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.

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.

Confusion.  Shock.  Fear.  Uncertainty.  Heartbreak.  Silence.   When they laid the breathless, lifeless body of Jesus in the tomb, it must have seemed like their own breath and life had been drained from them.   Jesus. Was. Dead. And when the stone was rolled into place, it must have looked like their hopes and fate were sealed inside with the One they had pinned their hopes on and trusted their fate to.  They didn’t see it coming and wished they hadn’t seen it at all.  They laid Jesus there.  But He would not lie there for long.  They thought it was the end.  But it was just the beginning.  It was finished.  But it was not over.

The gruesomeness of what Jesus went through should grip us.  This was going to be an ugly, horrific scene that should rightly furrow our brows, sicken our stomachs, and stab our hearts because it was our sin that caused this sacrifice to be needed.  The graciousness of what Jesus went through should also grip us.  This was going to be a beautiful, wonderful act of love that should make our eyes dance, make our faces smile, and make our hearts leap with joy because He was willing to do this for us. Hallelujah! No one goes to heaven except through Him.  And no one would go through Him unless He went to the cross.

Jesus knew what awaited in Jerusalem.  Unimaginable torment.  Unthinkable anguish.  Unspeakable evil.  Unwarranted brutality. Unprecedented suffering.  No one would ever face anything like what Jesus set His face to go to.  He would absorb the wrath of God for our sins to secure the grace of God for our salvation so we could become the people of God for all eternity. He knew the horror of what was coming, but He lovingly and unflinchingly set his face towards it, locked eyeballs with it, and did not back away, back off or back down from it.  The spotless Lamb of God headed for the place of His slaughter for us.

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.  Sin-defeating, life-enabling, heart-transforming, joy-securing resurrection power is ours!  May we have a confidence in and dependance on the power and presence of Jesus today.  We aren’t who we used to be, and we don’t have to live like we are.

The gospel is not a self-help plan; it is a rescue plan.  God does not ask us to fix ourselves in five simple steps, but rather to trust in the one stunning step He took in sending Jesus to fix all that is broken in us. His generosity is breathtaking, His goodness is jaw-dropping and His grace is amazing, for He treated His Son like a sinner on the cross so sinners like you and me could be treated like a son.  The more we are aware of the depths of our sin, the more we will appreciate the depths of His salvation. So… let us marvel at and rejoice in this today: Jesus paid a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay.

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.

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.

Beginning tomorrow morning I’ll be publishing a “short” each day until the end of our Runner Church ministry season in October (instead of the normal weekday devotions).  These “shorts” will usually be a 4-6 sentence “thought for the day.”  This will allow me to focus my time on message prep for our Runner Church gatherings.  Normal weekday devotions will resume at the conclusion of the Runner Church season this Fall.  Please pray for us as we “show and tell” runners what the good news of Jesus is all about.

NOTE:  As time allows, I’ll post some lengthier content too.  This just won’t be on a regular schedule.

Hey there, finishers!  Jimmy here.  I’m away for a two week sabbatical with Paula and will not post weekday devotions here again until we return.

Until then, check out my shorter daily posts on our Facebook page at https://www.Facebook.com/FinishLineFaith/

And keep an eye out on your inbox for my next 3 devotions on April 2-4 (Easter Weekend).

Your prayers are appreciated as we step away for a couple of weeks to get refreshed for our upcoming Runner Church season.

And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. – Matthew 2:11

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What does Jesus want for Christmas? It’s not our begrudging submission, reluctant giving, half-hearted worship, indifferent service, or lukewarm affection.  These may be costly gifts, but they do not shine, and they are not sweet-smelling to our King.  No, what Jesus wants is our happiness.  Not our happiness in possessions, achievements, circumstances, people, or experiences that we often look to in order to find, but never find, contentment. He wants us to love, value and care about Him so much that it floods our hearts with real and deep and lasting joy.  After all, Jesus is honored in us when we are happy in Him, which is why living for Him should always flow out of loving Him.  What He wants most for Christmas is for us to get what we most want for Christmas because, whether we realize it or not, that’s Him. The search is over for what to give Jesus; it’s our contentment in Him.  The search is over for where to find our contentment; it’s given to us in Jesus. The greatest gift we can give Jesus is to receive His gift of joy that comes in really knowing and delighting in Him.   Therefore, let us prize Him and prefer Him and pursue Him over all other things.  Because He doesn’t just want our treasure; He wants to be our treasure.