A powerful tornado rolls through your neighborhood. A massive hurricane heads straight for your city. A bolt of lightning sends 300 million volts to earth. The raw power and unpredictability of storms can inspire both awe and terror. We cannot stop storms from coming. We can only hope to survive them. However, we know the Almighty God can stop storms. He can calm literal storms. He could remove metaphorical storms, other types of troubles and trials. So, if He can, why doesn’t He?

Well, would you rather have a God who was distant from you but removed all the storms of life? Or would you rather have a God who allowed some storms to come but promised to be right there by your side within them, holding you close? May God give us the top-down faith that sees that the latter is by far the better option. God promises to be with us through all the storms of life. Sometimes He removes them. But when He doesn’t, it’s only because He has plans to use even storms for our eternal good.

Usually, a kingdom advances and is secured through things like military might or political force or worldly wealth. It can be tempting to believe the same holds true in the kingdom of God. Perhaps we think churches would flourish if we had the right rulers passing and enforcing the right laws. Or we believe that for a church to do good requires a robust budget. Political force. Worldly wealth. This way of thinking is breathtakingly wrong.

We need God to give us the top-down faith that grasps the fact that the kingdom of God advances in ways that are imperceptible. Through something that seems insignificant to most—the gospel—the King of kings establishes his reign in human hearts. Even Jesus himself taught that the gospel seems unimpressive, for He often compared the gospel to a tiny seed. Yet within a seed is hidden life. As the seed of the gospel is planted, the largest of all kingdoms grows.

Look at our lives—the problems, the pains—and it’s easy to conclude that we are losing. Look at the world—the brokenness, the bedlam—and it’s easy to believe that the devil is winning. It all can lead us to despair. Yet this turmoil is exactly what God said would happen already in the Garden. There God declared that until the end of time enmity would prevail between the devil and mankind. But God promised more than that. He promised that from humanity would rise one who would completely defeat the devil.

We need a top-down faith to understand that things are definitely not what they seem. Yes, the devil and his allies are constantly doing their worst. Their work always brings pain. Yet, ultimately, Jesus always wins. And His victory is our victory. Jesus’ victory is so complete that even when Satan continues to cause chaos, Christ uses it to reveal His glory and grace to those gifted with top-down faith.

After a long day of work, you have earned the right to sit down in your favorite chair, put your feet up, and watch your favorite program. After a hard week on the job, you have earned the opportunity to relax a bit that weekend. After doing your job well for many months, you have earned those two weeks of vacation at the beach. This is how everyone thinks: rest is something you earn through hard work. We even teach that to our kids: no gaming until homework is done, no playing with friends until chores are complete.

Since that concept of rest being earned is so deeply engrained in us, to properly understand spiritual rest requires a top-down faith. God needs to send us the Spirit so that we can grasp this truth. True spiritual rest cannot be earned. In fact, the harder you try, the more restless and the less peaceful you become. Spiritual rest is a gift that God gives. The rest we need most—from guilt, from worry, from shame, from hopelessness—is graciously given to us by the Lord of the Sabbath.

No Christian teaching demonstrates that we have a top-down faith more than the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Scripture teaches that there is only one God. Yet that God exists as three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Incomprehensible! It is the type of teaching about which the psalmist declares, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain” (Psalm 139:6). We believe in the Triune God without fully comprehending His existence, simply because the Spirit has given us the gift of faith. Our belief in the Triune God came from the top down.

Not only is the concept of the Trinity itself something unique to the Christian faith, but what the Triune God does for us and offers us is also completely unique. Our Triune God invites us into the blessed relationship that is part of His very nature. The members of the Trinity share with us an intimacy that they have enjoyed with each other from eternity. Our Triune God makes us not servants or subjects but blessed members of His family.

Our God establishes earthly governments.

Our God invites unworthy sinners to participate in His blessing. The Lord calls us to the heavenly banquet.

The Lord came to His city and His temple to teach His people, but the leaders of Israel rose up against Him. When they questioned His authority, Jesus responded with three parables meant to drive the leaders to self-evaluation and self-condemnation. The stories speak of family ties, contractual obligation, and the favor of a royal invitation. Each should have led to a proper response, yet each parable showed that Israel’s leaders were refusing to give God the fruits of faith He patiently sought. Our God patiently seeks fruits.

The Verse of the Day reminds us that one day, everyone will bow before Jesus of Nazareth and confess Him as Lord. Some will do so in grief and others in joy. God wants real repentance from every sinner so they might bend the knee to Christ in true obedience and confess with gladness that Jesus is Lord. The Church prays that God would rule our hearts through Word and Sacrament, that our repentance might be real and our obedience truly pleasing. Our God wants real repentance that leads to true obedience.