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Quiet My Heart

socialmedia@cityrise.org February 3, 2021 Devotionals, sermons, baptist, caroline taylor, church, cityrise, Crosspoint Church - Bellaire, houston, kidstuff, west u,

Each week we will be sharing a post from a staff member in response to the most recent sermon in our “Good News” series. Click to watch or listen to the sermon shared by Senior Pastor Roger Patterson on Sunday January 31, 2021.

This week, Pastor Roger spoke from Romans 1:18-23, speaking on God’s wrath. I don’t know about you, but just hearing those words sends a shiver up my spine. I don’t like to think about it often and really like to dwell in the understanding of His love, staying far away from any negativity. The message was one that I have sat on and replayed over and over again, working to take it all in and understand it fully.

As Paul does in Romans 1, we have to begin with God, understanding who He is and trusting in Him. Pastor Roger encouraged us to look at the fullness of God’s character to understand His wrath. We know that God is love. We know that He is just. We know that He is holy. Yet, when we combine that all, it seems to become too complicated to understand.

You see, 2020 was not a good year. We all were faced with bad news in many different ways. It was easy to believe that God wasn’t being kind or loving. Our lives do not even begin to resemble what they once were. We’ve worked to figure out our new normal more times than we can count, while also seeming to eagerly await the day that we can walk around without fear and returning to what we knew before. However, in the midst of everything seeming upside down, God hasn’t changed. Hebrews 13:8 tells us that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever”. Further, James 1:17 says that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation of shadow due to change”.

In this season of life, it has also seemed easy to believe that He is distant or that He has forgotten about us and left us stranded. With everything constantly changing around us, He’s remained the exact same. Not even His shadow has changed! His goodness is present, His love is overflowing, and His kindness is shown daily. All of the good things we proclaim about Him and His character during the happy moments in life are still true in the seasons that feel empty.

Pastor Roger expounded on Romans 1:20, explaining that God’s goodness is understood and seen, so we are without excuse. His love is shown through His wrath and justice. Jesus Christ came to earth, lived a perfect life, died a death that we deserved to die, and rose again three days later having conquered sin and is now reigning victorious over sin. God’s wrath was satisfied through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.

In wrapping up the message, we were faced with the question: “Have you minimized God?”. I’ve wrestled with that question over the past few days, recognizing that I will never fully understand the depths of His character, yet I can spend my days and my life marveling at who He is. After all, who He is shapes who we are because of the identity that He has given to those who believe in Him. As I face my days and everything that comes with them, I am going to take time to stop the thoughts, the motion, the to do list, and quiet my heart to allow myself to just marvel at who He is, taking in the beauty of His character, wrath and all. Join me?


Caroline Taylor is the Administrative Assistant for KidStuff, where she gets the opportunity to enable ministry to happen by working behind the scenes. She lives in Tanglewood, where she takes online courses from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and takes care of her Mini Goldendoodle, Aspen.