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Gospel change is not the result of simply trying harder to do better the next time we face temptation. Fighting against our personal shortcomings and sins is never enough to consistently win the battle and prevail in the end. We must, by God’s grace, fight for something better that is offered to us than what the temptation offers to us. A better way. A better delight. A better outcome. Our inside-out transformation is not just a fight against something; it’s a fight for something. It’s a fight for the guilt-free, longer-lasting, fuller option. Let us resist temptation by embracing and enjoying all that God offers to us in Jesus.

Who you were. What you do. Where you’re from. Where you’re going. What you believe. Who you are. Every Christian has a story to tell, and each one is important and worth telling when Jesus is rightly portrayed as the Hero of it. Your narrative is unique, and you will unfold it in bits and pieces in everyday conversations with the people in your life. As you do, be sure to point them to the Author of your story Who is the Source of every good thing you have in your life and all that you hope for in the one to come. Tell your story. Tell His story. People need to know what you know … that they need to know Jesus.

If you know a tornado is headed for me, I don’t want you to disregard, downplay, deceive, or delay in telling me about the danger of my situation or my inaction. I want the truth. I need the truth. I may not like the truth, but my life depends upon you telling me the truth. As Christians we should be… Lovers of truth. Guardians of truth. Speakers of truth. Receivers of truth. But we shouldn’t be manufacturers of our own truth. God has ordained that we communicate the truths of His word and His world to each other so that we can be set free from sinful self-destruction and find our way to safety in Him. Truth matters.

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 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 desired. It starts now, grows over time, and will extend into eternity where it will explode into unhindered, unbridled, uninterrupted pleasure forevermore.

Many people see the commands of Christ as “restrictive rules” that are keeping the good stuff out of our lives instead of seeing them as “gracious guardrails” that are keeping our lives out of the gutter. He is our Good Shepherd Who protects us, provides for us, empowers us, refreshes us, delights us, guides us and delivers us safely to our eternal home in heaven. How? We hear His voice (the words of the Bible with all of its instructions, truths and promises made clear to us by the Holy Spirit) calling us into His care, and by faith we do as He says. He leads. We follow. That’s it. He takes care of us by taking care of all the rest.

The things of this world were not designed to bring you full and lasting satisfaction; that’s why they never do. They leave you longing for something more, something different, something better. You’ll look for it your entire life in people, places, pursuits and possessions, but you’ll only find it in Jesus. He doesn’t offer to get us that new job, new spouse, new vacation, new baby, new home, new personal best, new recognition, new bill of health, or new thing that we think will make us happy. He offers to give us Himself. Our satisfaction depends not on us having the things of this world, but on us having Him.

There is an infinite difference between… Who we were and who we are. What we were and what we are. We were sinners who were infinitely separated from God with no hope of avoiding the coming judgment and wrath for our sin. But God demonstrated His infinite love for us by sending Jesus to shower infinite grace upon us through His perfect life, sacrificial death and victorious resurrection. By faith, we are now infinitely forgiven through Him, infinitely connected to Him, infinitely secure in Him, and infinitely blessed by Him! So… Let us use our lips and our lives to give Him what He deserves: infinite praise.

Today, when that temptation is offered, that relationship blows up, that meeting goes wrong, that diagnosis is grim, that pleasure is available, that problem shows up, that plan falls through, and that thing happens … you will believe something to be true. Instead of believing sin’s promises that you have been abandoned by God, or you should accept a substitute for God, believe the promises of God. Place your full weight on God’s Word, for it is the only solid ground in a world full of cleverly-disguised sinking sand. If He says it, you can believe it. And if you can believe it, you can experience its life-giving assurances.

One thing most of us struggle with is disobedience by delay. That is, we wait to do what God has called and equipped us to do. We wait until a more convenient time, thinking we have plenty of time, but more often than not, we will run out of time. For most of us, God doesn’t mean for us to wait until some future day to serve Him by going out in a million-dollar blaze of glory, but rather He wants us to give ourselves to Him in daily nickels and dimes of service. By grace, lay up treasures in heaven with how you use your time today. It’s not what you leave behind that matters most. It’s what you forward ahead.

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. 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. And when we can’t see it with our eyes, let us believe it in our hearts. That’s what faith is for.