God's Design was Good

Eric Thompson •
September 28, 2026

2 Minute Read

Focus Verse: Genesis 1:31

"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day."

Before the brokenness, before the guilt, before anything went wrong, there was a moment when God looked at everything he had made — including you — and called it very good. That is where your story begins. Not with failure. Not with shame. With God's original design, a perfect plan characterized by peace, purpose, and a loving relationship between the Creator and his creation.

It is easy to forget this when life feels fractured. You may look at your relationships, your health, your past choices, and struggle to believe that "very good" was ever part of your story. But it was. God's design for you was not an afterthought. It was a deliberate, loving intention. The brokenness you experience in the world around you and sometimes within yourself was never what God wanted for you. He had something better in mind from the very beginning, and he has never stopped wanting that for your life.

Today's Challenge: Spend five minutes today simply thanking God for his original intention over your life, naming one area where you want to trust that his design is still good.

Prayer: Father, I thank you that before anything went wrong, you called your creation very good. I receive that truth about my life today. Help me to see myself through the lens of your original design rather than through the lens of my failures.

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From this Author: Eric Thompson

October 2, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

Recover Your Identity, Pursue God's Design

Focus Verse: Romans 5:17 "For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!" The gospel does not just rescue you from something. It restores you to something. When you repent and believe, you recover your true identity as a child of God — the identity that sin took from you. You recover peace, purpose, and a right relationship with your Father. But recovery is not where the story ends. The Christian life is also one of continued pursuit, choosing every day to pursue God's design in every area of your life. The theological word for this is sanctification. It simply means that God is not finished with you yet. There are areas of your thinking, your habits, your relationships, and your character that the Holy Spirit wants to keep reshaping until they look more like Christ. This is not a burden. It is an invitation. You are no longer a defeated survivor of sin. Because of what Christ has done, you now reign in life. That means you do not have to let sin, shame, guilt, or negativity rule over you. You have the cure for the greatest virus the world has ever known, and God is calling you to share it. Find your one person. Pray for them. Love them. And when the moment comes, tell them there is a grace big enough to cover everything they have ever done. Today's Challenge: Identify one area of your life where you need to pursue God's design more intentionally, and take one practical step toward that pursuit today. Prayer: Father, I thank you that through Christ I recover my true identity as your child. Help me to pursue your design in every area of my life and give me the boldness to share this good news with someone who needs it this week.

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October 1, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

Repent, Believe, and Receive

Focus Verse: Romans 10:9 "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Hearing the gospel is not the same as receiving it. Feeling emotional during a sermon is not the same as repenting. Something has to happen on the inside, a genuine turning of the heart toward God and away from sin, paired with a real belief in who Jesus is and what he accomplished on the cross. That is what repentance and faith look like together. Repentance means you change direction. You change your mind about sin, about self-sufficiency, about trying to fix your own brokenness. You stop trusting in your own strength and start trusting in Christ's finished work. Belief means you accept that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died for your sins, and that God raised him from the dead. These are not just ideas to agree with intellectually. They are realities to stake your life on. When you bring both of these together — genuine turning and genuine trust — you receive new life. Not a better version of your old life. New life. The kind that starts now and never ends. If you have never made that decision, today is the right day. If you made it long ago, let today be a day to renew your confidence in what Christ has already done for you. Today's Challenge: Pray specifically for one person in your life who has not yet repented and believed, asking God to open their heart to the gospel this week. Prayer: Father, I confess that Jesus is Lord and I believe in my heart that you raised him from the dead. I turn from trusting in myself and place my full trust in what Christ accomplished for me. Use me to point others toward this same salvation.

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September 30, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

Grace Greater Than Every Sin

Focus Verse: Romans 5:20b "But where sin increased, grace increased all the more." There is a word in this verse that deserves your full attention: overflow. The sermon described it this way — no matter how high the mountain of human failure, the ocean of God's grace completely submerges it. That is not poetic exaggeration. That is the actual mathematics of grace as Paul understood it. Where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more. You may have something in your past that the enemy keeps bringing back to your memory. A decision you cannot undo. A season of life you are ashamed of. A pattern of behavior you have struggled to break. The voice that says "God could never forgive that" is lying to you. Romans 5 is clear: the gift of grace through Jesus Christ overflows beyond any trespass. The word "overflow" means more than enough. God's grace is not just sufficient for your worst day. It is more than sufficient. It covers your past completely and then keeps going. You are not defined by what you have done. You are defined by what Christ has done on your behalf, and his grace has the final word over your life. Today's Challenge: Write down one thing you have been allowing guilt to define you by, and then write Romans 5:20 next to it as God's answer to that guilt. Prayer: Father, I thank you that where my sin increased, your grace increased even more. I receive your overflow of grace today and refuse to let guilt have the final word over my life. Let your grace be louder than the enemy's accusations.

