Note from Randy: I hope you enjoy these beautiful reflections on Christ from Abigail Dodds, the author of (A)Typical Woman: Free, Whole, and Called in Christ and a regular contributor to Desiring God.

There is more happiness in a life of exile with Christ and His saints than in all the belonging and cliques and tribes the world wants you to join.

There is more hope in one thimble full of the promises of God still to be fulfilled than in the oceans of assurance from this world that it can achieve progress and utopia apart from Him.

There is more light shining as through a glass dimly, radiating from the face of the Son than all the flashes from human luminaries that, in the end, leave us blind.

There is more truth in one sentence from the mouth of the Lord than all the claims and systems and ideologies and philosophies this world could record in one million best sellers.

There is more love in one drop of blood shed by Christ for His people than in all the affections of natural people for their own or their idols in the whole universe.

There is more power in the fingertips of God and the Gospel He has given us than all the power any government or man-made institution could ever conjure by their might or cleverness or lust.

There is more real healing in the fringe of Jesus’s garment than there is in all the hospitals and clinics and medicines that He has bestowed on us through common grace.

And there is more peace and terror and calm and thunder at the sound of His voice in His Holy Word than any voice on earth could muster. When He speaks the earth quakes. When He speaks the waves and storm are still. When He speaks, we have one job: listen to Him.

Looking back and forging ahead, do not turn to the right or the left, but fix your eyes on Him. There will always be infinitely more there with Him than this world could ever offer.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash