God Is Good, and He Loves Me - Your Nightly Prayer
God Is Good, and He Loves Me
Your Nightly Prayer for Feb. 3, 2025
by Britt Mooney
TONIGHT’S SCRIPTURE
"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." - Matthew 10:29,31
SOMETHING TO PONDER
Living in this broken world, we often encounter hardship. A couple of months ago, I got a phone call from one of my best friends. She wept on the phone, and I knew something bad had happened. Her son, a young man I loved like a nephew, had unexpectedly died the night before. We wept together, and a whole community began the grieving process.
When difficult things enter our lives and shake us, people of faith have a common, human reaction. We question whether God loves us. In our grief, struggle, and pain, he seems so far away. His good promises don’t feel possible. Approaching God, we can sound like the disciples waking Jesus in the back of the boat. “We’re going to perish. Don’t you care?”
Here in Matthew 10, Jesus begins teaching about the hardships his disciples will face. People will resist, persecute, and betray us. Yet, in the middle of these sobering statements, Jesus declares God’s absolute love and care for us. He brings up sparrows, a bird the culture would have considered insignificant. Cheap. Two for a penny. Yet he sees and cares for them. And we are worth far more to God than sparrows. How much? God paid his Son for us. The best he had. Far more than a penny.
I worked with a pastor friend who would respond to hard news with, “I know God is good, and he loves me.” A simple but powerful statement of truth and reality. When all seems to be crashing around me, I’ve learned to declare that eternal truth, despite how the temporary situation might seem. And when my friend told me of her son’s death, I had to say it over the next few weeks.
Living by that truth enabled me to speak at the funeral. The peace of Christ empowered me to comfort and weep with others while pointing them to a greater hope we all need.
YOUR NIGHTLY PRAYER
Heavenly Father,
In our grief and struggles, remind us of Your love that never fails. When life shakes us and we feel distant from You, help us to trust Your goodness and compassion, just as You watch over sparrows. Teach us to then speak and declare You are good and You love us, no matter the situation. And filled with Your peace, empower us to comfort others and point them to the eternal hope found in Christ.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
THREE THINGS TO MEDITATE UPON
1. Consider a difficult situation in the past and remember how God helped you through it.
2. What current circumstance tempts you to question God’s love for you? Declare “God is good, and he loves me” over your own heart.
3. Ask God to show you others in your same or a similar situation who you could encourage with God’s love and value
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Matt Henry Gunther
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