Tag: Savior

The 7 Promises of God that Make Up the Foundation of Our Faith

Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

God’s Word contains literally thousands of promises waiting to be claimed by faith. Everyone of them are fulfilled in Jesus Christ and everyone of them can be fulfilled in our lives as we come into agreement with Our Savior.

Each of the promises of God are meant for our good. All of His promises are waiting for us to discover and claim in His Holy Word. Each promise, as we find them, delights us and strengthens us. Yet within the thousands of promises in God’s Word, the seven promises below could be given consideration as the basis for our faith in the hope and assurance that is ours in Jesus Christ.

  • God has promised to supply every need we have. Philippians 4:19
  • God has promised that His grace is sufficient for us. 2 Corinthians 12:9
  • God has promised that His children will not be overtaken with temptation. 1 Corinthians 10:13
  • God has promised us victory over sin and death. 1 Corinthians 15:56-57
  • God has promised that all things work together for good to those who love and serve Him faithfully. Romans 8:28
  • God has promised that those who believe in Jesus and are baptized will be saved. Mark 16:16
  • God has promised His people eternal life. John 10:28

As we cling to Our Savior, all of the promises of heaven pour out on us. We then become living vessels created to deliver on the promises of Almighty God.

Let us use what God has given us to contribute to the Body of Christ. Let us receive from the Body of Christ what God has prepared for us. Let us live in the fullness of all that has been set aside for us through Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that all of Your promises to us have been secured by Your Son, Jesus. We ask that the Holy Spirit may inspire us to search Your Holy Word for all the promises that have been set aside for us. We seek to wield the power of these promises in our lives and in the lives of those around us. May the Holy Spirit show us how to claim our eternal privileges by proclaiming Your Holy Word. May the Body of Christ be truly alive because we are alive in Christ. We ask all these things in the name of the Word of God, Jesus Christ.

Choosing to Serve God According to His Will and Purposes for Our Lives

Psalm 101:2
I will be careful to lead a blameless life– when will you come to me? I will conduct the affairs of my house with a blameless heart.

In Psalm 101, David is proclaiming his desire to lead a blameless life and to lead his family in a blameless lifestyle. As Christians, we all try to do what David proclaimed. We plan to be in church whenever the doors are open, we plan to study the Bible daily, we plan to pray more often and we plan to love our neighbors, co-workers, strangers and even our enemies. We plan to have our families follow our good example. Yet we fail just as David failed. At best, we can usually claim limited success.

David sought God passionately, yet he often failed. Because of His love for David, God stood by David and saw to it that His perfect will and plan for David’s life was fulfilled. God loves us with the same perfect love that He had for David. If we seek Him passionately as David did, Our Father in heaven will see to it that His perfect will and plan for our lives is fulfilled just as David’s was. In accordance with His Word in 2 Corinthians 12, He promises to provide us with a way to overcome the frailty and sinfulness of our flesh. “My grace is sufficient. My strength is perfected in your weakness.” When we accept Jesus as Our Savior, the promises of the Father are assured.

Unfortunately, our flesh will continually torment us. Moment by moment as our flesh confronts us, we will also be attacked by the enemy. To maintain a blameless heart, we will have to seek and rely on our promised shelter.

Let us choose to submit to the will of Jesus in our lives. Let us learn to ignore the desires of our flesh. Let us strive to have a blameless heart. Let us be determined to seek and receive the perfect gift of grace that has been promised to provide our victory.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of grace that allows us to overcome the torments of our flesh. We rejoice in knowing that the Holy Spirit remains with us always to provide the strength we need to overcome the attacks of the enemy. As we make our choices in life, Father, we pray that our allegiance is always to You. We pray that we do not waver a moment as we choose to serve You in accordance with Your will and purpose for our lives. We ask all these things in the name of the Great Rock in a Weary Land, Jesus Christ.

Sanctification is a Process that Requires Patience

James 1:4
And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

We have all, whether a parent or not, probably had the opportunity to instruct young children. We likely recognized the need to stay right near them as they learned the new teaching. It was also likely that we had to encourage them and console them each time they fell short of completely grasping the instruction. We may have needed to bring to their attention the errors of their ways and remind them of the proper process. We persevered with them time and again, rejoicing in each moment of progress, until they had mastered the new instruction. The process required our patience and the patience of the child. We never considered ultimate failure. We always had faith that in the end the numerous trials would be worth the effort.

