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Things Unseen: One Year of Reflections on the Christian Life
Looking out at the world today, it can be easy for Christians to lose heart. The Apostle Paul evidently felt the same way. His remedy was to teach us not to focus on the things that are seen but on the things that are unseen. “For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). Every day, we must reorient our thoughts around the unchanging truth of who He is and who we are in Him.
In this yearlong devotional, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson brings his signature warmth and wisdom to daily meditations on the Christian life. Each week’s reflections follow a theme to help Christians look to the Lord and live by faith.
In this yearlong devotional, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson brings his signature warmth and wisdom to daily meditations on the Christian life. Each week’s reflections follow a theme to help Christians look to the Lord and live by faith.
570 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 10, 2024
121 people are currently reading
90 people want to read
About the author
Sinclair B. Ferguson
218 books559 followersSinclair B. Ferguson is Associate Preacher at St Peter's Free Church in Dundee and also Distinguished Visiting Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was Senior Minister of First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, South Carolina and prior to that, he was minister of St. George's-Tron Church in Glasgow.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 9, 2025
This book is based on the popular Things Unseen daily devotional podcast that respected theologian Sinclair Ferguson produced with Ligonier in 2023. The book contains all 260 episodes edited from the spoken to the written form. The book has 52 topics, one for every week of the year, and follows each theme through from Monday to Friday. Each of the short readings can be completed in just a few minutes each weekday. I used this book as a part of my daily devotional readings in 2025.
Here are 30 helpful quotes from the book:
• When we deny God, we lose our identity as His image bearers. We no longer know who we are.
• One of the greatest blessings of being a Christian is that, contrary to the people around you, you know who you are, and you know what you are made for.
• Faithfulness isn’t really faithfulness unless it’s faithfulness in everything. Being faithful in the big things doesn’t minimize the importance of being faithful in the small things.
• Transformation takes place by the renewal of the mind, and the renewal of the mind takes place through the truth of Scripture.
• Faithfulness means being consistent, reliable, trustworthy, and dependable.
• Only the Spirit of the Lord Jesus can make us like Jesus and produce in us the fruit of the Spirit. And when He does that, our lives become like trees that are bearing fruit and blossoming wonderfully.
• This is perhaps the single most important thing for us to remember: God’s law is given in the context of God’s grace.
• An idol is just about anything or anyone that we think about more often than we think about God—anything that stimulates our affections more than God does.
• If the name of the Lord has been put on you in baptism, then the rest of your life should be one in which you give yourself entirely to the Lord, whose name has been placed upon you.
• The Sabbath commandment isn’t just about keeping or guarding the Sabbath; it’s about living a healthy, balanced life all week long.
• Always honor your parents, no matter what age you are. And when you are young, that means obeying them as a way of pleasing the Lord and blessing them.
• Our security doesn’t lie in ourselves. It doesn’t even lie in what God has done in us, wonderful though that is. It lies in Jesus and His intercession for us.
• It’s a great thing for Christians to know that we are all made in the image of God and that we’re called to reflect Him and to live for His glory according to His Word.
• Sometimes Satan uses the best gifts God has given us to draw us away from God Himself.
• The marvelous truth of the gospel is that God the Father loves us, Jesus Christ has acted to save us, and His Spirit is sent to bring us to Himself.
• The whole Christian life is a process of souls that have been sinfully bent out of shape being bent back into shape by grace. That can be a painful process, but it’s gloriously worth it.
• The Christian life is not only about knowing but about being. It’s not merely about what we know but about what we become because of what we know.
• Baptism points us to what Christ has done. But many of us tend to think that baptism points to us and to our faith. But in fact it is a sign of God’s gospel promise. It points us to Christ and to the way in which God’s promises are all fulfilled in Him.
• You see, we not only need the finished work of Christ for us on Calvary; we need the ongoing work of Christ interceding for us in heaven.
• If I’m a believer, I am “in Christ”—that is my identity. I’m no longer a citizen of the kingdom where sin reigns both over me and in me. I’m a member of a new kingdom. I have a new family, a new citizenship, a new identity altogether.
• An indicative is a statement of fact, such as “God loves you.” An imperative is a statement of command, such as “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.”
• When we understand the biblical teaching on the supper, we realize that it’s a visible dramatization of the message of the gospel. The broken bread portrays Christ’s body, sacrificed on the cross for us. The poured-out wine portrays His blood, shed for the forgiveness of our sins.
• The pattern is unvarying: God saves His people, and then He calls them to live in a way that pleases Him. He makes His covenant with us and binds Himself to us, and then He summons us to live in a way that conforms to His wonderful grace. And as we do so, we enter into His promised blessings.
• Here’s the truly wonderful thing about the gospel: when we believe into Jesus Christ, we, too, are fully and finally justified. From the moment you trusted in Christ, you were as justified as He now is—as completely, permanently, irreversibly, eternally justified as the Savior because you’re justified with His righteousness and His justification.
• When we breathe our last, we will be able to say to those whom we love in Christ: “I go gently into this good night to be with Christ. I love you, and I will see you in the morning.”
• God’s judgment will result in glory and honor for those who are His but wrath and fury for those who have rejected Him.
• We know that Jesus will come, but how will He come? The central answer is this: He’ll come gloriously.
• If we’re going to enjoy Christmas in the midst of all the busyness, it’s only the expulsive power of a new affection for Christ that is going to help us. Then we’ll see other things in their proper place.
