. I trust in what God says.
Secondly, he says, measure your value through God's eyes, not through your own value. And I wrote, "or the value of your peers." What's your net worth? Well, the minute I say that, you start to calculate: houses, land, cars, stuff. And God said, "Well, I'm not totally impressed with that. In fact, those can be in the way. My net worth is you, and the value that I placed on you, and that Jesus died for you, and that Jesus loves you."
So all this, I might doubt. I don't know if I have any value anymore. Lost my position, lost my job, lost my status, humiliation...
Whatever it might be. And then the third one that he suggests is see the big picture, not the small picture. In this life, there is this quest for us that we talk about, that our homeland is in heaven. Again, one of the guys writes this, it's not that heaven is somewhat like home, it's that heaven is our home. Our earthly homes are mere signs or reflections, primitive symbols of warmth or love or togetherness.
I love this. Heaven, where God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, where everyone has a friend, where love will never end, where everything finally works out for good. And then he writes this, everything goes wrong here, nothing goes wrong there. Nothing will be lost. Nothing will be missing. Nothing will fall apart or go down the drain in heaven. Listen to this great sentence. Heaven is God's answer to Murphy's Law.
The Real Beauty of Heaven
Now here's the problem I have with this. I love that. And I love that heaven will be this, and it all works out, but that's not what makes heaven so special. What makes heaven special is that I'll be with Jesus. We're so absorbed, even in our pain and our stuff and what we have, that when we talk about heaven, we write a sentence or two or a paragraph like this.
Another author says, "One of these days we'll go home, and then everything will be complete. Think of a place where there's no sin, no sorrow, no quarrels, no threats, no abandonment, no insecurity, no struggling or sagging self-worth. Heaven is where everything that makes us sad will be banished. We will be delivered from everything that has defiled or disrupted our lives."
And of course that's true, but bigger than... Even then, look how selfish I am. Even then I'm making heaven about me. I don't want to hurt anymore. I don't want to cry anymore. I want to be respected. I want all these things. Even then I make heaven about me, and it's not about me. It's about Jesus.
The beauty of heaven is not just the absence of all of this stuff. It's the presence of Christ. It's that I'm with the one that I was designed to be with, who perfectly loves me and knows me and understands me.
The Reality of Life's Difficulties
Now from here to there is tough. I got it. And He's not promising that you don't have difficulty. What I love about Romans 8:28, Psalm 23, the whole Scripture, is that all the way through He's acknowledging all of the difficulties that come through life. The frustration. Little and big.
I have this absolute... It's not even a love-hate. I have this hate relationship with the corner of Elliot and McQueen. And with this light. They just had it down for two weeks under construction. Blocked to one lane. So severe that I had to avoid it. It's now open. And all I can see, all that's visible, is they widened the turn lane this much. I don't know. There must be utilities or something in there.
So I come up today. The light's green. And that's okay. Because I'm coming because I get an arrow. And I come up. Light turns red. Now they've changed it to right turn previous to the green. I'm three minutes away from the house. And I am lecturing Mayor Lewis on traffic control, of which I don't know anything about.
I'm at Circle K. And it's the same thing. The line is 55 miles long with a girl with a debit card buying two Monster Full Throttle drinks. And she can't figure it out. She can't sign it. The gal, it's her first day or something. I'm embarrassed to say this stuff. But life just keeps throwing those things at you. And if I get that perspective, all of a sudden, everything changes. And that's what Psalm 23, to me, that's what Psalm 23 does.
Rest Through Psalm 23
I'm reading here at the conclusion of one of the guy's books about Psalm 23. He writes this:
Rest from doing things my way. Why? Because the Lord is my shepherd.
Rest from endless wants. Why? Because I shall not want.
Rest from weariness. Why? Because He makes me lie down.
Rest from worry. Why? Because He leads me.
Rest from hopelessness. Why? He restores my soul.
Rest from guilt. Why? Because He leads me in paths of righteousness.
Rest from arrogance. Why? Because it's for His name's sake.
Rest from the valley of death. Why? Because He walks me through it.
Rest from the shadow of grief. Why? Because He guides me.
Rest from fear. Why? Because His presence comforts me.
Rest from loneliness. Why? Because He's with me.
Rest from shame. Why? Because He has prepared a place for me in the presence of my enemies.
Rest from disappointments. Why? Because He anoints me.
Rest from envy. Why? Because my cup overflows.
Rest from doubt. Why? Because He follows me.
Rest from homesickness. Why? Because I dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Homesick for Heaven
He calls us. This is a strange use of words. He calls us to be homesick for a place we've never been.
I said to Sandy last night, because we spend a lot of time trying to make sure we're on the same page, just calendar-wise. And so I have a really busy Friday morning. I'm teaching out in Mesa, Sunday morning, New City, Monday at Grand Canyon. And I'm really busy. And she said, "Boy, I'll bet you're excited." I said, "I am excited. But if I could be anywhere, I'd really like to be taking a plane back to Iowa City."
I mean, and it's going to be so incredible. The leaves are changing and probably half of them down. It won't be wet because it looks like it's sunny, but you'll be able to smell that. You'll be able to walk from the student union down and through those hills and up there, and you're able to smell that. And I'm telling you, there's a wrestling match. They've got a dual wrestling match in the stadium that morning, which is insane. And that place will be sold out, 70,586 people. They're wearing different jerseys, which they never do. It will be incredible. You can feel it.
So when I think home, that's what I think. And he's saying, no, no, that's not home. That Kinnick experience...
The Promise of Heaven
What I just described to you, other than the parking, that's to give you a rough knockoff of what heaven's going to be like. Instead of the Hawkeyes and Kirk Ferentz, it's going to be Jesus. He's not saying that doesn't make all this stuff in life not hurt. That just puts meaning in the middle of all of this stuff.
When we talk about meaning, you can't get by Jesus and Christmas. So I think that's what we're going to do for three weeks. I encourage you to invite friends, especially for whom it's new. I mean, you can endure almost anything for three weeks, other than maybe having to go to Tucson for three weeks. Cheap joke, sorry.
Father, thanks for this truth. Thanks for these words. They're so encouraging to me. I hope they are to all of us. God, just make us love You more. We do that by seeing how much You love us. God, we pray that You do that. We ask it of You. In Christ's name, amen.