Thank the Lord for His salvation promise to complete every good work that He starts in us. He will let nothing in our lives escape His attention. He will steadfastly stand by us even as we stumble over and over. He will pick us up as many times as we fall, even though He knows that we will never get it completely right on this earth. He will continue to show us the error in our ways and point out the path that He has set aside for us. He will continue to pick us up until that glorious day when we stand before Him in the image of His Son and He welcomes us into heaven as good and faithful servants.

Let us learn to be patient with the process of sanctification. Let us find joy in the constant grace that Our Father extends to us during each of our trials. Let us prepare ourselves for the perfection in glory that is coming.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, blessed be the name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. Thank You for His steadfast work in our lives. We pray that we will be quick to see the error in our ways and be even quicker to respond to Your correction. May we completely surrender our lives to the perfect ways of Your Son. As we rise and fall in our frailty, may we rejoice in knowing that Your presence is always with us and You will not leave us before Your perfecting work is done. We ask all these things in the name of our Sure Foundation, Jesus

Patterning Our Lives after Jesus

1 Corinthians 11:1
Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

In Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, he exhorted them to pattern their lives after Jesus Christ. Paul understood that obedience to a creed simply takes us to a proper and higher level of lifestyle. Accepting Jesus Christ as Our Savior and patterning our lives after Him will move us toward a level of perfection, holiness and purity that only He could attain and we can begin to approach through Him.

In truth, it is not good enough to be good. It is not good enough to do great works. The only thing that we can do that is of any eternal value is to submit our lives to Jesus Christ as Our Savior, to die of self and to take on the spirit of the One who dwells within us. Anything less than full submission to Our Lord and Master and anything less than becoming imitators of Jesus Christ as His disciples leaves us short of being true Christians.

What is the goal then? The goal is to imitate Jesus Christ in our daily lives. What is the challenge? The challenge is that we are incapable of achieving our goal without the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives. What is the answer then? The answer is to surrender all that we are and all that we have and all that we will ever be and all that we will ever have to Our Lord and Savior. Then we must turn to the Holy Spirit daily to guide us and strengthen us as the natural man within us refuses to surrender. Finally, we should rejoice and praise God for He has provided the unchanging, unfailing way, the truth and the life that will allow us to fulfill our stated goal.

Let us yoke ourselves to Our Redeemer. Let us yield to Him as He guides us on our path of sanctification. Let us surrender to Him as He prepares us to stand in righteousness before the Father for all eternity.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing the Word to become flesh so that we could see the standard to which we are all called. May we stand before You one day in the image of Your Son, washed clean by His blood and perfected by His presence within us. Father God, we pray that the Holy Spirit will teach us how to become true disciples of Jesus as we spend our time on earth preparing for the glorious day of coming into Your presence. We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Most High God.

The Smallest of Sins is Great Enough to Separate Us from God

Matthew 5:26
Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

In Matthew’s gospel, we are taught that when we have a debt that needs to be paid that we should try to reconcile with the one to whom we owe the debt. We will always end up suffering the consequences of the unresolved debt if we do not try to come to terms with our creditor. We should try to come to terms with the creditor prior to going before the judge. This passage is generally regarded as a teaching about how to handle conflict concerning civil matters.

The same perspective can very easily be applied to sin in our lives. It was necessary for Jesus to redeem us from our sin debt for there is not a space in heaven where the slightest sin is allowed. While our entire sin debt has been paid by Our Savior, it remains our responsibility to come to terms with and repent of all the sin in our lives. We must confess and ask forgiveness for every act for which we deserve to be accused and judged before the Throne of God.

As new Christians, we likely found it relatively easy to identify and turn away from the obvious and grievous sin in our lives. It is probable, however, that as we matured in Christ that the Holy Spirit began revealing to us undetected areas in our lives that held the last parcels of sin debt. These may seem to be the smallest of sins, but they are certainly great enough to separate us from Almighty God. Thus, the Holy Spirit is relentless in bringing to light sins that may have been lingering below the surface in the form of such things as anger, jealousy, gossip, greed, etc.

Be certain that this painful revealing process will continue with us until we breath our last breath. Thank God that He has provided His Holy Spirit to bring us to complete repentance for the sin debt that Our Savior has paid in full for us.

