Thursday Devotional - Imputed Identity

Last month the kids and I memorized Luke 18:19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good – except God alone.” We were focusing on God’s attribute of being Good. Only God (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit) is Good.

We can’t ever be good but we can accept Christ’s imputed righteousness. Romans 10:4 Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

We aren’t righteous (having perfectly upright moral conduct), but God looks at us through Christ’s righteousness when we put our trust and belief in what He’s done.

Romans 10:9-13 ⁹ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. ¹¹ As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” ¹² For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, ¹³ for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Belief in Jesus as the resurrected Lord is the only way to receive righteousness. Receiving Jesus’ righteousness means being fully acceptance by God! When I don’t believe in Christ’s imputed righteousness, I downplay my imperfections, or focus on my failures, or get overwhelmed in my striving for righteousness. When I believe in Christ’s imputed righteousness, I humbly go to Him with my failures, accept His forgiveness and rejoice in my full acceptance by God!

Christ’s righteousness becomes the basis for our identity.

We don’t need to prove ourselves! We’ve been accepted!

Alice

Our Spiritual War

He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”  Matthew 26:37-39

There is a spiritual war going on.  I say this understanding that this goes much deeper than just the things we see.  This is something we must feel.  I have felt closer to God lately reaching out in prayer seeking His wisdom and guidance, and for that, He has given me moments of clarity.  The war I see is always related to what I want versus what God wants.  More times than not, we are wanting the same things, but at times it boils down to wanting the same thing we both cannot have; control.  Do I have control or does God?  When I am responding to an attack, am I doing so through my own lens or a God inspired lens?  When it is my own, I immediately feel liberated, but often it is not lasting and can leave me with a level of anxiety, tension, and maybe even anger.  When I respond through God’s lens, it requires painful work, but I later feel love, strength, and inspiration.  These do not flee but instead become building blocks for something more lasting.

So, why is there a struggle?  It’s my favorite question exemplified by Paul when he says, “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.” (Romans 7:15-16)  The key to solving any issue is to be aware what the problem is, and it is through that awareness we can solve it.

Prayerful connection to God always puts us in the best position to see the world through His lens.  Today’s verses speak of worn and battle-weary Christ praying before He must make the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.  I found myself feeling for Him and His condition.  Those initial verses are important to note because even Christ himself grew tired are as we often are when struggling and fighting through our spiritual wars.  He said, “Let this cup of suffering be taken from me.  Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”  I wondered why is He praying this prayer?  After all, He is God, and He already knows what must be done.  You see, that’s the beauty of this prayer; His selfless surrender to God.  It’s underlines the very spiritual struggle we must deal with today. We have this cup of suffering, a cross to bear, or a surrendering to God.  We do not want the cup for we know what it encompasses.  But for us to fully embrace the grace, love, and peace that only God offers, we must want what He wants more than what we want.  This is what perfection of Christ looks like.

God is a choice.  We may see it as a seemingly simple one, but as noted here, it Is anything but simple.  However, today’s verses are not filled with sadness.  Instead, they are to inspire and encourage you of the goodness of God and the love He has for each and every one of us.  So instead of worrying about the suffering, trust in Jesus Christ for He said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23b)  What ‘cup’ are you holding today?  Where can you give more control to God in your life?  My prayer is that we both acknowledge and deal with our spiritual war.  Amen.

Tues Devo: Need or practice

Philippians 4:19-20 “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (NASB)

Hello,

This weekend I did some praying and reflecting on the needs we have as we face daily challenges. We pray for patience, wisdom, peace, endurance etc. But what do we mean when we pray for those things? Do we pray for them and then sit back and wonder if they will be given? Or, do we pray expectantly – trusting that God will do what he says in Philippians 4?

What struck me the most was that while I do pray expectantly, I miss the second part…..the part where I act on it. Sometimes I believe we get focused on our need for patience/wisdom/peace/endurance and forget to trust in God’s provision by action. I think about the patience thing with my kids. I pray to be patient, but find myself 5 minutes later ready to bite their heads off! Did God provide patience? Was His supply enough? He did supply it – I have to practice using it. I didn’t have a need deficit, I simply didn’t use what was given to me.

I hope this makes some sense to all of you, and encourages us to trust in God’s provision of our needs – and practice using what He has given.

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill