The more confident we are in God’s love, mercy, and faithfulness, the more we will turn to Him for help instead of looking elsewhere for it. And we will find that help, for His mercies are always lovingly and faithfully delivered anew each morning. New because each day has new needs. New because today’s needs are different than those from yesterday. New because we are never to enter any day thinking we don’t need God. New because they testify of God’s steadfast love and great faithfulness day after day. New because our daily walk is to be one of faith. New because their day-by-day presence re-centers and re-stirs our hearts to grateful worship. Whatever happens today, we can be assured that God’s custom-tailored, need-meeting, heart-stirring, joy-producing, Jesus-glorifying mercies will be there to save the day. That doesn’t mean it will always be without problems, pain and pandemonium. Sometimes you’ll arrive at the end of the day a little broken and beaten up. But what will help get you through the day is remembering that God will get you through the day!
Jesus Forgives Our Sin And Frees Us From It
Jesus died not just to forgive our sin, but also to free us from it. The amazing grace He lavishes upon is both pardon from sin and power not to sin. We can let go of the old life and latch hold of the new. New identity, new purpose, new beliefs, new hopes, new dreams, new motives, new joy, new freedom, new eternity, new life and new power to live it is ours because of Jesus. When we settle in our hearts and minds that everything is better with Him, because of Him, for Him, and in Him, we will no longer settle for the things that are not from Him. How do you resist the pull of the old life? Remember all that is yours in the new life.
There Is A Good Reason For Your Suffering
We are tempted to wonder why “bad things happen to good people” and why “good things happen to bad people,” but the gospel does not operate on the basis of merits and demerits for producing “deserved” circumstances in the lives of God’s people. Oftentimes evil and agony are permitted, such as in the crucifixion of Jesus, because God’s gracious and glorious and good purposes are served. He does not always give us a reason for the long and difficult road of suffering, but He will always give us His loving care and go with us so we do not travel it alone. God has a good reason for and a good result from the suffering in our lives. In the end, the suffering of this world is not worth comparing to the glory of the one to come.
What I Pray About When I Pray
What do you typically pray about? Be honest: 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 “let this cup of suffering pass from me” 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. He’s the God of both the hills and valleys, and I have His promise that Jesus will be with me to guide, strengthen and encourage in the ups and downs of life. So, I talk to Him. Not in order to secure what I need to build my own kingdom, but to request what I need to live for His. Prayer involves seeking what we need to do what God wants. Pray for God’s grace to do God’s will. There will be a thousand times more joy for you in doing things His way instead of demanding your own.
With Faith All Things Are Made Possible
There is often a tension between belief and doubt when things become difficult. The mountain seems too high. The path seems too rough. The situation seems too overwhelming. The outlook seems too bleak. The task seems too great. What we need to remember is this: if we believe in a small God, our problems will always seem big. If we believe in a big God, our problems will always seem small. It would be plausible to lose hope and lose heart when facing things that are too much for us to handle if we were forced to handle them alone. But Jesus has promised to never leave us alone, always supplying the grace we need for the needs we face. The more we trust in Him, the more we will rely on Him to take the next steps into the unexpected, uncertain and unpleasant difficulties of this broken world. He will work it out for good as we work out His purposes for us. With faith all things are not made easy. With faith all things are made possible.
Making War Instead Of Making Excuses
Every person alive disobeys God, but the ways in which we respond to our sin is often in stark contrast with each other. Some people rationalize. Some people repent. As Christians, we have a faith in Jesus that is demonstrated by loving obedience, though imperfectly executed. That means we too will disobey God at times, but because of the love we receive from Him and have for Him, we will admit our sin by seeking His pardon for it and His power to be free from it. People who love Jesus repent by making war against their sin instead of making excuses for it. Therefore, let us strive for holy living while resting in the grace of God, remembering and rejoicing over this truth: what Jesus has done for us on the cross is sufficient to both cleanse and correct our transgressions.
