Give Us a Sign: The Willful Blindness of Unbelievers

Mark 8:1-13
Gregory Broderick | Sunday, August 23, 2020
Copyright © 2020, Gregory Broderick

In Mark 8, we see Jesus performing another outstanding miracle.  With no more than seven loaves and a few small fish, He produces enough food for four thousand men as well as innumerable women and children.  Even more amazing than this, they pick up seven basketfuls of leftovers.  To our natural senses, this is unbelievable.  We cannot produce abundance from such little.  Feeding four thousand and having more leftovers than we started with does not make sense to our limited minds.  But what is impossible for us is very easy for God.  He fed five thousand with just five loaves and two fish.  He fed millions in the desert with no supplies.  Indeed, He created the entire universe by His mere spoken word.

It is all very logical.  An all-powerful, all-sovereign God who can create a universe by His speech can easily feed a few thousand people despite limited raw material.  In fact, all you have to do is believe Genesis 1:1, and it all makes sense.  If you start with the presupposition of the God of the Bible, then it is no problem to feed four thousand people with a few loaves and a few fish.

As I preached some weeks ago, we must believe these miracles.  They are clearly attested to in the word of God, and they were witnessed by thousands and thousands of people.  They are not subject to reasonable dispute.  People may reject them, but they cannot reject them rationally.

We see that in our text here.  There is ample evidence of the miracle that Jesus performed.  Four thousand men plus women and children all witnessed this miracle.  If they were making it up, if it were false, it would be easy to find someone who was there to say it never happened.  From the parallel account in Matthew 15, we see that there were great crowds present.  Many, many people were present for the performing of this miracle.  And moreover, we see Jesus performed all kinds of miracles at this same time.   Matthew 15:30, the parallel account, says He healed the lame, the blind, the mute, the crippled, and many others during this mass meeting, all in plain view of a large crowd.  Verse 31 speaks about this great crowd of witnesses.  It says, “The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing.  And they praised the God of Israel.”  People saw the miracles, people believed the miracles, and they correctly ascribed the miracles to the power of God at work.

The evidence of Jesus’ miracles is undeniable.  It was all foretold in the Old Testament and by John the Baptist.  Jesus drove out demons before an entire synagogue, with a whole crowd of people sitting there, watching Him drive out the demons, in Mark 1.  Jesus healed many before the whole town of Capernaum, including Peter’s mother-in-law.  He cured an evangelist leper, a paralytic, and a man with a shriveled hand, all in public view.  And He cured the demon-possessed and a bleeding woman, and, indeed, He raised Jairus’ dead daughter, all before huge crowds.

Jesus fed the five thousand with the miracle of multiplication.  And He cured the deaf and the mute.  And then after all that, this—a three-day healing festival, drawing people from great distances, capped off by a miraculous and compassionate feeding of thousands of people from virtually no food at all.  In the face of all these miracles performed all over Israel, and in front of so many people—in front of tens of thousands—performed at various times in various places, there is only one rational response: to fall down and cry out, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

But what do the Pharisees say to all of this?  Do they fall down and confess, “You are the Christ”?  No, in Mark 8:11 they say, “Give us a sign from heaven.”  You must be kidding.  “Give us a sign from heaven”?  He just gave sign after sign after sign from heaven.  But they are not kidding.  They refuse to believe out of hatred for God, out of enmity for God.

No Proof Is Ever Enough

For the unbeliever, no proof is ever enough because his unbelief is not the result of good-faith inquiry.  It is not the result of detached neutrality.  It is a result of enmity toward God—irrational and unquenchable hatred of God.

You cannot change the unbeliever’s mind with evidence because his decision is not based in evidence.  It is based in sinful hatred and rebellion.  That is what you need to change.  That is what God needs to change.

In fact, the unbeliever already knows what you are seeking to prove when you provide him with evidence.  He knows that there is a God.  He knows that it is the God of the Bible, and he knows that this God is perfect, holy, good, and sovereign.  By providing him with more evidence, you are only proving what he knows to be true, but hates.  Perhaps you have had this experience.  You are witnessing to an otherwise intelligent and rational-seeming person, and that person even seems to follow your logic and accept your factual premises.  But at the end, he or she says, “I just don’t believe that,” or, “It is just not for me.” It seems irrational because it is irrational.

