God Is Here Even Now
Before you take stock of anything today, God is already here, closer than you'd think to look.
He isn't watching from a distance – he's in the quiet that nothing has filled yet, in the steam off your coffee, in the first breath you take this morning.
Today's Guiding Word
“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” John 3:14-15
In the desert, it was enough to look up at the very thing that had wounded you, and you lived. Jesus offers the same thing: not turning away from what hurts, but looking toward the place where God himself took the wound.
Walk Toward the Light in God's Presence
The people wandering the desert finally couldn't take it anymore. They were worn out, they complained, and venomous snakes came among them. God didn't remove the snakes. Instead he told Moses to lift a bronze serpent on a pole – whoever looked up at it lived. He didn't erase the danger. He gave the wounded a place to look.
Today the same thing happens, on a far larger scale. The cross was the lowest point in human history: God's own Son nailed to it. And somehow it became the greatest event that ever happened – not because suffering is beautiful, but because God can bring life out of even this. What a murder ruined, love lifted up.
The Father didn't glorify Jesus apart from the cross. He glorified him in the very moment Jesus gave everything away. Which means your own lifting up happens the same way – not by routing around your pain, but by carrying it to the place where it's already been redeemed.
Maybe there's a wound in you right now that you'd rather cover up. Today doesn't ask you to deny it. It asks you to look up – not at the wound itself, but at the one who already hung where you're standing, and who can heal any wound from there.
Today, look up instead of turning away
When something stings you today – a word, an absence, an old wound – don't turn from it right away.
Look, just for a second, toward where Christ is, and say quietly: I'm bringing this here too. That's enough for today.
I Praise You, Living God
Heavenly Father, who spoke your love from the cross
I praise you for who you are. You didn't send word of your love from far away – you gave your only Son, so there'd be no doubt left about how seriously you take this whole world. You didn't spare yourself the cost. I bless you, because your love was never just words – it's measured in what you were willing to lose for us.
I exalt you, because out of the evil human cruelty produced, you brought the greatest good history has ever seen. I praise you, because you weren't afraid to make even our darkest hour your own. I adore you, because you already see the end of what, to us, still looks like only a cross.
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man lifted up
I praise you for who you are. You were lifted up to the very place shame stared back at you, and from there you turned it into the place everyone can turn toward life. You didn't run from the cross – you leaned into it, like someone who knows exactly where the victory is waiting.
I exalt you, because when I look up at you, I don't see a distant hero – I see someone standing exactly where it hurts the most for me. I praise you, because your love doesn't live in theory – it lives in nail marks and wounds you accepted so I could live free. There isn't a wound in me you don't know from the inside.
Holy Spirit, who teaches me to look up
I praise you for who you are. When I'd rather turn from what hurts, you're the one who quietly turns my gaze back – not to the wound, but to the one who already redeemed it. Without you I would only run. With you I learn to look.
I bless you, because you give the courage it takes to look upward even in the deepest pain. I exalt you, because you don't take the cross out of my life – you give me the strength to carry it the way Christ carried his, one step further, always.
Holy Trinity, one God who showed yourself on the cross
I praise you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one living God. The Father sends, the Son gives himself, the Spirit teaches me to look up – you are a single movement, and that movement is salvation itself.
Glory to you, because you didn't sidestep suffering – you transformed it from the inside. Amen.
Here I Am, Lord
Lord, I bring you this Monday, and everything I'm carrying in it – my body, my tiredness, and the part of me that would rather dodge what hurts.
If I'm lonely or anxious, let me remember you know this from the inside – you don't teach it to me from a distance. I bring you my family, the people I'll work with today, the decisions ahead of me, and the ones I find hard to face right now.
Give me strength today to look up instead of turning away – and if it only happens for one second, let that count as a beginning too.
A Song to Carry Into Today
Don't let this play in the background today. Let every line point you toward the cross the whole Church is singing about today, where shame became glory and pain became love.
The Wonderful Cross
Chris Tomlin & Matt Redman · official audio
▶Listen on YouTubeWhat you'd rather flee today, look up at instead – healing is waiting there.
View the sources used
- Today's Gospel · John 3:13-17 · Exaltation of the Holy Cross · the Son of Man lifted up, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert
- Today's first reading · Numbers 21:4b-9 · the fiery serpents and the bronze serpent that the people looked at to live
- Today's psalm · Psalm 78 · "Do not forget the works of the Lord!"
- Magyar Kurír · Daily Gospel · September 14, 2026 · confirms today's Gospel passage (John 3:13-17)
- Zarándok.ma, Daily Reflection · Fr. Balázs Barsi · September 14, 2026 · "Christ's Cross Gives Meaning to Suffering" – used as the primary source today since the barsitelekmm.blogspot.com blog was still showing yesterday's (09.13) entry
- Regnum Christi devotional · "Lift High the Cross" · September 14, 2026 · on God's love, Moses' bronze serpent, and Aquinas' thought on the paradox of redemption
- Cistercian House, Baja (Hungary) · 09.14 · "Every Single Day Matters on Your Journey" (subject line only – today's message again arrived as an image, with no text)
- A Miracle Every Day (jesus.net) · 09.14 · "Don't Let Yourself Be Intimidated" · a different topic, but the same encouragement: don't turn away in fear, trust instead
- Jesus Calling · most recent available: 09.13 · today's edition had not yet arrived due to the time-zone gap
- Daily Hope (Rick Warren) · most recent available: 09.13 · "The Good News Makes You Joyful" · today's edition had not yet arrived due to the time-zone gap
Today's core message is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross: Moses' bronze serpent (Numbers 21:4b-9) and the lifted-up Son of Man (John 3:13-17) say the same thing – whoever looks up at what wounded them will live. Fr. Barsi's letter today and the Regnum Christi devotional both point the same way: God glorified Jesus not despite the cross, but in it. The Cistercian House's daily message again arrived as an image with no text, so only its subject line could be used as a source. Today's Miracle Every Day letter covers a different topic, but its call to trust rather than fear rhymes with today's message. Jesus Calling and Daily Hope, both on US time, had not yet posted today's entry by 7 a.m. in Budapest, so yesterday's (09.13) editions were used instead – a routine time-zone gap, not a missing source.
The road we walk together
Yesterday was about the ledger you keep on others in your own heart; today is about looking up at the very thing that wounded you, and living.