We don’t pretend it never happened.  We don’t stay there for long.  We don’t give up because of it.   As we experience godly sorrow in honest ownership of our sin, it should lead to rejoicing in Jesus.  Rejoicing over His forgiving grace.  Rejoicing over His transforming grace.  Rejoicing over His empowering grace.  Yes, we feel genuine regret over our sin because it breaks God’s heart and breaks our lives.  But we quickly remember that the finished work of Jesus makes it possible for us to finish well in our fight against sin.  It’s not that the standard has been lowered for us; it’s that the standard has been met for us.

Don’t waste it.  Don’t misuse it.  Don’t underestimate it.  God has graciously given you a life that is rich with meaning and purpose in this world, at this time, for His kingdom.  Your home life, work life and play life are all a part of His divine plan to make a difference in the lives of the people He has connected you with and entrusted you with.  You were made to shine His light!  The ordinary things of your everyday routine can be done in a way that counts forever.  Today, prayerfully consider what steps of faith He wants you to take in living and loving like Jesus, remembering this:  He can do great things through you.

God has committed Himself to the long-term transformation of making us more like Jesus.  He is acting as both demolition crew and construction crew in us, tearing down those things that don’t belong and building us up in ways that better mirror His image.   He will not stop until the good work in us is done, loving us just as we are, but never content to leave us that way.  We are His beloved unfinished masterpieces, treasured works-in-progress that are always under the skilled brush of God Who graciously and patiently adds His loving strokes to who we are so we can become who we were made to be.

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.

Imperfect words.  Imperfect actions.  Imperfect thoughts.  Imperfect attitudes.  Imperfect motives.  Even though we are not who we used to be, we are also not yet who we will become.  We are imperfect people.  That doesn’t mean we should be indifferent to our sin-produced flaws or complacent in our grace-driven effort to overcome them.   We should work hard to act like Jesus on the outside while God works to make us more like Jesus on the inside.  But we do this secure in His love, safe in His mercy and strengthened by His power.  Today, let us strive for holy living while relying on and resting in His grace.

Someone once said that God doesn’t care how many Bible verses we memorize as long as we love others.  But the Bible is where we find our definition for what love is and our demonstration of what love does.  Knowing what God has to say about love keeps us from forming our own opinions about what is right and wrong about how we feel and treat other people.  It also reminds us of His steadfast love for us despite our faults, flaws and failures.  This helps us be loving towards others who, like us, are in need of grace. God cares that we know the Bible because that’s how He prepares us to care for others.

Birds fly.  Flowers bloom. Honey sweetens. Water dampens. Light illuminates.  It’s automatic and appropriate that they do these things because that’s how they were made.  This is their nature and design, and it is right to expect them to act in a certain way just as it is right to expect saving faith in Jesus to work itself out in love.  It is normal.  It is natural.  When God’s grace remakes us into people of faith, the new love we have for God will burst forth in acts of love for others.  We can’t help but love.  We can’t stop loving.  We will live this out imperfectly, but this is for sure:  A faith that saves is a faith that loves.

One of the enemy’s biggest lies is convincing us to live as if this life is all there is.  He wants us to prioritize and pursue things that won’t matter for long over things that will matter forever. But everything looks different when you look past the temporary to eternity.   This place isn’t our home; we’re heading home.  This life won’t last forever; the next life will.  This treasure trove will fade away; the ones laid up in heaven have an everlasting shine.  Yes, let us enjoy our time on earth and the things of earth as God means for us to do.  But, even more, let us think, feel, speak and act as people who have set their sights on eternity.

God has not blessed us with time just so we can use it binge-watching Netflix.  He has not blessed us with money just so we can spend it on more comforts.  He has not blessed us with abilities and skills just so we can serve our own interests and passions.  The generosity of God has been extended to us with blessings of time, talent and treasure that we might both enjoy them ourselves and extend them to bless others. Those of us who are trusting in Jesus have been entrusted with showing the world His heart for them by being His hands and feet and mouth to them.  You have been blessed; now go be a blessing.

The paths will divide.  The objectives will conflict.  The plans will differ.  The desires will compete.  The advice will disagree.  We will often find ourselves having to choose sides for who we will listen to, go with and live to the satisfaction of … God or people.  We simply cannot be and do what will make Him happy and others happy at the same time, all the time.  Rather than compromising to satisfy the crowd, let us show others the better path, the better objective, the better plan, the better desire and the better advice found in the good news of Jesus.  Today, by grace, let us prioritize pleasing God over pleasing people.

He doesn’t need advice.  He doesn’t need instructions.  He doesn’t need guidance.  God rules and reigns over every location and situation in the universe with absolute certainty.  You will not find Him getting confused, getting caught off guard or getting into a place where He second guesses Himself.  He always knows what to do, how to do it, and when to do it in order to accomplish the goal of His purpose and the good of His people.  This is the One we turn to and trust in!  When we struggle to make sense of our lives, let us remember:  Even if we don’t know what it is, God always knows exactly what He’s doing.