Maybe you have had the experience of witnessing to that friendly neighbor or matronly relative, only to draw a sharp and disproportionately angry response: “Don’t push your religion on me!” Such a response does not really make sense if you view that other person as merely neutral, or skeptical but capable of rational thought, capable of deciding either way on the question.  But the angry reply suddenly makes sense if you see the reality.  That person knows the truth already but hates it.  And they are angry at you for confronting them with the truth.

No, the issue is not evidence.  The issue is enmity.  This enmity is a result of the total depravity of fallen man.  Fallen man is shot through with sin, down to the inmost parts, and therefore he hates holy God.  He cannot, he will not confess the obvious truth of the gospel.  I read a story recently that said that a teaching assistant at UC Santa Barbara tweeted out that, if he could be transported two thousand years in time, he would make sure to assassinate Jesus of Nazareth, and make sure to do it before His ministry began.  Or, at the DNC this past week, they said the Pledge of Allegiance but intentionally dropped “under God.” This is no longer just some weird people on campus.  It is mainstream to be out with your enmity for God.

Of course, our own experience and observations square with what we read in the word of God, in the infallible revelation of the Bible.  The unbeliever hates God.  Romans 8:7 tells us that the sinful mind, the flesh mind, the unregenerate mind, is hostile to God—not neutral towards God but hostile to God.  Romans 1:18 says that these wicked men, these unbelievers, suppress the truth by their wickedness.  They know it, but they suppress it by their wickedness.  So it is not that they do not know; they know.  They know, but they hate the truth and try to destroy it.

Romans 1:21 says, “Although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him.  And as a result, their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” That is why your reasonable friend loses all reason when it comes to the Bible.   That is why your sweet aunt bites your head off when you speak the gospel to her again.  That is why the world hates true churches that preach the truth.  And that is why these educated and intelligent Pharisees ask for a sign from heaven after Jesus’ sustained performance of many public miracles.  Enmity toward God—that is the reason.

Therefore, no evidence is ever enough, and no proof is ever sufficient.  As I said, look at the Pharisees here in our text.  If anyone should have recognized the coming of the Christ it is these men.  They were the pious scholars of their day—serious about the Torah, zealous for the traditions.  In fact, we see that Paul was a Pharisee.  In Acts 23:6 he cited his hope in the resurrection of the dead as key evidence of his Pharisaism.  So they believed, at least in the abstract, in the resurrection.

These Pharisees were the super-religious people of their day.  In Philippians 3, Paul gives his credentials.  He says he was “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee” (Phil. 3:5).  You can see him building the argument for his street cred, if you will.  His final argument is that he is a Pharisee. Pharisees were serious people about the word.  They knew the law, the Scriptures.  They saw all of Jesus’ miracles.  In fact, they sent people all the time to check out Jesus, to see what He was doing, to spy Him out.  We see the Pharisees interacting with Jesus in Mark 7:2; 7:8; 2:18; 2:24; 9:14; 10:2, 11:18, 11:27; 12:13.

So the idea is that Jesus’ miracles were not done in a corner.  All people saw them, and these Pharisees in particular saw them.  They had all the education. They had all the orthodoxy.  They had all the evidence.  They just refused to believe.  And this is not just true of the Pharisees.  It is true of every unbeliever.  Every unbeliever knows, deep down, there is a God, a moral, holy, sovereign God against whom they have sinned.  They may not admit this, but they know it to be true.  So let us look again to the Scriptures.  I showed already that they have hatred toward this God.  I am going to show that they have knowledge of this God.

Romans 1:20 says that everyone knows about God.  It says, “Since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” So clearly seen, understood, and without excuse.  Psalm 19 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” So all day, every day, for all of history, everyone everywhere has been confronted with the evidence for God, with the reality of God, just as you walk around, just as you exist.  They are confronted by the outward and overwhelming evidence in creation.  They are confronted by the inward witness of conscience.  And they are confronted, at least in our time, in the certain and objective revelation of the canon of the holy Scripture.  Five billion copies of the Bible have been printed worldwide.  It is available on the Internet and has been translated into at least 1500 different languages.