The Mountain Reminds Us To Depend On God
We were not made to be self-reliant, self-sustaining or self-sovereigns. God created us to be dependent upon His gracious care and provision, turning to Him and trusting in Him, moment by moment for what we need for what we face. Our wisdom and willpower are inadequate for handling life, but His is infinite, and it is readily available to those who have put their faith in Jesus. Don’t try to make it on your own. You were never meant to. Whenever there is a mountain of little stuff piled up a mile high, or one big mile high mountain, that is too big for you to climb, perhaps God put it there as a gracious and loving reminder for you to depend on Him.
You Do Not Need To Pretend With God
We all keep secrets. There is not a human being on the face of the earth who fully discloses every thought, feeling, motive, desire, and attitude to others. The relationships we are involved in are to some degree built on us holding back some things about us. Not so in our relationship with God. We cannot hide ourselves from Him; nor do we have to. The One who matters the most, knows us most and loves us most. He also has committed Himself to the long-term transformation of making us more like Jesus. What comfort, what relief, what joy is ours that with God we do not have to pretend to be something we are not, because God is making us into what we are not yet. And there is absolutely no risk that He will walk away from those of us who have been gloriously saved into His family because of our faith in Jesus. For when He looks upon you and me, though He sees everything about us, what He sees most is a beloved son or daughter.
Your Story With Jesus Has Just Begun
Suffering will be a part of your earthly experience, but so will God’s sustaining grace in greater measure. You will never walk through the valleys alone, for Jesus, the suffering servant, is always with you. While things will often not turn out the way that you hoped for, God is actively working things out in your life for good and will graciously provide everything you need until you have no more needs. Be assured of this: there may be many unexpected and unpleasant plot twists, but God has written a beautiful story for you. And your story has just begun. It will unfold forever with Him in heaven where every chapter is better than the one before.
God Judged Jesus In Our Place
The tendency to harshly criticize others while liberally exonerating ourselves will only be eliminated by a proper response to grace. This comes from a God-given true understanding of our own need for spiritual healing and correction for our imperfections. Having then recognized that we ourselves are far from perfect and desperately flawed, we can rejoice in this stunning reality: God judged Jesus in our place. Only when we focus on Jesus’ removal of our condemnation will we ever be able to stop condemning the people around us. When you find that you are focused on and frustrated with the faults of others, remember that your life is riddled with faults too … yet you are loved, accepted, forgiven and helped by Jesus to make changes. From the overflow of grace given to you, extend it to others like you.
God Doesn’t Need Us, But People Do
God doesn’t need us to do anything for Him as if He could ever be deficient in some area that we could supply for Him. But our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, teammates, and complete strangers do need us to do for them. Not because God is failing to meet their needs, and we should make up for His oversight or indifference, but rather because in His loving providence, He has sent us to bring His aid to them. God puts us in places where needy people are right in front of us so we can be like Jesus to them by offering a helping hand, a guiding word, and a loving embrace. His hands. His words. His love. Delivered through us.
Will It Matter 100 Years From Now?
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. Our motives and attitudes would change for the better if we remembered that this short life is not all that there is. And our very lives would create an everlasting ripple if we could look a century into our future to see the impact of our today. 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.
Helping Others Take Their Next Step With Jesus
God has divinely positioned you so that your life intersects with others for the purpose of helping them take the next step in their spiritual journey. You have access and influence and opportunity to shape the lives of the people you know for everyday and eternal good as God works through you. One of the greatest aims of your life should be that the people in your life grow in their relationship with Jesus because of their relationship with you.
Make The Right Choice To Spend Time With Jesus
Admit it, some days are a blur. We wake up, and over the coming hours, it’s a nonstop rush to not fall behind. The remedy for busy, frantic lives is not to speed up, but to slow down. The thing that will most help us with what we face each day is to simply spend time with Jesus getting recharged so we can be prepared for what lies ahead and refocused so we can prioritize the things that matter most. That’s the most important part of our day, and it should have the most intentional part of our schedule because it’s the most influential part of our lives. You know what the cure is for being overwhelmed, worried and frustrated about the many things on your schedule? Making the right choice to spend time with Jesus today.