Let us call on the Holy Spirit to inspect us, to enlighten us of any speck of iniquity which remains in us. Let us turn away from all that the Holy Spirit reveals that is dark in our lives. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to give us the strength to overcome the continuing solicitations of the world and the attacks of the enemy. Let us seek to remove the last parcels of sin from our lives.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Your Son to spare us from our sin debt. We thank You for Your mercy as You see us struggle against sin in our lives. We thank You for Your grace as You provide Your Holy Spirit to aid us in departing from our errant ways. May Your countenance shine upon as we turn away from our old lives and learn to live according to Your kingdom principles here on earth. We ask all these things in the name of Our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

Darkness Will Never Again Touch Us

Colossians 1:13
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son

Sin is our nature. It never leaves our flesh. It keeps us in darkness from which there is no escape. Without Jesus Christ in our lives, we are easy prey for Satan who stands ready to exploit the power of sin in our lives at a moment’s notice.

But our merciful Heavenly Father made it part of His plan to give us the light and the power that we need to escape the darkness. He provided a way for us to be bond servants to His Son and not to be slaves to Satan. Through our relationship with His Crucified Son, we are rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of God. We receive true spiritual light as Christ is revealed to us, causing the prince of darkness to flee from us and the scales of darkness and blindness to fall from our eyes.

Our only refuge from sin is Jesus Christ. By faith in Our Savior we are redeemed at the expense of His shed blood. We are forgiven of our sins so that we may become objects of the Father’s love and delight, just as His Son is.

Let us rejoice in knowing that we have been transferred into the kingdom of the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. Let us seek to become beacons of His light for the world around us. Let us humbly accept our roles as vessels of His light so that He may draw others from the darkness into His eternal light.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing a way for us to be freed from our sinful natures. We thank You, Jesus, for giving us victory over sin through Your shed blood and death on the Cross. We thank You, Holy Spirit, for standing with us and strengthening us to overcome the sin in our lives. We pray that we will come to the humble place where we recognize that we are incapable of victory over sin without the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives. We rejoice in knowing that one day we will stand in the light for all eternity and darkness will never again touch us. We pray that we may become beacons of light for the world around us. We ask all these things in the name of the Great Light, Jesus Christ.

The Only Path That Fulfills God’s Plan for Our Salvation

Mark 14:34
And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.”

Through Jesus, we receive the exchanged life of joy for the old life of sin and its miserable consequences. Jesus paid a great price for our redemption. He suffered physically, mentally and emotionally to go to the Cross for us. He knew in advance the bodily torments, the agonizing death and the inconceivable burden of the weight of the sins of all men that He would suffer. To secure our redemption, He chose the only path that fulfilled God’s plan for our salvation.

As Jesus approached His time of great suffering, He was very sorrowful. He was feeling the full agony of knowing that He would be taking on the burden of all sin. His suffering was so great that He took Peter, James and John with Him to stand by Him in prayer as He prayed for strength in His most awful time of distress. Three times He left the apostles to pray. Each time He asked them to remain and watch. Each time He found them asleep when He returned. The apostles in their weakness were not able to provide Jesus with the support that He requested as He prepared to take on His Cross. But even though the apostles left Jesus to take on the Cross alone, Jesus was given the strength that He needed by the Holy Spirit.

Ultimately, we must choose to take up the Cross of Jesus Christ. We must choose the way of Christ or the way of sin. This is an impossible decision for us to make on our own. Just like the apostles, our flesh is too weak. But like Jesus, we have the power and the strength that we need to overcome sin because the Holy Spirit stands by us and prepares our hearts to take our victory over sin.

Let us strive to live the joyous life of holiness. Let us be watchful and persistent in fending off the oppressive life of sin. Let us seek the Holy Spirit to stand by us and strengthen us as we walk on our paths of sanctification.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus, to die for our sins. We praise the name of Jesus who chose to take all the sorrow and grief that He endured on our behalf. We thank You for the Holy Spirit who guided us in choosing to accept Jesus as Our Savior, so that we might overcome the sin in our lives that separates us from You. We pray for wisdom to always seek the strength and the counsel available to us through the Holy Spirit that stands on watch against sin with us. We ask all these things in the name of the Slain Lamb, Jesus Christ.

Blessing the People in Our Lives

1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Once we received our salvation, we were called out of the darkness offered by the world. We were placed into the living light of Jesus Christ. We were called to become priests to spread His light to the world around us. We were called to intercede on the behalf of others so that they may be taken out of the darkness into the light.