So the evidence is all around.  And with all that evidence, people still reject it.  Why?  Enmity.  And because they reject the truth, the truth that they know to be true, it drives them crazy.  Romans 1:28 says, “God gave them over to a depraved mind.” Fighting against the truth that you know to be true is damaging to your mental health.  But this is what every unbeliever does—opposes the truth that he knows to be true.

Do you want even more proof that no evidence is ever enough?  Jesus told them all that He was God who became man.  He said He would prove it by His death and resurrection three days later.  This was a bold prediction.  He told them, and they heard it.  Then He did it, and they saw it.  Did they respond in faith?  Did they fall down and say, “He was raised from the dead, as He said He would be”?  No, no.  They refused to believe it.  They covered it up with lies—lies they knew were lies.

Look at Mark 11:18.  It shows the enmity.  “The chief priests and teachers of the law began looking for ways to kill Jesus.” Why?  “Because the whole crowd was amazed at His teaching.” Not because He was a fraud.  No, because the people followed Him.  Look at John 11:48.  They said, “We will have to kill Him, or everyone will believe in Him and we will lose our place and our nation.” You see the motivation.  It is not an argument over truth, it is an argument over consequences.  It is not because they thought He was a fraud, but because the people followed Him.

Or look at Mark 14.  It says they were looking for some sly way to arrest Him, which they then later did.  But verse 55 tells us after the arrest, they were looking for evidence so they could kill Him.  And they could not find any of that evidence, but they killed Him anyway.  This is backwards.  You decide on the penalty, you look for the crime, you cannot find the evidence, and you do it anyway.  This is not detached neutrality.  This is not an inquiry for truth.  It is not evidence-based decisionmaking.  It is enmity-based decisionmaking.

And we all know, of course, the worst and most extreme example.  After He was crucified, after they sealed and guarded the tomb with soldiers, after Jesus rose from the dead and the tomb was opened, after the guards reported it all, did they believe it then?  No.  They did not.  Matthew 28:12 says, “The chief priests met with the elders and devised a plan, bribing the soldiers to lie and say someone stole His body.” They knew it was a lie.  Enmity, enmity, enmity.

No evidence could ever be enough for sinful man, for he is totally depraved.  He is full of hatred for God.  You can think about it this way: His receiver is broken.  His receiver is warped by sin so no amount of messages to that receiver can get through and deliver the right message.  No amount of argument or logic can help him.  No amount of evidence can help him.  The Pharisees’ demand for a sign in Mark 8 is not only disingenuous but it also raises another question.  So my second point is, who are you to ask for a sign?

Who Are You to Ask for a Sign?

Apart from the fact that proof is not the problem and therefore proof is not the solution, it is highly arrogant to demand such proof in the first place.  We must remember that we are lowly, fallible, weak creatures, created by the very God from whom we demand proof.  God created the world out of love.  He did not have to.  He did not need to.  He provided a perfect habitat for His creation—the garden, the animals, a suitable helpmeet.  Indeed, He provided everything we needed for everything that they could legitimately desire.  He provided all that for them, but they rebelled anyway.  And even when they rebelled and sinned, even when they cast all humanity into God’s wrath and God’s judgment, He did not abandon them.  He clothed them, He provided rain and crops for them, and He promised a Savior for them, One who would crush the head of their enemy, the devil.

He called our forefather Abraham to the Promised Land and led his people out of bondage and misery in Egypt.  He went before them and behind them as a wall of fire in the desert.  He led them to conquer the land so that they could have rest, so that they could have a place.  He gave them a sacrificial system as a placeholder, to point to the Savior who was to come.  Above all that, as the capstone for all that, He sent His own Son, very God, a part of the eternal Trinity, to become man, to live a perfect life, and to suffer the infinite wrath that was due for us.  He sent His own Son to suffer and to pay the price we were incapable of paying to make peace between Himself and us, and all for our good.  He did not need it, but He did it for our good.  All out of love.  Not out of any need of His, and not out of any good in us.

