Chatting to the NTV one morning her was saying that people often complain to him that God unfairly sets us a standard that we can’t reach, that he asks of us what we can’t possibly give.

As we pondered this – presumably in the context of something we had just read together – we went back to the garden of Eden.

The command wasn’t hard to obey – rather it was the obedience was hard to stomach.

Satan called into question the goodness and truth of the standard God required of his people and they listened.

When mankind first sinned it was not a failure to keep an impossible standard, but the rejection of a relationship of trusting obedience with the one and only God.

And now? The standard has been met in Jesus, and the offer of relationship continues. Praise be to God that his people are proclaiming this gospel around the world and that, by his grace and mighty work of rescue, it comes to some not simply with words, but with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction and great joy! 1 Thes 1:5

Dear mighty, patient, loving Father, thank you. Thank you for the power of your gospel to save, and for your ongoing work in your people. Please work in me to increase my delight in obeying you, please increase in me my joy in and my love of your precious commands. Please help me to point people to you and to a relationship with you as Lord and saviour. In the name of the one who made that possible, Amen.