True happiness comes from following the Word of God

Psalms 119:1-2 ESV
Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord ! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart,

Psalms 119:18 ESV
Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

Psalms 119:28-29 ESV
My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word! Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law!

Psalms 119:36-37 ESV
Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.

God does not need me

God does not need me in order to accomplish His plans, yet He has invited me to be apart of His glory.

Romans 1:1-6 ESV
"Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David  according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,"

Thoughts from Mark

In prayer,

Asking for a sign or telling God to do something, as the Pharisees did in Mark 8:11-13, is putting oneself in God's place rather than denying oneself in humility.

¹¹ The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. ¹² And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” ¹³ And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side.

The Leaven of the Pharisees and Herod

¹⁴ Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.¹⁵ And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”^[b] 16 And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. ¹⁷ And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? ¹⁸ Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? ¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” ²⁰ “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” ²¹ And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

I found this passage in Mark 8 interesting because of the main two messages it brings. In the first, Jesus is teaching his disciples by warning them about two types of "leaven": that of being too legalistic (focusing on rules like the Pharisees), and that of being too casual (bad stuff doesn't matter as long as your good/religiousness outweighs it--like Herod pretended). This illustrates the narrow line between two sides of Christianity--truth and love. Both are necessary and important.

The other message speaks on the third aspect of following Christ, which would be faith. So often, we are like the disciples. We see God working in our lives daily, yet we forget them time and time again as we face similar problems. If Jesus can feed thousands with a few loaves of bread, it is silly that we don't trust him to take care of us. Yet so often we do just that.

P.S. cool things I learned today:

Matthew is often described as a tell-it-as-it-is presentation of the Gospel.
Mark, influenced Peter's telling of the Gospel, is themed around second chances.

Perspective: His plan for me is infinitely better

Mark 8:34-38 ESV
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.  For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?  For what can a man give in return for his soul?  For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."