God Puts Us On The Right Path
While delays, detours and dead-ends can bring about disappointment and frustration, they may be God’s way of blocking us from something He doesn’t mean for us to do or have. What we need to realize is this: when God says “No” to our plans, He is saying “Yes” to something that is far better for us and others who are involved. Many costly mistakes are avoided and many wonderful blessings are gained when He steps in to order our steps. When God graciously reroutes our lives, it is always to put us on the right path.
Jesus Will Always Speak The Truth In Love To Us
What power and courage and hope and peace is ours because of the voice of truth sounding forth from Jesus! But we will not hear these life-giving, chain-breaking, hope-inspiring, course-correcting, God-honoring, truth-telling, joy-producing words if we neglect the Word of God. While He does speak through His Spirit, circumstances and other people, He speaks loudest and clearest in the Bible. We must repent of basing our lives on man’s truth, making up our own unbiblical truths, and neglecting the truth of the Scriptures. Instead, let us strive to read the Bible more frequently, understand it more fittingly, believe it more fully, and live it out more faithfully. Those who listen to it will hear the sweet voice of Jesus bring words fit for the occasion, giving grace to those who hear. We can always count on what He says to be true for us and good for us.
Accept No Cheap Substitutes For Jesus
Every day we are offered cheap substitutes for God and His way of living. They promise us a great deal on getting a better life apart from Him … you can get comfort in food, peace by running from your problems, security in your bank account, self-worth by achievement, guidance via a self-help manual, rest through a weekend getaway, and happiness in whatever makes you feel good for the moment. Yet none of those things lead to full and lasting satisfaction. While they certainly satisfy for a moment, they are never enough. They always leave us wanting something more or something different. But here’s the good news: God has already richly supplied us with every possible blessing in Jesus to satisfy our souls. In moments when we feel our hearts craving better lives than the ones we are experiencing, remember that the source of such a life is found in Jesus. Look to Him for comfort, peace, security, self-worth, guidance, rest and happiness and you will always be satisfied. He is in you. He is with you. He is for you.
Setting Your Mind On Jesus
Every waking hour something has captured the attention of our minds. We never stop thinking. We are constantly entertaining new thoughts, pausing at times to dwell on some of them. These thoughts have the power to shape how we believe and behave, for better or for worse, so we must let our minds land most often on Jesus. The more we think about Him, the more it will rewire how we think about ourselves and others. It will change our perspective on how we interpret our circumstances. It will cause us to reprioritize what matters most so we don’t waste our time on lesser things. It will stir up a healthy fear and trembling before God because of the sin in our lives and thus bring about repentance. It will produce greater joy, peace, comfort, security, strength, hope, and contentment as we rest in what we have come to know about who God is and what God does. We think about everything. Setting our minds on Jesus will change how we think about everything.
If We Knew All That God Knows
For those who are trusting in Jesus, God is always doing much more in us, for us, around us, and through us than we are aware of. All we see is the show, but He is working behind the scenes. All we see is the ship, but He is working beneath the surface. He is precise. He is punctual. He is providential. There is nothing that happens unless it serves His purposes. We don’t have to make sense out of everything that is going on or that we are going through; but we do need to trust that God is tirelessly at work in ways that would make sense if we knew all that He knows.
Removing Things In The Way Of Our Happiness
When we attempt to live as sovereigns over our own little kingdoms, striving to fill them up with all the things we think will make us happy, we will discover that real happiness is elusive, and lasting happiness is impossible. Why? Because frustration and futility are hard-wired into every attempt by God’s people to find soul-satisfaction in something other than Him. He alone knows best how to give us fulfilling lives (far better than anything we can find elsewhere), and when we prioritize pursuing Him, His ways, His kingdom and His plans, He will give us all that is necessary for our full and lasting happiness in Jesus and will remove the things that are in the way of it.
