That life-changing encounter with Jesus was the start of your journey as a Believer. You marveled at the grace, mercy, and loving kindness that was extended to you… a sinner that only deserved death. You became a recipient of the greatest gift ever…the free gift of eternal life. But for many of us we stop there, never sharing this Good News with others. We instead hold tightly to this gift refusing to share…desiring to just keep it to ourselves. But Paul tells us in this verse that first we are a receiver, but then we become a messenger… an ambassador for Christ, telling others about Him. Paul goes on in I Corinthians 11:2, ” I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the teachings, just as I passed them on to you.” How can we keep such wonderful, life-changing news to ourselves? The Lord wants us to pass it on to others. So today, tell someone how Jesus is working in your life.
Category: daily devotional
Ephesians 5:1 ” Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children…”
It tells us in John 1:12-13, “Yet to all who receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” When we are born again into the family of God we become His children. And just like little children we learn by our Heavenly Father’s example. We’ve all seen tiny toddlers attempting to mimic adult actions…it’s how children learn to do things…they model and copy their parents. We are to be imitators of God…modeling our lives after Him, and living as His beloved children.
Isaiah 1:17 ” Stop doing wrong, learn to do right!”
The Lord is rather emphatic here…stop doing things that are contrary to His will. Rather, practice what is morally good. So just how do we learn to do right? The Bible tells us that the starting point of knowledge is the fear of the Lord…so accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior is that first step. We then start the journey of learning who Jesus is…discovering the plan and purpose He has for us…and adding to our knowledge with daily Bible study and application. Learning to do right is a life-long study of becoming more like Jesus every day.
Matthew 8:27 ” The men were amazed and asked, ‘What kind of man is this? Even the winds and waves obey Him?’ “
Jesus had just rebuked the storm and now all was peaceful and calm on the Sea of Galilee. With only a few words, the fierce winds and raging storm had ceased. But why were His disciples so dumbfounded and astonished at what Jesus had done? After all, they had been witnessing countless miracles as they traveled with him. But like us, when the storm hit their lives personally…they panicked. When we’re hit broad-side and without warning with the storms of life…we panic. We suddenly are battered by the winds of anxiety and will succumb under the waves of fear. It’s then we need to reach out our hands to Jesus for help…for it tells us in Psalm 107:29, ” He stilled the storm to a whisper, the waves of the sea were hushed.” May the Lord of the universe calm the storm in your life today.
Psalm 55:22 ” Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall.”
If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time you know to take your emergencies to the Lord. But what about the good things you’re doing for Him? Do you feel overwhelmed with responsibility and stressed in your ministry? Or is the Lord pushing you into new directions and you’re resisting out of fear and doubt? This verse says to cast your cares on the Lord…all of them. Think of it like a oxen yoke with two oxen shouldering the work together…each pulling in the same direction. Give your concerns to the Lord – whatever they are…work as a team, and see His glory revealed.
Job 42:10 ” The Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends.”
I’ll admit, most of my prayers are very selfish and self-centered, and begin with “I”. But what the Lord is trying to teach us here… is that regardless of how Job viewed his own personal crisis…it was only after he had prayed for his friends that God moved. The ministry of intercessory prayer takes the I and Me out of our prayers and replaces it with our friend’s names. Intercession is so wonderfully described in Ezekiel 22:30, “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before Me in the gap…” When you intercede for a friend in prayer, you are standing in the breach of their broken down life…a life split open by divorce, torn apart by job loss, or ripped asunder by cancer. By standing in that gap of their wall of life…you make their wall whole and complete again. When the Holy Spirit lays someone on your mind…respond immediately and pray for that person…stand in the gap of their life’s wall. For you may never know how crucial your intercessory prayer was for them at that moment.
Romans 8:5 ” Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.”
Within us is an ever raging battle…sometimes with one side winning, sometimes with the other. The battle is between our flesh and the Holy Spirit. It was fine before we were Christians…there was no need for any kind of battle…we just did what we wanted. But now that we live by the promptings of the Holy Spirit within, the conflict has started. What do you have your mind set on? It tells us in this verse that you’re either devoted to your corrupt sinful nature…or you’re mindful of the Holy Spirit. So how can we change this cycle? It says in Galatians 5:16, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” Living by the Spirit is listening carefully, reacting immediately, and obeying promptly.
Isaiah 6:5 ” Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips…”
In the presence of God, Isaiah realized instantaneously his sin of impure language. In that moment of God’s presence, there’s never any vague, broad sense of sin…rather the Lord will laser focus in on some specific personal area of your life you need to change. Your attention will be directed to it, followed by conviction to take personal responsibility and confess the sin to Him…followed by you acknowledging your need for forgiveness.
I Peter 2:1 ” Therefore rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.”
Growing in our salvation is a process…a conscious, everyday struggle of putting off our old self to be made new in the attitude of our minds. (Ephesians 4:22) This verse should convict and challenge us all to look at our conduct, actions, and manner…and free ourselves from the chains of all the negativity. For it tells us later in this chapter, “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” (Vs 16) Letting loose of negative emotions will unchain you from the past while freeing you for the future.
I Corinthians 15:10 ” But by the grace of God I am what I am. And His grace towards me was not in vain.”
With over 30 years under my belt as a Christian…it’s only with sincere thankfulness and gratitude I can proclaim that it’s only by the grace of God I am what I am today. For it’s only by God’s unearned and unmerited favor that I have been changed…justified freely by His grace through the redemption that comes through Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:24) And I strive daily to show Him that the grace He lavished on me was not futile or a waste of time…for this grace God showed me – I need to be passing on freely to others.
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