If you are trusting Jesus, you are blessed whether you feel like it or not. The Bible doesn’t say you possibly are blessed, probably are blessed or periodically are blessed; it says you ARE blessed.  This is a continual certainty for those who follow Jesus in faith.  There is… No reason to feel shame for your yesterday because you are blessed with His pardon.  No reason to feel discontent with your today because you are blessed with His presence. No reason to feel afraid of your tomorrow because you are blessed with His promises.   His mercy is yours.  His satisfaction is yours.  His kingdom is yours.  All because you are His.

It is wonderful to love.  One of the greatest gifts that God gives us as humans is the capacity to care for things and care about things.  From pizza to people, fireworks to friendships, Chick-Fil-A to conservation, jobs to justice, adventures to Apple, and countless other things, it’s good to give affection and attention to the good things God puts in our lives.  But… Only one love can be supreme.  Only one love can be primary. Only one love can be central.  The love we have for Jesus should be greatest of all.  Let us stir our affections for Him, knowing this:   We will love other things best when we love Jesus most.

We don’t pretend it never happened.  We don’t stay there for long.  We don’t give up because of it.   As we experience godly sorrow in honest ownership of our sin, it should lead to rejoicing in Jesus.  Rejoicing over His forgiving grace.  Rejoicing over His transforming grace.  Rejoicing over His empowering grace.  Yes, we feel genuine regret over our sin because it breaks God’s heart and breaks our lives.  But we quickly remember that the finished work of Jesus makes it possible for us to finish well in our fight against sin.  It’s not that the standard has been lowered for us; it’s that the standard has been met for us.

Don’t waste it.  Don’t misuse it.  Don’t underestimate it.  God has graciously given you a life that is rich with meaning and purpose in this world, at this time, for His kingdom.  Your home life, work life and play life are all a part of His divine plan to make a difference in the lives of the people He has connected you with and entrusted you with.  You were made to shine His light!  The ordinary things of your everyday routine can be done in a way that counts forever.  Today, prayerfully consider what steps of faith He wants you to take in living and loving like Jesus, remembering this:  He can do great things through you.

God has committed Himself to the long-term transformation of making us more like Jesus.  He is acting as both demolition crew and construction crew in us, tearing down those things that don’t belong and building us up in ways that better mirror His image.   He will not stop until the good work in us is done, loving us just as we are, but never content to leave us that way.  We are His beloved unfinished masterpieces, treasured works-in-progress that are always under the skilled brush of God Who graciously and patiently adds His loving strokes to who we are so we can become who we were made to be.

Every single day we are forced to choose sides.  We will either serve Jesus or something else.  We will either prefer Jesus or something else.  We will either trust Jesus or something else.  The enemy of our souls wants us to look away from Jesus, look at substitutes for Jesus, and look for life apart from Jesus.  So, he calls out to us over and over again… Look. Over. Here.  He offers distractions to divide our attention and divide our loyalty so he can divide and conquer us.  Therefore, let us pray every day that God would get our focus where it needs to be so we look past the distractions to Jesus for help on how best to live.

Jesus did it all.  Jesus paid it all.  Jesus conquered it all. We couldn’t live up to God’s standards, so Jesus lived perfectly for us.  We couldn’t break free from sin, so He set us free.  We couldn’t atone for our transgressions, so Jesus died in our place.  We couldn’t defeat death, so He conquered the grave so we too will rise. We couldn’t earn an eternal retirement, so He paid for our inheritance.  We have become rich in salvation, forgiveness, joy, peace, glory, kindness, favor, righteousness, love and hope because of what He accomplished on our behalf.   Every good thing that is ours displays the good news of Jesus.

I wish I could say that my batteries are always charged, my tank is always full, and my engine is always revved up so I can handle well anything that comes my way.  But I cannot.  I often find myself depleted and run down on the inside.  And so do you. When we wonder how we can continue, we don’t need to look to our own inner strength, or our own resources, or our own usual escape.  Instead, we need to look to Jesus and lean on Jesus, because He will recharge our batteries, refill our tanks, and rev up our engines.  Remember… God doesn’t help those who help themselves.  He helps those who cannot help themselves.

