People who love Jesus repent by making war against their sin instead of making excuses for it. Because His pardon is given to us, and His power is with us, and His presence is in us, we can be honest about our sin, and we can be victorious over it. We have been forgiven. We are free. We can be faithful. Therefore, let us strive for holy living while resting in the grace of God, remembering and rejoicing over this truth: what Jesus has done for us on the cross is sufficient to both cleanse and correct our transgressions. Because of grace we don’t give up in our fight against our sinfulness; by grace we get up and fight on.
Jesus Is Our Security
Jesus is our security… He laid down His life on the cross so we can be forgiven and freed from the one thing that can truly threaten us, our sin. He rose from the dead to defeat the one thing that we could never safeguard against, our mortality. He sits in the position of power and authority to rule for good the one thing that we struggle to control, our lives. He prepares for us a place and an inheritance to be enjoyed forever by ensuring the one thing that we cannot, our eternity. He promises to provide all we need until He brings us safely to the one thing in our future that we long for most, our home with Him.
Do You Believe In Jesus In That Way?
Know this: everyone is a believer. There is no one who is not a believer. We all believe in something. Even to disbelieve in one thing is to believe in another. All of life’s desires, decisions, and deeds flow from one of two basic beliefs: we believe that we need Jesus, or we believe that we do not need Him. Want to know what you believe in? Look at your life. You will pin your hopes upon your beliefs, devote your time and resources to your beliefs, look for happiness in your beliefs, find your sense of well-being in your beliefs, and stake your life on your beliefs. The question is: do you believe in Jesus in that way?
Conviction And Celebration
Christians should know two feelings better than anyone else: conviction and celebration. We must never lose sight of this: our sin is great. We must never lose hope in this: our Savior is greater. A right response to our unfolding transformation as we follow Jesus in faith is the ongoing rhythm of repenting of our sin and rejoicing in our salvation. We were guilty, yet acquitted. We were undeserving, yet rewarded. We were trapped, yet freed. May we know the humbling, exalting experience of knowing both our sinfulness and our Savior. Let us be glad in this: Our sin may have begun our story, but the grace of God will end it.
Jesus Will Change Us When We Ask Him
People often reject the gospel because they would rather rely on good advice for what they need to do rather than receive good news about what Jesus will do for them. Humans love self-help strategies that promise you can fix yourself until they inevitably find that these strategies don’t actually help self. Well-meaning sayings like toughen up, lighten up, buck up and cheer up are just a set up that make us want to give up. Real, lasting change will only come when we ask God to begin and complete His good work in us so we can live by His power. He’s ready, willing and able to do it if we’ll stop trying to do it ourselves.
God Shows His Love For Us
Day after day He says it. Day after day He shows it. God lets us know He loves us in countless ways if we will listen and look for it. Sometimes it sounds like a plea for repentance or a call to faith or an invitation to serve or a warning of danger or a word of encouragement. Sometimes it looks like a timely-met need or a quiet moment to rest or a special time with loved ones or a normal day with food, clothing and shelter. But most verbally and visibly… It sounds like “A Savior is born,” “It is finished,” and “He is risen.” It looks like a manger, a cross and an empty tomb. God speaks and shows His love best through Jesus.
Not I, But Christ In Me
There is nothing that I have which was not given to me. Everything about who I am and what I do that is good is a gift from God at work in me, for me and through me. Every ability I possess. Every resource I use. Every opportunity I take. Every person I serve. Every task I complete. I am what I am by the grace of God. I do what I do by the grace of God. It is the provision and power and presence of Jesus with me that makes everything possible. Here is the one thing I know to be true, the one thing I count on every single day, the one thing I will say about any good that comes from my life: Not I, but Christ in me.
Battling Unbelief
There are days when our biggest battle is against unbelief. We start to doubt that God cares about what is happening to us and that He is going to do anything about it. To battle unbelief, we must remember God’s faithfulness in the past and remember God’s promises for the future. He has always taken care of us, He is taking care of us, and He will continue to take care of us. Defeat your doubts by remembering today that He has a good reason for what He has allowed into your life and that He is actively working it out for your good. God cares about what is happening to you, and God will show His care for you.
Freedom From Something And To Something
Freedom is always from something and to something else. If you are trusting in Jesus, He has set you free from a life of shame, regret, joylessness, emptiness, addictions, fear, pride, doubt, lusts, sin and eternal death at the end. And He has set you free to a life of honor, joy, contentment, victory, humility, security, faith, peace, hope, love and eternal life at the end. You are free from sin’s cruel rule to be happy in Jesus now and forever! To experience His freedom, simply abide in His words, depend upon His Spirit and feel His presence with you. Today, don’t live as if you are still in chains. You have been set free.
Small Things And Big Things
The world wants us to make small things big and big things small. It wants small fears to rule our hearts, petty disagreements to sabotage our relationships, and trivial matters to dominate our schedules. It wants the seriousness of sin to be downplayed, the importance of living for eternity to be minimized, and the amazing availability and role of God’s grace in our everyday lives to be underestimated. But, praise God, we don’t have to live like that! Jesus has redeemed us from a life of smallness and sinfulness so we can live for bigger and better things. Today, by grace, let us keep big things big and small things small.