So after all that wickedness and rebellion by us, after all our hatred and rejection of God, after all His centuries of care and rescue, His Son, very God, comes to the people and offers them this free salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  It is totally free; we do not have to do anything.  After all that wickedness, He offers all this, and their response was: “Prove it.  Give us a sign!”  That is worse than looking a gift horse in the mouth.  The greatest Being, the greatest reality, shows the greatest love and the greatest grace to the lowliest people to solve their greatest problem and to meet their greatest need, and we demand proof in response.  What presumption!  What arrogance!  What wickedness!  Who are we to question God?  As Paul says in Romans 9:20, “Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?  Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”  No, “Woe to him who quarrels with His Maker” (Isa.  45:9).

Who are we nothings to question God in any matter at all, much less in the matter of our eternal salvation, that He provided for free to us but at great cost to Himself!  I am reminded of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, who questioned the angel of God sent to foretell the birth of John the Baptist.  It sounded pretty amazing.  It sounded pretty unbelievable.  So Zechariah asked, “How can I be sure of this?” Not quite, “Give us a sign,” but it is pretty close.  “How do I know you are telling me the truth, angel?” And the response:  “I am Gabriel.  I stand in the presence of God and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you the good news.”  In other words, “How dare you question God’s messenger!  Shut your mouth!” is the response.  And He did that to Zechariah literally.

As subordinate and dependent creatures, we must always remember that we are in no position to question God.  We are in no position to demand anything of God.  He is sovereign; we are not.  He is almighty; we are not.  (GTB)  He is independent; we are not.  He created the world and everything in it, and He has all authority to do with His creatures and His creation whatever He wills.

Moreover, in His goodness, He acts for the ultimate good of His people all the time.  Every act He undertakes is for His glory and for the eternal salvation of His elect.

And whatever He speaks is true.  He is the measure of truth.  It is true because He cannot lie, but it is also true because He is the measure of truth.  It is not that God conforms to some other standard, so that we can measure God’s word against that standard.  No, we measure everything against God’s word.  That is how we know what truth is.  And yet we dare to question God.  Friends, let us be very careful to remember who we are and what we are—dependent, lowly creatures.  Let us never sit above God or sit above God’s word in judgment of Him or of it.  Let us never arrogantly ask God to prove it, as these Pharisees did.  We should not ask at all, and we should remember that He already proved it.

And let us not be foolish.  God tells us that we are all guilty sinners, and we know that that is true.  He has established righteous decrees for us, and we know that we have violated those righteous decrees.  In justice, we deserve the infinite punishment of His infinite wrath in eternal hell.  We cannot ever satisfy it.  We cannot ever escape it.  There is no way out.  We have no hope.  Yet when we were still His enemies, Christ died for His elect so that we could be saved, all out of God’s great love and rich mercy.  All we must do to receive this great gift is receive it.  It is a pretty good deal.  Receive it by faith.  Put our trust in Christ alone for our salvation.  Confess Him as Lord and Savior, and we will be eternally saved.  Those are the terms of the offer.

In the face of such a good offer, we should say only, “Have mercy on me, a sinner,” or,  “I believe; help Thou my unbelief.” That is the response.  Only a fool would demand proof in response to such a gracious, such a generous, such a necessary offer.  Only a fool would deliberate and delay and say, “Give me some time to think about it.”  Yes, we should count the cost.  The cost is our whole lives.  But we should see the benefit—eternal life.  Yes, count the cost, but then make the obvious decision.  Trade the finite for the infinite.  Trade thirty or fifty or seventy years on this earth for the millions, for the billions, for the trillions, for the inexhaustible years of an eternity of joy unspeakable and full of glory with God.

This offer is open to all—to Americans and Koreans and Africans, to those born in Christian nations and to those born under Buddha or Islam.  Anyone and everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.  This offer is open to all, and it remains open today.  But it is a limited-time offer.  It is only good so long as you live, and you do not know how long that will be.  You might think you know, but you don’t know.  Do not presume that you will have more time to make this decision.  Do not dither.  Don’t ask for more proof.  Receive this offer today by faith and make your calling and election secure and sure today.

