Being in a loving relationship with Jesus brings both gracious privileges and glorious responsibilities.  On one hand, we are given endless blessings that will carry on throughout eternity. On the other hand, we are given important assignments to be carried out until completion.  While it may seem like the privileges are more desirable than the responsibilities, this should not be so.  Our assigned tasks are opportunities to proclaim, serve, please, model and glorify the One Who saves us by His grace. When we do the good things that Jesus has planned for us, we do them unto Him.   That, in itself, is a privilege.

Darkness isn’t just the time between dusk and dawn; it’s also any time you are facing the unknown.  This is especially true of those seasons of suffering when the light at the end of your tunnel is nowhere to be seen.  It is during those times that you must not give up hope.  For even on those dark days when you can’t see what is up next, what step to take next or how anything good will come next, hope remains. Jesus is still there and Jesus still cares! Ask Him to give you the faith and inner strength that is needed to endure. And though the outer darkness may yet linger, the Son will rise and shine His light in your heart.

Our motive.  Our mission.  We need to communicate these two things to others when we show them love through the way we treat them.  First, we need to let them know that the good we do for them comes from appreciation for what God has done for us and anticipation of what God will do for us.  It is from the overflow of what we get from Him that we give to others.  Second, we need to let them know that we do good works because a good God has commissioned us to go in His Name to share His love with others.  Let us credit Him by telling people this… God has done good to me.  God has sent me to do good to you.

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.   How?  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 are greatly influenced by the people you invite into your life.  You start to act and speak and think and live and become like them.  The question is:  are you becoming more like Jesus by becoming more like them?  It is important that we carefully choose who we allow to get close enough to us to begin to change us.  While we should love and serve people who are far from God, we should not take our cues for how to live from them.  Instead, we imitate those who are imitating Jesus.  As much as possible, surround yourself with people who exemplify Him and encourage you to become more like Him.

Admit it, some days are a blur.  We wake up and it’s a nonstop rush throughout the day to not fall behind.  You know what the cure is for being overwhelmed, worried and frustrated about the many things on our schedules?  Making the right choice to spend unhurried, undistracted time with Jesus today so He can refresh us, reorient us and ready us for what He knows is coming next. It’s the most important part of our day, and it should have the most intentional part of our schedule, because it’s the most influential part of our lives.  We’re not too busy to spend time with Him; we’re too busy not to spend time with Him.

Do you know how God works through your life to change someone else’s life?  The everyday moments of life.   Don’t think there is no value in the chaos of your life.  Don’t believe that your normal life isn’t anything special. Don’t accept the lie that what you do and how you do it doesn’t matter.  Don’t give up when your efforts seem fruitless and unappreciated.  Don’t be silent about communicating the love of God in both your words and actions.  Moment by moment you can bear the Father’s heart, bear witness to Jesus, and bear the fruit of the Spirit. Every moment counts when you live it to point people to God.

The gospel emboldens us to not draw back when others push back against our countercultural loyalty to God and His ways.  Because Jesus has overcome sin, Satan and death, we can have courage; the kind of courage that does not shrink back from saying and doing the right things no matter what people might think of us, what might happen to us, and what it might cost us if we remain faithful to Jesus.  Our courage and encouragement are based on this truth:  Jesus has overcome all the tribulations, troubles, trials, tests, and temptations of this world!  And… He is for us.  He is with us.  He is coming to get us.

One word that defines every genuine Christian is this:  perseverance.  That is, those who are heaven-bound keep going until they get there.  Grace will make sure that they do! He who has called us is faithful to keep us! So… If you find that serving Jesus feels fruitless or pointless, keep serving.  If you find yourself fighting back discouragement and fighting for joy, keep fighting.  If you find yourself tempted to give in to the world and its ways, keep resisting.  There will be many moments that you fail and fall, but don’t despair.  Trust in Jesus and trust in this: He will pick you up and power you on… so you can keep going.

Following Jesus means leaving some places, people, and pursuits behind to go wherever Jesus leads us, to do whatever Jesus says to us when we get there. It also means being faithful in the season, situation and spot He has already led us, to do whatever He brought us here to do.  Sometimes this faith journey will require us to go to hard places, have hard conversations, do hard things, endure hard circumstances and deal with hard people.  But Jesus will be with us every step of the way to make a way for us to take every step.  Be encouraged!  He never said it would be easy; He only said it would be worth it.

You are not someone else; someone else is not you.  God has ordained that each of His children be equipped with gifts, abilities, opportunities and resources to fulfil a specific purpose in a specific place to a specific people.  Some are more visible and more vast than others, but all are important. To avoid falling into the trap of comparison as we seek to live out the plans Jesus has for us in His kingdom, it is important for us to remember that the measurement of godly stewardship is not fruitfulness, but faithfulness.  It is not the size of your platform that is most important; it is what you do with what you have been given.

God never freaks out.  There is never panic in heaven.  Things never start to unravel in such a way that even a single situation in all of the universe is beyond His sovereign rule.  Even the evil things done by His enemies to His people will be turned around to serve His purposes. No matter what we face today, let us remember that what happens in our lives is not ultimately decided by chance or luck, humans or demons, Satan or self, but rather there is a good, wise, powerful, loving King who reigns over all for the good of all those who trust Him.  Things are often out of our control, but they are never out of His.

It’s a fact.  It’s a certainty.  It’s a promise.  God will provide for your every need.  But He often won’t do this in the way you think He will. Instead, He will astonish you with a “didn’t see that coming” choice of the 81^st way you might have thought He’d come through for you.  It may come through a shepherd boy instead of a warrior, an ark instead of fair weather, a few fish instead of ample supplies, a manger instead of a throne.  But it will come exactly when it is needed to accomplish exactly what is needed.  Today, expect God to work in your life for good.  Just don’t expect Him to do it like you think He will.

How much authority does the Bible have in your life?  How is it shaping the way you see the world, the way you see polarizing issues, and the way you see yourself?  How fully and frequently do you rely on it as the final say in how you live?  The Bible isn’t an out-of-date, out-of-order, out-of-touch book with no real relevance for us today.  It is God’s Word that still speaks today telling us what is good and bad, right and wrong, true and false, beautiful and ugly, necessary and frivolous, wise and foolish.  God intends for us to seek it out and live it out as the ultimate authority for the Christian life.  Indeed, it is where life is found.

God wants you to be great.  But… It’s not about size.  It’s not about strength.  It’s not about superiority. It’s not about success.  At least, not in the ways that the world calculates those things.  In the world we live in, the more people who serve you, the greater you are.  In the kingdom of God, the greater you are, the more people you serve.  God intends for your greatness to be in ways that are radically different than the world’s standards, for He measures greatness in the cross of Jesus Christ and in every act of His children that expresses that same kind of servant love towards those in need of it.  By grace, be great today.

There are days when our faith falters, but Jesus does not abandon us.  There are days when we feel like giving up, but Jesus does not let us. There are days when we are too overwhelmed to carry on, but Jesus does not move on without us.   Jesus came from heaven to earth to make a way for sinners like you and me to go from earth to heaven.  And every step we take together is assured because of His willingness and faithfulness to do the Father’s will:  namely, to keep us until the end of this life and raise us up at the beginning of the next. We will remain faithful to Him because He remains faithful to us.