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September 29, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

Sin Broke What God Built

Focus Verse: Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The word "all" in this verse leaves no one out. Not you, not the person sitting next to you at work, not the person you find it hardest to forgive. Every person who has ever lived has stepped away from God's original design and chosen their own way. That choice is what scripture calls sin, and it is not a small thing. It is the reason the world feels so broken. When you look at the hatred, the division, the fractured families, and the pain that fills the news every day, you are looking at the fruit of sin. God did not design the world to work this way. Sin entered through human choice, and like a virus spreading from one person to the next, it has affected every corner of creation. This is not meant to produce despair in you. It is meant to produce honesty. When you can name the problem clearly, you can receive the solution clearly. The brokenness you see in the world and in your own heart is real, but it is not the end of the story. Naming sin for what it is opens the door to the grace that covers it. Today's Challenge: Ask God to show you one area of your life where you have been trying to fix brokenness on your own rather than bringing it honestly before him. Prayer: Father, I confess that I have sinned and fallen short of your design for my life. I stop trying to fix what only you can restore. I bring my brokenness to you today and ask for your truth to meet me here.

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September 28, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

God's Design was Good

Focus Verse: Genesis 1:31 "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day." Before the brokenness, before the guilt, before anything went wrong, there was a moment when God looked at everything he had made — including you — and called it very good. That is where your story begins. Not with failure. Not with shame. With God's original design, a perfect plan characterized by peace, purpose, and a loving relationship between the Creator and his creation. It is easy to forget this when life feels fractured. You may look at your relationships, your health, your past choices, and struggle to believe that "very good" was ever part of your story. But it was. God's design for you was not an afterthought. It was a deliberate, loving intention. The brokenness you experience in the world around you and sometimes within yourself was never what God wanted for you. He had something better in mind from the very beginning, and he has never stopped wanting that for your life. Today's Challenge: Spend five minutes today simply thanking God for his original intention over your life, naming one area where you want to trust that his design is still good. Prayer: Father, I thank you that before anything went wrong, you called your creation very good. I receive that truth about my life today. Help me to see myself through the lens of your original design rather than through the lens of my failures.

Eric Thompson

September 25, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

Grief That Spills Outward

Focus Verse: Romans 9:2-3 "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh." Godly grief does not stop with your own sin. Once your heart has been made tender by repentance, it begins to break for the people around you who are still far from God. Paul could not think about his own people without deep, aching sorrow. That kind of grief is a mark of a heart that has been genuinely transformed. It is possible to sit in a church service week after week and feel very little for the neighbor who has never heard the gospel, the coworker you spend forty hours a week with who does not know Christ, the family member whose soul condition you have quietly stopped thinking about. A hard heart toward the lost is its own form of sin, one that requires its own repentance. Godly sorrow is not a feeling you manage privately until it fades. It is a force that propels you outward, toward someone who needs what you have found. If repentance has genuinely changed your direction, that new direction will eventually lead you to the people God has placed within your reach. Let your grief become compassion, and let your compassion become action. Today's Challenge: Write down the name of one person in your life who does not know Christ, commit to praying for them by name every day this week, and ask God to show you one way to move toward them. Prayer: Father, I confess that my heart has grown comfortable and my compassion has grown cold toward those who do not yet know You. Break my heart for what breaks Yours, and send me toward at least one person who needs to hear that there is hope in Jesus.

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September 24, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

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September 23, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

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September 22, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

Sorry That Goes Nowhere

Focus Verse: Proverbs 28:13 "The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy." There is a kind of sorrow that looks like remorse but produces nothing. It is the grief of being found out, of watching your reputation take a hit, of facing consequences you did not want. It sounds like, "I am sorry you found out," rather than, "I am sorry I did it." The Apostle Paul called this worldly sorrow, and he was direct about where it leads: not to healing, but to death. You may have felt this kind of sorrow before. It has a hollow quality to it. The feelings are real, but they circle back to you, to your loss, your embarrassment, your discomfort. Nothing actually changes. The sin gets tucked away rather than dealt with. And because it is tucked away, it keeps doing its quiet damage. Worldly sorrow is sadness without surrender. It keeps you at the center of the story when what you need is to bring God into the center. Concealment never leads to freedom. Confession does. Mercy is waiting on the other side of honest acknowledgment, not on the other side of feeling bad. Today's Challenge: Ask yourself honestly whether a specific regret you carry is genuine godly sorrow or simply the sting of consequences, and bring that distinction before God in prayer. Prayer: Father, I do not want the kind of sorrow that goes nowhere. Search my heart and show me where I have mistaken embarrassment for repentance. Lead me past my feelings and into genuine confession before You.

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September 21, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

Pain That Protects You

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Eric Thompson

September 18, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

Embrace the Grace That Blots It Out

Eric Thompson

September 17, 2026 • 2 Minute Read

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