Two Kinds Of Help
There are two basic kinds of help. First, there is help for things I can do without you. Second, there is help for things I cannot do without you. I can lift a cumbersome box by myself, but your help would make it easier. I cannot lift a couch by myself, so your help would make it possible. As branches to the vine, we only receive the second kind of help from Jesus. He helps us do things that we could not do apart from Him (John 15:5): bear fruit, do good, live rightly, have faith, glorify God, persevere, experience His joy, everything. His help doesn’t just make these things easier. His help makes these things possible.
Help For Doing What Is Right
So often we don’t know what is right to do, haven’t got the desire to do what we know, and can’t do what we know and want to do that is right. We need a power from outside of us to come inside of us so we can live in such a way that God is honored and we are happy. That is exactly what God gives us: the powerful Holy Spirit living in each of us who trust in Jesus. He guides us on the way. He encourages us on the way. He helps us on the way. The Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to go to good places to do good things as we share good news about a good God. Ask Him to help you decide, desire and do what is right today.
Jesus Will Come Through For Us And Come For Us
As we trust Jesus to come through for us, we will be filled with peace when we’re running low, renewed with spiritual energy when we’re running out, helped through difficulty when we’re running down, and kept steadfast when we feel like running away. This is our hope in Jesus: the best is yet to come. Let us believe it, expect it, anticipate it and await it to come true. Let us watch for the daily doses of His grace to appear when we need them. And let us regard the eternal pleasure of heaven with Him as something wonderful on the calendar that is certain to come at the appointed time. Because it is. Because it will.
You Are Never Helpless Against Temptation
Every day there is a tug-of-war for your thoughts, feelings, motives, attitudes, words and actions, pulling you in the opposing directions of what sin entices you into and what God invites you into. Look to Jesus for help and look for His help to arrive as a way to leave the temptation, the power to say “no” to the temptation, a divine removal of the temptation, the arrival of someone to help you through the temptation, and / or a promise of something worth waiting for that is better than the temptation. Rejoice! You are never helpless against temptation for there is a throne of grace you can run to for help.
When God Says No
There is much I love about my heavenly Father. One thing is this: He doesn’t just let me do anything I want to do. He knows that there are many things I want to do which are not good for me or for other people. So, instead of letting me live selfishly, He removes some things from me in order to replace them with better things. His plans for my plans. His ways for my ways. His outcomes for my outcomes. The result isn’t that I experience less, but that I experience more. More peace. More joy. More hope. More purpose. Remember, when God says “No,” to something, He is saying “Yes” to something better.
When Reading The Bible
When reading the Bible, if you don’t experience both conviction and celebration, you’re not reading it correctly. On one hand, we should not ignore the places where God’s words challenge and correct the way we are living if we are disobedient to His commands. On the other hand, we should not isolate the places where God issues His commands so all we have is a list of “dos and don’ts.” A proper reading and understanding of the Bible should equip us to joyfully do as God intends and encourage us with all that Jesus has done, is doing and will do for us. His doing makes our doing possible and makes it worth it.
What We Hear, What God Says
We often hear one thing when God is saying another thing. We hear, “You can’t do that or have that or be that.” God is saying, “That is not good for you.” We hear, “You must do this or have this or be this.” God is saying, “This is good for you.” What we interpret as a restrictive rule, God intends to be a gracious guardrail. While we may think His commands are something that will rob us of joy, He is actually saying them because He knows they will safeguard our joy. Therefore, let us trust Him as we listen to Him. Remember, even when we hear God saying something we don’t like, He is actually saying, “I love you.”
Grace For Believers Who Live Differently Than We D …
We should never approve or applaud someone else’s sin. But we should also be a lot more gracious with other believers who live differently than we do. It can be helpful to remember that every one of us who is following Jesus does so at varying paces and is at varying places in that journey with Him. Not everyone will… Understand things like we do. Interpret things like we do. Practice things like we do. Rather than criticize others because they aren’t carbon copies of us, let us cheer on others to continue growing in the likeness of Jesus. None of us are as mature as we will be; but we’re also not as messy as we used to be.
If It’s Good, It’s From God
Pride includes thinking and acting and speaking as if self is the source of everything good about who you are, what you have and what you do. Humility includes the opposite. It recognizes that we would be nothing good, have nothing good and do nothing good apart from the grace of God. We can know whether we are prideful or humble by whether we take credit ourselves or give it to God, take charge ourselves or trust in God, and take care of ourselves or rely on God. Today, let us humbly and joyfully praise Him for all that is good about ourselves and our lives, remembering this: If it’s good, it’s from God.
Jesus Is Ready, Willing And Able
We need help every single day to wisely and safely and joyfully and productively keep going in life. And we will have every single day’s worth of help that we need to keep going in life because we have Jesus! He is gracious, so He is ready to help us. He is loving, so He is willing to help us. He is mighty, so He is able to help us. Ready. Willing. Able. His grace means we don’t have to earn His help, His love means we don’t have to pry His help, and His might means we don’t have to doubt His help. Be confident and courageous today knowing that no matter what comes your way, the help of Jesus is on the way.
