His Wants Become Our Wants
If you do it out of duty, you’ll be resentful. If you do it for attention, you’ll be prideful. If you do it just when it’s convenient, you’ll be neglectful. But… If you do it because of love, you’ll be joyful. Obeying Jesus isn’t a matter of duty, show or convenience; it’s a matter of the heart. Our affection for Him produces our devotion to Him. We don’t say and do the right things because that’s the way we should live, but because that’s the way should love the One who tells us what things are right for us to say and do. May grace continue to change how we feel about Him so that more and more His wants become our wants.
You Are In The Boat Together
Some storms build slowly. Some storms develop quickly. Some storms end quickly. Some storms disappear slowly. But… No matter how great or lasting the storm that arises in your life, Jesus rules in absolute control over when it rages and when it ceases. It doesn’t get in the way of His plan working out; it’s a way of working out His plan. Even storms serve His purposes for good! Listen… If you trust Jesus for eternal life, then trust Him during everyday life. And if the storm doesn’t scare Him, it shouldn’t scare you either. Why not? Because you are in the boat together, and He’s already promised to get you to the other side.
Counting Correctly
Christians should count the various trials in our lives as joy. Not as defeat. Not as pleasant. Not as punishment. Not as meaningless. Not as insignificant. Not as a reason to complain. Not as a lack of God’s care. Trials can be many things, but they cannot be joy-stealers unless we let them. While it may feel like trials are breaking you today, you can be sure that God is building you up through them in ways that are going to be amazingly good in the days to come. Your faith muscle becoming stronger. Your deliverance becoming sooner. Your witness becoming louder. Your homecoming becoming sweeter. Yes, you have hardships; but you also have hope.
The Way To Happiness
It is defined in different ways. It is pursued in different ways. It is measured in different ways. But what happiness has in common no matter how it is defined, pursued and measured is this: every single human being wants it. The message of the world is to “do what you want to do and be who you want to be” and this will make you happy. Only it … Does. Not. Work. The message of Jesus is “do what I want you to do and be who I made you to be.” In doing so, we will experience His joy, and our joy can be full no matter what else is happening in our lives. Want to be happy? His. Way. Works.
Let Us Offer Thanks For His Giving
We can be grateful for many things, and we should be. We can be grateful to many people, and we should be. We can be grateful on many occasions, and we should be. But there is One who makes every good thing, every good person and every good occasion in our lives possible by His abundant and amazing grace. God sent Jesus to be perfect for us because we aren’t, absorb wrath for sin so we don’t, and secure the blessings for us that we can’t. Jesus paid our sin penalty and paid for our special privileges so that we might be forgiven, freed and favored. Today and every day, let us offer thanks for His giving.
The Sweetest Of All Thanksgiving
The sweetest of all thankfulness isn’t superficial; it goes deep. It goes past feeling happy that certain things are in our lives. It goes past naming those things so it is known that we appreciate them. It goes past even tracing their origin back to God and thanking the Giver for all of our blessings. There is a delightful, wonderful, beautiful experience when our gratitude is not merely directed toward God for His gifts, but toward God for Himself. The way to be best thankful for all that God has given us is to be most thankful for Him.
What You Will Discover
What you’ll discover about life with Jesus is this… The better you know Him, the longer you follow Him, and the greater you enjoy Him, the deeper you will experience all the blessings and benefits of God’s grace. He will be honored in you and you will be happy in Him. And that’s what grace is all about. God and sinner reconciled so that… God receives the full and lasting worship He’s always deserved, and you receive the full and lasting happiness you’ve always wanted. It starts now, grows over time, and will extend into eternity where it will explode into unhindered, unbridled, uninterrupted pleasure forevermore.
Following Jesus Is A Journey
Following Jesus is a journey. Where do you go from here? What is your next step? Step one is to welcome Jesus into your life for Who He is: Savior, Provider, Counselor, Leader, King, Treasure. If you have never repented of your sinful life apart from Him and received the life that comes with Him, then by faith ask God for this right now. If you really mean it in your heart, He will give it to you. Step two onward is to grow in grace. Step after step, you let Jesus be Who He is … for you. You seek to know Him, follow Him and enjoy Him, letting His peace, hope and joy rule in your heart as He rules your life for your good.
Has He Started A Good Work In You?
Has God started a good work in you? How can you and I know that we have received God’s grace? There are two really good indicators that your faith in Him is genuine: you have a growing hatred for sin and a growing love for Jesus. You don’t just want to be free from the consequences of sin, but sin itself. You don’t just want to have the blessings of God, but God Himself. There is a desire that begins growing inside of you to experience all that God has for you, in this world and the one to come. You believe in Jesus for the first time, and then you believe in Him more fully over time. We grow. That’s how we know.
Relying On And Resting In Grace
We’re given… New identities. New desires. New lives. New futures. Christians have a faith in Jesus that is demonstrated by loving obedience, though imperfectly executed. That means there is grace to help us get this right, and there is grace to help us when we get this wrong. Our entire spiritual journey is one in which we rely on grace to take steps of faith in living as God intends for us, and in which we rest in that same grace when we take mis-steps knowing that God won’t give up on us. Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith, and we can be sure of this: God will finish what He starts in us.
