The enemy of your soul doesn’t care about you. His only interest in you is as a victim. He wants to “steal and kill and destroy,” and a primary way he attempts to do this is by leading you astray. This is how he does it: by making sin look attractive, and obedience seem restrictive. He wants you and me to believe that sin isn’t sin, that sin is worth it, that sin isn’t that serious, and that sin won’t cost too much. Jesus leads our lives to deliver us from sin and deliver to us abundant life now and eternal life later. When He calls us to follow Him in loving obedience, it is not because He’s a tyrant; it’s because He intends to set us free from one.
You Were Made To Be
God didn’t create you primarily so you could make a lot of money, take a lot of trips, have a lot of fun, and indulge in a lot of temporary pleasures. Those things may be a part of your experience, but they are a means to this end: “to let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Today, be mindful of the beautiful calling upon your life: You were made to be an image-bearer. A difference-maker. A Jesus-treasurer. A God-glorifier. A good works doer. That is why you are here … so, go shine your light!
Only What You Do For Him
The enemy wants to rob your life of real meaning. The enemy wants you to live for temporary things. The enemy wants you to waste your life. But if you have given your life to Jesus, nothing you do for Him will ever be in vain; to the contrary, it is only what you do for Him that will matter in eternity. When we put our trust in Jesus, we were created anew in Him for a life of good works which God has planned out and supplies what is necessary to carry out. Remember this today: You were made by Him, for Him and like Him as an image-bearer of God to show and tell the world all about Him through your good works.
Help For Temptation
Everyday there is a tug-of-war for control of 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. Never lose sight of this truth: You are never helpless against temptation as long as there is a throne of grace for you to run to for help.
Real Faith
Faith in Jesus is followed by following Jesus in faith. Saving belief leads us to step off the throne, take off the crown, and let Jesus take over ruling our hearts and lives. We haven’t really put our faith in Jesus if we are indifferent to what He wants and resistant to what He says. That’s not trust. That’s a lack of trust. That’s mistrust. Real faith in Jesus makes us want to give up our sin and self-rule to follow His steps, His ways and His commands (although imperfectly executed) more fully over time. Why? Because we are confident that life His way is better than any other option, and that for eternal life He is the only option.
There Is No Plan B
God certainly works in supernatural ways at times, but He also works at making supernatural changes inside of His people so we who have been touched by His grace and generosity will pay it forward to others. You can’t do everything, but you can do something to make a difference … one need at a time, one person at a time. Therefore, show the world His heart for them by being His hands and feet to them. The church of God, His people, you and me, are His Plan A for blanketing the world with good works and spreading the good news of Jesus everywhere we go. There is no Plan B.
Disobedience By Delay
One thing most of us struggle with is disobedience by delay. That is, we are tempted to wait to do what God has called us to do. 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 to those around us. Lay up treasures in heaven with how you use your time today, because it’s not what you leave behind that matters most. It’s what you forward ahead.
You Are Not Who You Used To Be
Jesus lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death, and rose victoriously from the grave. He did not live, die and rise so we could remain stuck in our sin and struggles as if He did nothing at all. He came to forgive us and free us from: bitterness, selfishness, laziness, unkindness, purposelessness, sadness, fearfulness and all ungodliness so we might walk in newness of life. You can do all things through Him. You are more than a conqueror by Him. You are a new creation in Him. As you live today, do so with a mindful awareness of, confidence in and dependance on the power and presence of Jesus. You aren’t who you used to be, and you don’t have to live like you are.
God Wants Us To Be Happy
God wants us to be happy. When He tells us in the Bible to do, say, correct, believe, feel, think or share something, it is not to take away our happiness, but rather it is to take away the things that are in the way of our full and lasting happiness. We must trust that God is after our happiness, that He knows best how to bring about our happiness, and that what He tells us in the Bible is designed to lead us into happiness. Doing what God tells us is not always easy, popular or instantly gratifying. But it is always for good, always better in the end than sin, and always the best option for making us truly, ultimately, and eternally happy.
The First Step
Taking the four basic steps of the Christian lifestyle (pray, read the Bible, do what God tells you, help others do the same) will produce countless other specific steps of faith. We are to put into practice what we profess to believe as we walk with Jesus through the everyday details and decisions of real life. What step do we take? The next right one in front of us as God leads us in the way He has designed things to work for every part of our private and public lives. He will graciously provide the instruction, desire and power for us to do, say, correct, believe, feel, think or share something that fits with what we are facing. The first step in finding out your next step is to read the Bible.
