May I have a moment, please? I’d like to speak just a little word of hope to your heart.

You and everyone else reading this have faced so much in the past year or so. Probably every part of your life has been tested in one way or another. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve battled doubts and uncertainties that you could’ve never imagined.

So that’s what I want to speak to.

I tell our people that faith comes by hearing, but so does fear. And that faith believes the right things and fear believes the wrong things, but both believe.

I want to tell you something I said a decade ago in a very, very difficult time and I’ve never believed it more than I do now: “What you know is so much greater than what you don’t know.”

And I want to remind you of what you know. There is a God in heaven who adores you. There’s nothing easier or harder to do than receive His love in your life. Sometimes we feel that we’ve done all the wrong things so we can’t receive His love. Or we feel that we don’t know how to do all the right things to receive that love.

My words may not change your life but if they’ll help you make your own confession, I’m in.

So you say these words for yourself: “I believe You are the God who created me and I believe that You love me now. And whatever I need to say or think to be in that love and stay in it … I’m saying it now. I believe. I receive.”

Thank you for your time.

Bishop Paul Francis Lanier