Believers, Do Not Be Arrogant, for You Too Are Susceptible to Unbelief

Although the focus has been on unbelievers thus far, we who have professed faith in Christ alone must also tremble at this text, for we too are slow to understand and slow to believe.  Just look at the disciples here.  They have been with Jesus through it all.  I said the Pharisees saw all those miracles and sent the spies out.  The disciples were right there for all of it.  They saw it all firsthand.  They saw all the miracles.  They saw all the healings.  They saw all the raisings of the dead and so on.  They saw all the miraculous feeding of the five thousand from the five loaves and the two fish.  So when the Lord Jesus tells His disciples here, “There are four thousand people; we need to feed them, or they will go home and collapse on the way,” these disciples should know what comes next.  We expect them to know what comes next.  Instead, they ask in verse 4, “Where in this remote place can we get enough bread to feed them?”

This is a very disappointing answer.  Even the Lord Jesus seems exasperated with them.  In the next section, when they are in the boat crossing the lake, He asks them, “Do you still understand?” Do you still not believe?  Are your hearts still hardened?  Do you not remember when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls were left over?  Do you still not understand?”

It is not just the disciples.  We can look at many other examples.  Elijah, after defeating the prophets, after God miraculously sent down His fire and then sends the rain, what happens?  Elijah runs off at the threatenings of a wicked queen.  Or we can think of doubting Thomas or even doubting John the Baptist, who asked, “Are you the one, or should we be waiting for someone else?” I would remind you, these people are spiritual giants, much more than us.  Yet they still had doubts; they still had some unbelief.

This is a reminder that we who profess Christ should not grow arrogant or look down on the unbelief of those who have not confessed Him as Lord and Savior.  The truth is that we would be just like them if God had not elected us and saved us—the monergistic work.  It is God’s work alone.

The truth is that there was no more good in us than there is in them.  There was no less enmity and wickedness in us than there is in them until God chose us, until God called us, until God regenerated us.  You see, the difference between us and the unbelievers is not that we are great and they are bad.  The difference between us and unbelievers is that God has done a work in us.  It is God’s work, not our work, and it has nothing to do with anything good in us.  No, God moves, giving us a new heart and a new mind and a new spirit, able to see, able to understand, able to believe, able to trust in Him.

The difference between us and unbelievers has nothing to do with us.  It is all down to God’s work in us, and yet that sinful man still hangs on in us.  We still fail to believe and fail to understand sometimes.  But our failure to believe and understand is different from unbelievers in two ways.

First, our unbelief is no longer the result of enmity but the result of sin still working in us.  We are no longer God’s enemies.  We no longer suppress the truth by our wickedness.  We no longer hate God.  There is a fundamental difference between the believer and the unbeliever.  We have been regenerated.  We have been given a new mind and a new heart.

No, as born-again people, as good trees made good by God, we are not the same.  We produce good fruit now.  We say “No” to sin and “Yes” to righteousness now, and we live lives of thankful obedience to God for His glory.

But we cannot deny the reality that we still sin.  We still sin from time to time.  It is not our animating principle.  It is not our reason for living.  But residual sin is still in us.  We are free from the dominating power of sin, but we are not free from its presence.  We are not free from its influence.  We are not free from its temptation.  And sometimes we fall.  Sometimes we sin, including unbelief, including doubting God.

So our unbelief and failure to trust God, is different in that it is not a result of enmity.  But it is also different in a second and important way.  The second way our unbelief is different is that ours is more shameful.  The unbeliever can only sin.  His whole being—mind, will, and emotions—are warped by indwelling sin.  He freely chooses to sin.  He desires it.  He pursues it.  He does it wholeheartedly.  But it is really the only choice he can make due to his moral inability, due to his total depravity.  It is called non posse non peccare, not possible not to sin.

But we who have been born again, we who have confessed Christ as our Lord and Savior, can say “No” to sin and “Yes” to righteousness, “Yes” to trusting in God.  Due to God’s initial work in us, and due to God’s ongoing work in us by the Holy Spirit, due to the grace He gives to us, we can choose to trust in Him.