Steps On The Way Home
Followers of Jesus take steps of faith in our day-by-day “walk” with Him. Wherever He leads, we follow in the same direction, one step at a time. In loving obedience. With humble dependance. For a blessed experience. While there are many places we will go and things we will do, there are four basic steps that every Christian takes from the beginning, and they never stop taking until they follow Jesus all the way home: Pray. Read the Bible. Do what God tells you. Help others do the same. This is how we know, follow, enjoy and share God! Certainly we will take mis-steps along the way; but Jesus will never let us lose our way.
Grace To Fight On
Do you know how often you and I need to confess our sin to God? Every. Single. Day. As Christians, we are in an ongoing war against our sin, and there are daily occasions in which we lose the battle. This spiritual journey we are on is one in which we have not yet been fully delivered from the presence of sin, so we must fight against it and confess our failings when we lose a skirmish. Every step of the way. Every time we pray. Every single day. Ours is a humble and simple cry out for grace: “I did it. I regret doing it. Help me not do it again.” Because Jesus has already secured the final victory over our sin, there is grace for us. Grace that gives us pardon when we lose the fight, and grace that gives us power to fight on.
Trusting Leads To Transformation
If trusting in Jesus is the basis for our hope of eternal life in heaven, then how can we know that we really trust Him? The short answer is: we look for evidences that the trust we have in Him is changing us. Genuine saving belief never leaves you the same. We gradually become less like the world and more like Jesus as we follow Him in faith. Trusting Him leads to ongoing and loving… Repentance, because we believe what He offers is better than what sin offers. Obedience, because we believe His ways are always best. Confidence, because we believe what He has promised us. We believe. We change. That’s how we know.
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.
Fight By Grace
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. 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.
Forgiven And Free
Every person alive disobeys God, but the ways in which we respond to our sin is often in stark contrast with each other. Some people rationalize. Some people repent. As Christians, we have a faith in Jesus that is demonstrated by loving obedience, though imperfectly executed. That means we too will disobey God at times, but because of the love we receive from Him and have for Him, we will admit our sin by seeking His pardon for it and His power to be free from it.
Short #11: Will It Matter?
Here’s a simple, but significant, lens through which life looks radically different than we often see it… will this matter 100 years from now? How we think, feel, speak, act, and react would be wonderfully different if we saw things in light of eternity, and remember that this short life is not all that there is. Our lives would create an everlasting ripple if we could look a century into our future to see the impact of our today. As we live by grace, in dependence upon the presence and power of Jesus, let us give less priority to the things that really don’t matter and more priority to the things that do.
Short #9: Die Ready
Dying ready is not about trying hard to do more and be better so God will accept you into heaven when this life is over. Instead, it’s about trusting in Jesus and the work He has finished on your behalf and, in response, finishing the work that Jesus has entrusted to you. We don’t work for our salvation; we work out our salvation. We don’t pay Him back. We love Him back. With our hope in Him, we journey homeward in loving obedience (though imperfectly executed) knowing that the death we once feared is actually the doorway to full and lasting joy with Him. Death is not the end; it is just the beginning.
Short # 8: Live Fully
Living fully is not about having the most fun, experiencing the greatest pleasure, and doing the biggest good in this world as if this place is all there is. Instead, it’s about the eternal ripple that your life can make when you use it for Jesus. That doesn’t mean you leave happiness and helpfulness behind; it means you find it in a more meaningful way. We are to be faithful witnesses for God in the everyday things of life that we’re already doing on earth (from cookouts to workouts to hangouts) in such a way that we’ll be glad we did when we get to heaven. Enjoy life. Do good. Glorify God.
Short #7: It Is Coming
We don’t like to think about it. We don’t like to talk about it. But death is coming for us all. We may not be certain of the time of its arrival, but the certainty of its arrival is never in doubt. Instead of ignoring, downplaying or fearing it, we should let its reality accomplish two essential and monumental things in our lives: be purposeful to experience life before death, and be prepared to experience life after death. Jesus makes both of these possible when we entrust ourselves to Him. Live fully. Die ready.
