Trying Or Trusting
If you hope to go to heaven when you die, you are basing that hope on one of two things: trying or trusting. You may be trying to be a good person or trying to practice a religion. Neither of those things will get you into heaven because it’s your sin that separates you from God and keeps you from entering His presence. No amount of trying hard to do good and right things will remove that sin and replace it with righteousness. The Christian faith is not about trusting in our own good works or even trusting that Jesus died for us plus our good works; it is about trusting that Jesus lived and died for us. Jesus + Nothing = Everything. We pin our hopes on this: He exchanged His perfect life for our imperfect ones.
There Is An Order To Love
Love both sums up all of God’s commandments and gives us the motivation to obey them. But only when we love rightly. All the sins of all the people in all the world are the result of loving wrongly. Augustine described sin as “disordered love.” He noted that for our loves to be in proper order we should not… Love what it is wrong to love. Fail to love what should be loved. Love too much what should be loved less. Love too little what should be loved more. There is an order to love. We are to love God above people. Love people above things. And love things in such a way that they help us to better love God and love people.
Not Done Shining Yet
God will bring you through 100% of your dark days until He brings you home. He will not forget you a single moment. He will not forsake you a single time. He will not fail you a single day. Will it always be easy? No. Will it always be comfortable? No. Will it always be the way you want it? No. But it will always be under the careful, calculated and compassionate rule of a Father Who loves you and has a purpose for you. You are alive and breathing today because God made it so; God made it so because you were made to be a light in this dark world (Matthew 5:14-16), and you are not done shining yet.
Our Hope Is In This
Our hope is not in who sits in the Oval Office, but in Who sits on the throne in heaven. Our hope is not in who governs us on earth, but in Who reigns and rules over the entire universe. Our hope is not in what laws are passed, but in the One Who has written His law of love on our hearts. While politics, parties, programs and policies do have an impact upon our lives and our country, and we should take these things seriously, the optimism we have for everyday and eternal well-being does not rise and fall on one of us, but on Jesus, Who is God with us. This is where we pin our hope: Jesus governs our lives.
Your Prayer Life
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.
With Faith
There is often a tension between belief and doubt when things become difficult. 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 during 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.
God Is Worthy
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.
Real Peace
You will never experience real peace until you rest in God’s grace. Anything else results in some version of regret for your past, pressure to measure up in the present, or worry about what might happen to you in the future. Peace is elusive when we look to ourselves to make things right because there is always this ever-present feeling that we are not doing enough. Indeed, we cannot do enough. Nor do we need to, for Jesus has done it all. Resting in God’s grace means trusting that Jesus forgives, Jesus frees and Jesus is faithful to provide. Herein is peace found: I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
An Honored God And Happy People (Part 1)
It’s a question that most of us ask at some point in our lives as we consider the purpose of our lives: why am I here? There is this hard-wired desire in each us to know the reason we were born and remain alive on this earth. You may state the conclusion differently than I do, but the words of my personal mission statement offer the basic meaning for why God gets us up each morning: “I exist to know Jesus and make Him known so that God is honored in us and we are happy in Him.” Starting with ourselves and spreading to our circles of influence, we are after one ultimate objective: an honored God and happy people.
Storms Never Have The Final Word
The clouds roll in like never before. The lightning flashes and the thunder roars. The wind blows and the rain pours. Chance of storm: 100%. Something bad is brewing. But, if you love Jesus, you can be sure that the hardships you experience are going to serve the high purposes of God. Chance of good from the storm: 100%. For Christians… Suffering is never pointless. Struggles are never without blessing. Storms never have the final word. Therefore, let us endure hardships in hope while we wait for Him to finish His good work, knowing it will be worth it in the end and someday He will bring all suffering to an end.