We are tempted to unbelief, but we can say “No.” We are tempted to doubt, but we can say “No.” That is why our unbelief and doubt is more shameful.  That is why our sin is more shameful.  We can preach to ourselves, “Why are you downcast, O my soul?  Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God” (Ps. 42:5).  When the devil tempts us not to trust in God, we can say, “Gegraptai” (“It is written”). Yes, our sin and doubt is different from the unbeliever’s because we do not have to give in to it.  But we do.

If we look at our lives, surely we will see it.  Despite God’s many common and miraculous provisions for us over many years, we are quick to despair.  We are slow to come out of despair.  We are quick to lose hope and to grumble.  We are slow to remember that He saved us; that He joined us to His family, His household; that He joined us to His church; that He provides food and clothing and everything in abundance.  We are quick to forget that He settled us in homes and in families; that He provided us with godly husbands or godly wives, and godly friends and fellow workers in the Lord.  We are quick to forget that He provided us with children and with brothers and sisters in the Lord.  No, when we confront that new frustration or loss, we forget about all of that.  We forget about what God has done.  We are slow to say, “Our God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come.”

Brothers and sisters, we can have victory over unbelief.  We can have victory over doubt.  We can have victory over despair.  But let us remember God.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.  Fear and doubt is going to come.  But instead of giving way to the fear and the doubt, let us trust God more in all the difficulties.  When that fear, that doubt comes, we have to say “No.” That is the devil’s temptation: “Get thee behind me, Satan.  I am going to trust God.”

When you look back at your life, when you look at all that God has done for us over many years and even in recent times, there is no way we can give in to that fear and doubt.  We can say, “God helped us before, and He will help us again.”

Application

Let us look at a few points of application.  First, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.  Trust in Him. He offers you the free gift of salvation.  Do not be arrogant and demand more proof.  Do not be foolish and demand more time, saying, “Maybe later.”  Don’t do it.  Believe it now.  Embrace it now.  If you have not put your faith in Christ, you are in great danger.  You are in grave danger.  You are destined for eternal hell.  Run, don’t walk, to the cross.  Confess Christ as Lord.  Trust in Him alone for your eternal salvation and be saved today.

Second, keep on trusting in Him.  Believe that the God who saved you from hell will help you with your practical, everyday problems.  After all, look at what He was doing here in our text:  He was making sure His hungry people had food to eat.  There is no more basic need.  But He was aware of it, making sure that they had food to eat.

Third, believe that Jesus cares for your problem.  Believe that Jesus sees your problem—your problem in finding a husband, your problem in having children, your health problem, your heart surgery, your school that cannot open.  Jesus sees your problem.  Believe that He can and will help you, that He will do all things great and small for your eternal good.

Fourth, do not fixate on the problem; fix your eyes on Jesus instead.  We tend to see the large crowd and the few loaves and fish, and say, “This is a big problem.” But do not look down there.  Look up.  Look up to God.  Focus on God.  Look up to Him.  Remember who He is.  Remember what He has done.  Remember what He has promised—to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future (Jer. 29:11).

Fifth, resist the devil.  He says, “Does God really see?  Does God really know?  Does God really care?  Is He really out for your good?” Yes, He does see; yes, He does know; yes, He does care; and, yes, He is really out for your eternal good.  See that, remember that, and then say, “Get thee behind me, Satan!  Get away from me!”

Finally, trust in God to provide.  Resist the devil, and gain the victory for yourself and give the glory to God.  We live in a time of uncertainty.  We live in a time of frustration.  We live in a time of difficulty.  These doubts are coming.  The fears are coming.  The temptation is coming.  It is not a sin for that to come.  It is a sin to give into it.  Say “No,” remember God, and then look for God to provide for us, even in this time.

The truth is that we earn ourselves a lot of grief and a lot of unnecessary strain by giving into sinful doubt and to unbelief.  Let us stop it.  Let us reject Satan’s lies.  Let us trust in God, be full of joy in all situations, and wait in joyful hope for God our Redeemer to deliver us.  Amen.

Lord, we are lifted up by your promises.  We are lifted up.  We are encouraged, Lord, by remembering what you have done for your people in history, what you have done for your people in this place, and what you have done for your people in our individual lives.  Let us remember it, Lord.  Let us count our blessings.  Let us trust in God.  Let us testify to your goodness.  And let us glorify you by believing and obeying you.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.