God
calls us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to
love our neighbor as we love our self (Luke 10:27). We cannot survive
victoriously in this life if one of these aspects is missing:
Love
God
Love
Our Self
Love
Others, as we love our self
There
comes a time in everyone's life where we realize that we are utterly hopeless.
This causes us to despair, since we spent our lifetime so far, attempting to
control life and to force it into our mold of our concept of accomplishment.
Thankfully,
our Emmanuel showed His great love to us all, even while we continued to serve
sin and the devil with our life. He did this by His conception in Mary in the
form of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Then,
He made us right with Himself by the blood of Jesus (Romans 5:8). Jesus' sacrifice
saved us from condemning our self, and it made us holy in His sight (Romans
5:9; John 3:16-18).
We
are no longer enemies of the cross, but we are restored by the life of Christ
in us through our salvation (Romans 5:10). We have help now, during the
distressing, devastating times when life ambushes us.
When
we have no defenses of our own, God adopts us into His family and holds,
protects, nurtures and comfort us each moment of our day and night (Psalm
61:1-4). His love is everlasting and we look forward to spending eternity with
Him.
Prayer:
Father
God, we cannot control life, but You can and will, as we walk in Your perfect
plan for us (Ephesians 2:10). We are eternally indebted to You for plucking us
out of our old, sinful lifestyle and giving us a wondrous new life in You. We
live each day in the knowledge that our earthly and eternal success is already
secured for us by the blood of Jesus.
Your
love for us defies description, because it is more vast than we can humanly
comprehend. We turn complete control of every aspect of our life over to You,
rejoicing in your salvation, which saved us from our former self-centered
lifestyle. You make all things beautifully new in Your timing and way, and we
trust only and always in You.
Thought
for the Day:
Through
the worse times that life has to offer, we attempt to pull up our self by our
boot straps, or to bandage our wounds to the best of our human ability;
however, these are simply temporary and superficial efforts at healing; true success
comes when we turn to Jesus, repent of our sins and trust in God's love and
Jesus' sacrifice, which give us fulfillment and a whole new life in Him.