• We don’t get God’s grace by what we try to do. It’s God’s grace that transforms all we do.
• It’s only when we come to recognize our own spiritual bankruptcy and entrust ourselves to Him as our Savior and embrace Him in all His saving sufficiency that our life begins to change.
Here are 30 helpful quotes from the book:
• When we deny God, we lose our identity as His image bearers. We no longer know who we are.
• One of the greatest blessings of being a Christian is that, contrary to the people around you, you know who you are, and you know what you are made for.
• Faithfulness isn’t really faithfulness unless it’s faithfulness in everything. Being faithful in the big things doesn’t minimize the importance of being faithful in the small things.
• Transformation takes place by the renewal of the mind, and the renewal of the mind takes place through the truth of Scripture.
• Faithfulness means being consistent, reliable, trustworthy, and dependable.
• Only the Spirit of the Lord Jesus can make us like Jesus and produce in us the fruit of the Spirit. And when He does that, our lives become like trees that are bearing fruit and blossoming wonderfully.
• This is perhaps the single most important thing for us to remember: God’s law is given in the context of God’s grace.
• An idol is just about anything or anyone that we think about more often than we think about God—anything that stimulates our affections more than God does.
• If the name of the Lord has been put on you in baptism, then the rest of your life should be one in which you give yourself entirely to the Lord, whose name has been placed upon you.
• The Sabbath commandment isn’t just about keeping or guarding the Sabbath; it’s about living a healthy, balanced life all week long.
• Always honor your parents, no matter what age you are. And when you are young, that means obeying them as a way of pleasing the Lord and blessing them.
• Our security doesn’t lie in ourselves. It doesn’t even lie in what God has done in us, wonderful though that is. It lies in Jesus and His intercession for us.
• It’s a great thing for Christians to know that we are all made in the image of God and that we’re called to reflect Him and to live for His glory according to His Word.
• Sometimes Satan uses the best gifts God has given us to draw us away from God Himself.
• The marvelous truth of the gospel is that God the Father loves us, Jesus Christ has acted to save us, and His Spirit is sent to bring us to Himself.
• The whole Christian life is a process of souls that have been sinfully bent out of shape being bent back into shape by grace. That can be a painful process, but it’s gloriously worth it.
• The Christian life is not only about knowing but about being. It’s not merely about what we know but about what we become because of what we know.
• Baptism points us to what Christ has done. But many of us tend to think that baptism points to us and to our faith. But in fact it is a sign of God’s gospel promise. It points us to Christ and to the way in which God’s promises are all fulfilled in Him.
• You see, we not only need the finished work of Christ for us on Calvary; we need the ongoing work of Christ interceding for us in heaven.
• If I’m a believer, I am “in Christ”—that is my identity. I’m no longer a citizen of the kingdom where sin reigns both over me and in me. I’m a member of a new kingdom. I have a new family, a new citizenship, a new identity altogether.
• An indicative is a statement of fact, such as “God loves you.” An imperative is a statement of command, such as “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.”
• When we understand the biblical teaching on the supper, we realize that it’s a visible dramatization of the message of the gospel. The broken bread portrays Christ’s body, sacrificed on the cross for us. The poured-out wine portrays His blood, shed for the forgiveness of our sins.
• The pattern is unvarying: God saves His people, and then He calls them to live in a way that pleases Him. He makes His covenant with us and binds Himself to us, and then He summons us to live in a way that conforms to His wonderful grace. And as we do so, we enter into His promised blessings.
• Here’s the truly wonderful thing about the gospel: when we believe into Jesus Christ, we, too, are fully and finally justified. From the moment you trusted in Christ, you were as justified as He now is—as completely, permanently, irreversibly, eternally justified as the Savior because you’re justified with His righteousness and His justification.
• When we breathe our last, we will be able to say to those whom we love in Christ: “I go gently into this good night to be with Christ. I love you, and I will see you in the morning.”
• God’s judgment will result in glory and honor for those who are His but wrath and fury for those who have rejected Him.
• We know that Jesus will come, but how will He come? The central answer is this: He’ll come gloriously.
• If we’re going to enjoy Christmas in the midst of all the busyness, it’s only the expulsive power of a new affection for Christ that is going to help us. Then we’ll see other things in their proper place.
• We don’t get God’s grace by what we try to do. It’s God’s grace that transforms all we do.
• It’s only when we come to recognize our own spiritual bankruptcy and entrust ourselves to Him as our Savior and embrace Him in all His saving sufficiency that our life begins to change.
October 30, 2025
Ferguson sums up the book in his last devotional: "Over the past year, we've thought about biblical and doctrinal themes, pastoral themes, and personal themes." Then he directs our attention to 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, reminding us that it is the things unseen that are eternal. Five readings a week to take the reader through the year. Pastoral, encouraging, challenging. Highly recommended.
December 24, 2025
Light in the Darkness
The only thing that overshadows Dr. Ferguson’s knowledge of and clear exposition of Scripture and Christian doctrine is his love for the Lord and all the Lord’s people. So grateful for this man and his ministry.
The only thing that overshadows Dr. Ferguson’s knowledge of and clear exposition of Scripture and Christian doctrine is his love for the Lord and all the Lord’s people. So grateful for this man and his ministry.
August 8, 2025
Some good thoughts.
August 9, 2025
Christ-focussed. Worshipful.
December 27, 2025
Renewed day by day.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews