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Every single day we are forced to choose sides. We will either serve Jesus or something else. We will either prefer Jesus or something else. We will either trust Jesus or something else. The enemy of our souls wants us to look away from Jesus, look at substitutes for Jesus, and look for life apart from Jesus. So, he calls out to us over and over again… Look. Over. Here. He offers distractions to divide our attention and divide our loyalty so he can divide and conquer us. Therefore, let us pray every day that God would get our focus where it needs to be so we look past the distractions to Jesus for help on how best to live.

Our happiness does not depend upon us getting something we want or getting rid of something we don’t want. The secret to contentment, regardless of what we have and don’t have, what we get to do and don’t get to do, who we are and who we are not, is to expect Jesus to fulfil the longings of our hearts. When we look to Him for hope, peace, rest, comfort, courage, security, strength, and provision, and trust that He will sustain us and satisfy us in all circumstances, God is honored in us, and we are happy in Him. We can be joyfully content whether we have little or much because we have it all in Jesus.

An ongoing battle that every Christian faces is the one between the person you were before you met Jesus and the one you are now that you have met Him. Old temptations beckon. Old habits resurface. Old desires rekindle. Old loyalties divide. Old beliefs hinder. Old memories haunt. When you feel this tension, remember that you have a new identity, a new life and a new you because you believe in and belong to Jesus! You have been changed, are being changed and will be changed by His transforming grace. So fight the good fight of faith against sin as you rejoice in this today: that’s not you anymore.

God is actively working behind-the-scenes for you right now to meet your needs in ways that you don’t see. You don’t have the answers; God does. You don’t know the next move; God does. You can’t see how it will work out; God does. Everything you really need will really be supplied. Not maybe. Not probably. Definitely. God will provide for every need. Not some of them. Not most of them. All of them, without exception. Right when you need it, not a second too late. You can be sure of this! Today, do the work that God has said is for you to do, and believe that He is doing the work that is not for you to do.

Is your prayer life more about getting God to do your will or you to do His? I’ll be the first to admit that it’s much easier for me to pray about my preferences, priorities and plans than it is to say to my Heavenly Father, “nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.” Yet, there is nothing so freeing and fulfilling than to be right where God means for me to be doing right what God means for me to do. Prayer involves many things, but the most important thing is to request what we need to live for His Kingdom, not to secure what we need to build our own. Today, ask God to give what you need, to do what He wants.

God is worthy to be praised for Who He is, what He has already done for us, and what we are trusting Him to do for us in Christ. Every good thing that we have in our lives past, present and future is a gift of His grace. Even the things we think we worked hard to gain for ourselves are made possible by Him, for every ability and opportunity are given to us from Him. Therefore, let us celebrate Him before others and commend Him to others for all that He does for us, and that He delights to do so. Today… Honor Him for His blessings. Honor Him by enjoying His blessings as He intends. Honor Him for being a Blesser.

Here’s a simple, but significant, lens through which life looks radically different than we often see it… will this matter 100 years from now? How we think, feel, speak, act, and react would be wonderfully different if we saw things in light of eternity, and remember that this short life is not all that there is. Our lives would create an everlasting ripple if we could look a century into our future to see the impact of our today. Today can count forever! As we live by grace, in dependence upon the presence and power of Jesus, let us give less priority to the things that really don’t matter and more priority to the things that do.

When we try to make others pay for their sin, we have forgotten that Jesus paid for our sin. As recipients of grace, we are to release our instinct for revenge when others wrong us to let God judge, punish and make all things right in His timing and in His way. Our role is to model His grace, not His judgment. Even when we must seek appropriate justice, it should be motivated by love, not hatred. So, let us overcome evil with good and leave it to God to do the work He means to do. We who have received grace should be quickest to extend it, praying that others will turn to Jesus as we ourselves have done.

Our joy will always be at risk if it is dependent upon things that we look to instead of Jesus because we are always at risk of losing them. The thrill fades away. The moment is over. The thing breaks. The experience disappoints. The person leaves. But Jesus has promised to give us a joy that doesn’t burn out, fade out, check out or sell out so we don’t have to miss out on real and lasting happiness that is only found in Him. Though every other form of happiness will inevitably leave or forsake us, He never will. Praise the Lord! In Jesus, we are offered a joy that can never be taken from us no matter what else is.

Bad circumstances, bad people and bad news make me want it. The more I survey the landscape of the sinfulness and brokenness we are all a part of, I look forward to our eternal heavenly home that Jesus is preparing for us so we can be with Him forever. A place where there will be no more sorrow, suffering or sin. A place where bad things will be eliminated, good things will be perfected and the best things will be unveiled. Our citizenship is in heaven, and God has put a longing in us for our homeland. When it’s hard here, let’s take heart and remember: He is preparing a place for us, and preparing us for a place.