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Biblical faith has a responding side and a receiving side. Part of faith is responding in obedience. We trust what God says, we trust He will help us do what He says, and we trust that He will be pleased when we do what He says. Part of faith is receiving what God does for us. We trust what God says, we trust He will do what He says, and we trust that we will be pleased when He does what He says. Real faith includes believing in the promises of God and living out the purposes of God because we trust Him. Today, let us confidently do what God tells us to do because we are confident in what God tells us He will do.

The weights we carry around inside of us come in many shapes and sizes. We face an ongoing onslaught of worry, uncertainty, fear, overwhelm, discontentment, indifference, pressure, grief, unrest, outrage and discouragement. Within these categories are countless daily instances which can let us down, get us down, put us down, shut us down, hold us down and run us down. But… There is a Burden-Bearer we can turn to for help for the stresses and messes of life. Nothing is too intense, too great, or too difficult for Him to replace with peace, hope and rest. Today, cast your cares on Jesus. They aren’t too heavy for Him.

When we remember and rejoice in Jesus’ removal of our own condemnation, we will stop condemning the people around us. For those of us who have received His priceless gift of salvation, there is no condemnation for our sins, though we were rightly deserving of that condemnation. By the lavish grace of God, we are pardoned. Guilty, yet set free. Flawed, yet forgiven. Outsiders, yet welcomed in. Enemies, yet made family. Deserving of hell, yet shown mercy. Wages of death earned, yet eternal life freely given. Instead of condemning others, let us point them to the fountain of grace we ourselves are drinking from.

An evidence that you are a genuine, growing Christian is that you want to be freed from your sin, not just forgiven of it. It’s not just escape from the penalty and consequences of sin that you desire, but escape from the power and control of sin as well. Those who love Jesus will inevitably and increasingly hate their sin. We are not perfect, but we want to be. We will fail, but we wish we wouldn’t. We like some wrong things, but we long for change. Jesus will soon fully deliver us from sin, but until then, let us pray for Him to progressively replace our taste for wrong things with new appetites for the better things He has for us.

No one wants you to be happy more than Jesus does. No one will make you happy more than Jesus can. But Jesus isn’t primarily aiming at making you happy by getting you past a bad time or helping you have a good time. His goal isn’t a happier you because He worked it out so you got the new job, got over the breakup, got through the illness, got to take a vacation or got the result you wanted. Those may be part of His blessings to you, but His main concern is your soul. He is after your happiness in being forgiven and free from the devastating consequences of your sin so you can know every pleasure of knowing God.

God does not send us ill-equipped into battle against the enemy of our soul. Instead, He dresses us in His own armor. In order for us to fight the good fight of faith, we must put on that armor of God … ahead of time, in advance of the skirmish. We put ourselves and others at extreme risk if we wait until the battle begins to ready ourselves for war against sin and evil. The enemy does not allow us to call timeout or grant us a recess to gather our ammunition and put up our shield. This is why we should arm ourselves with a daily dose of God’s instructions, truths, and promises found in God’s Word. Slow down and suit up.

The world says you can get what you want in life if you believe and behave the right way. You just need to be full of… Self-confidence. Self-value. Self-motivation. Self-effort. Self-interest. Self-reliance. In order words, you need to be full of self. But that simply doesn’t work for long, if at all. The Bible says something radically different: that we need to be empty of self and full of Jesus. So, let us ask God to drain us of all that would get in the way of our more fully enjoying all that He has for us. Looking to Jesus to evaluate, encourage, empower and exhilarate us, we will find the happy life we’ve been looking for elsewhere.

Christians aren’t exempt from hurt. No matter what precautions we take to safeguard our lives or how hard we work at being godly people, something will inevitably come uninvited, unannounced, and unwanted into our lives and cause us pain. Yet… Healing will come. Comfort will come. Justice will come. Restoration will come. Deliverance will come. Joy will come. Eternal life will come. This is all true because Jesus has come. Take heart in this: He has come to join us in our suffering; indeed to suffer in our place on the cross so that one day we can enter into a place where there is no suffering at all.

Freedom isn’t just wanting to do something, being in a position to do something, and having the ability to do something. Real freedom is all of those things plus no regrets over what you do. You’re not really free if you have the desire, opportunity and ability to do something that you later wish you hadn’t done. Only Jesus offers this kind of full and forever freedom. He takes away our enslaving sin and all of its pain, and makes a way for us to experience life with God and all of its pleasures. Freedom comes by receiving through faith all that He graciously gives us to enjoy without guilt. Restraint free. Regret free. Really free.

You’re going to get wobbly against temptation. You’re going to stumble in your faith. You’re going to take a fall into sin. And here’s what you’re going to find when you do: Jesus is there with grace. Grace that forgives you for what you have done, and grace that frees you from doing it again. And Jesus will repeat this over and over again for the rest of your life. Now… Don’t mistake this for a license to sin. It’s not a loophole, permission slip or pre-paid ticket to live unrighteously. So, let us both repent and rejoice at this: Jesus took our sin seriously enough to die for it, and He took grace seriously enough to die for us.