Daily Devotional for Small Group Discussion: What Does God Know that I Don’t?
Discussion Questions
- The author writes, “One of the things God knows is this: You are God’s beloved, in whom God takes pleasure.” How do you feel receiving this affirmation?
- Ask yourself the author’s question: “If God is well-pleased, then why aren’t I?” What limits your pleasure, and how might you embrace greater satisfaction and joy?
- In your church or faith community, what would it look like for the community to live in a spirit of satisfaction and joy?
The people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him [John the Baptist], and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. … When Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened and a voice from heaven said, “This is my son, the Beloved.” – Matthew 3:5-6 and 16-17, excerpted (NRSV)
At the time of this writing, I’m feeling pretty good. Great, even. But this comes after a period of not feeling so well.
I want to remember to give thanks more often just for my normal well days—because I know too well that things can change in an instant.
I wonder if that awareness is part of what drew the people out to the wilderness to be baptized by John. Did they know that things could turn at any moment? Had the turn already happened?
Some forms of Christian theology teach that John’s baptism was a form of death. An ending. Sinking into the waters did that. Then Jesus came, and he instituted the baptism of the Holy Spirit: new life that came with the pronouncement of God’s pleasure.
Which leaves me with the questions: If God is well-pleased, then why aren’t I? What does God know that I don’t?
Maybe one of the great things about the mysteries of our sacraments—the moments when God has promised to tangibly show up—is the confirmation and affirmation that, indeed, God knows more than we can. And that’s a good thing. And one of the things God knows is this:
You are God’s beloved. In whom God takes pleasure.
Which means that it is existentially true that, at every moment, there is something to give thanks for, something good, something God finds pleasing about you.
Prayer
My prayer for you: May you rightly take such pleasure, too. Amen.
About the AuthorKaji Douša is the Senior Pastor of The Park Avenue Christian Church, a congregation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ, in New York City.