In Numbers, we read that the Lord instructed Moses to have the priests, Aaron and his sons, to bless the people in the following way: “May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile upon you. May the Lord show you His favor and give you His peace.”

These are the blessings that we should desire for those around us when we have accepted our calling into the royal priesthood. As we abide in Jesus, these are the blessings that we should take before the Lord without stopping in intercession for those around us that are in need. We should prayerfully seek nothing but the best of what God has to offer for all of the people in our lives.

Let us pick up our priestly mantle. Let us stand before the throne of God proclaiming the excellencies of Our Savior. Let us call on His Holy Spirit to intercede for all of those who God has placed in our lives. Let us become light to a world that is living in darkness.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for taking us out of the darkness of the world and making us part of Your royal priesthood. We praise the name of Jesus who guides us in our priestly duties. May we learn to bless the people in our lives through our prayers and through our living testimony. We ask all these things in the name of the Light of the World, Jesus Christ.

The Loving, Living, Giving, Sacrificial Lifestyle of Jesus Christ is Our Perfect Model for Life

1 Peter 5:2
Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly–not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God.

The apostle, Peter, witnessed first hand the servant attitude of His Master, Jesus Christ. Peter saw how Jesus served all people out of the devotion He had for His Father in heaven. In his writings, he was encouraging His fellow followers of Christ to follow the model that Jesus had provided them.

When we were children, many of us joined our parents in the work that needed to be done around the house. We joined them in obedience to their request for help. If we served them because we loved them and wanted to honor them, our work was done eagerly and with joy. If we served them for any other reason – to earn allowance or perhaps avoid punishment – our work probably became tedious quickly.

We may find a similar experience when we seek to serve humanity. No matter how fulfilling the service may be at first, the humanitarian cause will become exhausting if the root of our service is not our love for Our Savior. The secret of our joy in service will be our devotion to Jesus Christ.

Jesus was the perfect model of service. Jesus was able to carry through on His service to mankind all the way to the end because He was driven by His love for His Father first. Honoring His Father with His obedience was His calling. The service that He provided for mankind was the result of His love for His Father.

Let us willingly serve Our Father in heaven with the same passion that was so evident in Jesus’ ministry. Let us eagerly serve those around us out of devotion for Our Savior King. Let our service to the flock that the Lord has given us be marked by the same sacrificial fervor as the Good Shepherd.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for allowing us to express our love to You through our service to those around us. We pray that You strengthen us, Lord, for our work by helping us to grow in our relationship with Your Son. May our devotion to Him be measured by the fruits of our work. May all that we do to serve Your kingdom bring honor and glory to Your Holy Name, the name of Your Son, Jesus, and to the Holy Spirit. We ask all these things in the name of Our Servant King and Savior, Jesus Christ.

When You Feel Like Your Sinking

Matthew 14:30
But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”

When Peter first stepped out of the boat, all He saw was Jesus. He saw nothing but the one he desired to be with. His focus was on His Lord and His Lord alone. With His focus only on His Lord, he walked on water. But then Peter let his focus shift to his surroundings and down he went.

It is a bit difficult for us to relate to walking on water, but we can all relate to finding ourselves in a place in life where we feel like we are sinking. In these times, we are weak in faith and our doubts are overwhelming to us. Too often we get to this place because we are seeking a way out through our own strengths. Our focus is on our problems and not on the promises of Our Savior.

Peter was rebuked for his lack of faith. We should know that we share in Peter’s weakness. As disciples of Jesus Christ, there is no valid reason why we should be of doubtful mind. Even on the stormiest of days, He is always with us as our ever present help.

Let us put all of our focus on Jesus. Let us learn to follow the life path that He has prepared for us. Let us walk that path boldly even when the world tries to distract us and the enemy tries to deter us. Let us be confidently yoked by faith to Jesus all the way to our eternal resting place with Almighty God.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for creating each of us with a unique purpose through which we serve You and bring honor and glory to Your Name. We rejoice in knowing that we are destined to fulfill our purposes here on earth as well as in Your eternal kingdom. We exalt the name of Our Savior, Jesus, who walks along side us to insure that we have the strength to overcome the torments of our flesh and the attacks of the enemy. May we keep our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus so we are not distracted or hindered by the things which are trying to pull us away from our purposes. May we stand before You one day and hear the words, “Well done, My good and faithful servant.” We ask all these things in the name of Our Redeemer, Our King, Our Priest and Our Prophet, Jesus Christ.