Our happiness does not depend upon us getting something we want or getting rid of something we don’t want.The secret to contentment, regardless of what we have and don’t have, what we get to do and don’t get to do, who we are and who we are not, is to expect Jesus to fulfil the longings of our hearts.   When we look to Him for hope, peace, rest, comfort, courage, security, strength, and provision, and trust that He will sustain us and satisfy us in all circumstances, God is honored in us, and we are happy in Him. We can be joyfully content whether we have little or much because we have it all in Jesus.

An ongoing battle that every Christian faces is the one between the person you were before you met Jesus and the one you are now that you have met Him.  Old temptations beckon.  Old habits resurface.  Old desires rekindle.  Old loyalties divide.  Old beliefs hinder. Old memories haunt.  When you feel this tension, remember that you have a new identity, a new life and a new you because you believe in and belong to Jesus! You have been changed, are being changed and will be changed by His transforming grace.  So fight the good fight of faith against sin as you rejoice in this today:  that’s not you anymore.

God is actively working behind-the-scenes for you right now to meet your needs in ways that you don’t see.  You don’t have the answers; God does.  You don’t know the next move; God does.  You can’t see how it will work out; God does.  Everything you really need will really be supplied.  Not maybe.  Not probably.  Definitely.  God will provide for every need.   Not some of them.  Not most of them.  All of them, without exception.  Right when you need it, not a second too late. Today, do the work that God has said is for you to do, and believe that He is doing the work that is not for you to do.

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.

God is worthy to be praised for Who He is, what He has already done for us, and what we are trusting Him to do for us in Christ.  Every good thing that we have in our lives past, present and future is a gift of His grace.  Even the things we think we worked hard to gain for ourselves are made possible by Him, for every ability and opportunity are given to us from Him. Therefore, let us celebrate Him before others and commend Him to others for all that He does for us, and that He delights to do so.  Today… Honor Him for His blessings.  Honor Him by enjoying His blessings as He intends.  Honor Him for being a Blesser.

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.

When we try to make others pay for their sin, we have forgotten that Jesus paid for our sin. As recipients of grace, we are to release our instinct for revenge when others wrong us to let God judge, punish and make all things right in His timing and in His way.  Our role is to model His grace, not His judgment. Even when we must seek appropriate justice, it should be motivated by love, not hatred. So, let us overcome evil with good and leave it to God to do the work He means to do.  We who have received grace should be quickest to extend it, praying that others will turn to Jesus as we ourselves have done.

Our joy will always be at risk if it is dependent upon things that we look to instead of Jesus because we are always at risk of losing them.  The thrill fades away.  The moment is over.  The thing breaks.  The experience disappoints. The person leaves. But Jesus has promised to give us a joy that doesn’t burn out, fade out, check out or sell out so we don’t have to miss out on real and lasting happiness that is only found in Him.  Though every other form of happiness will inevitably leave or forsake us, He never will.  In Jesus, we are offered a joy that can never be taken from us no matter what else is.

Do you believe that Jesus is alive?  Then don’t live as if He’s still dead.  Don’t live as if you are left to your own wisdom, strength and resources to navigate through life.  Don’t live as if this world and its stuff is all there is, and you can’t be happy unless you have more of it.   Don’t live as if your life has no real meaning and purpose, and how you spend your time doesn’t really matter.   Don’t live as if you are a victim of temptation and sin, powerless to stand up to it and resist it and defeat it.  Don’t live as if life is out of control, and you have just cause to worry and fear and dread.  If you believe He’s alive, live like He’s alive!

He Is Risen! We can rejoice and worship for the empty tomb changes everything.  Because the Lamb of God was slain, rose again and the tomb is now empty, we can be forgiven and free forever. If you are trusting Him, you are a new person with a new eternity in your future, and new potential, new purpose, new power, new pleasure in Him for everyday life even now. All because He lives! This is our hope:  Jesus has overcome the world, is with us as we live in the world, provides all that we need in this world, and promises to come back to deliver us from this world. Rejoice! Our lives are full because the tomb is empty.

Wait it out.  Wait and see.  Wait upon the Lord.  Things will break our hearts and leave us in stunned silence. But our God is sovereign, and though the sinfulness of people, the brokenness of this world and the maliciousness of Satan all rise up to seemingly stop God’s work, He makes them bow down and serve His purposes.  Struggles, suffering, sin and Satan will be defeated! Every foe we will ever face will be overturned, overthrown and overcome because Jesus is putting and will put every enemy under His foot in final and forever victory.  Until then, we wait.  But we wait in real hope of better things.