God gives us life, His unfailing love, His protection, His deliverance and His abundant mercy and grace, even when our oppressors taunt us, ridicule us, and abuse us. If we keep our focus on His ever-present help in our times of trial and trouble, we live a life of praise to His worthy name as our Savior and our God (Psalm 42:8-11).
God raised Jesus from the dead, and He will raise us together with the Lord Jesus and present us to Himself together with our Brother and Co-heir (Matthew 12:46-50; Romans 8:16-18). God uses us as instruments of his praise and glory, and there will be great thanksgiving as His grace reaches a wider and wider audience through our life (2 Corinthians 4:13-15).
We trust that God will enable us to never give up, though our body is dying, because our spirit is renewed in Christ every single day. Regardless of the momentous troubles we experience on this earth, they never last very long in the larger scheme of things (2 Corinthians 4:17).
We know from experience that we share in the Psalmist faith in God’s faithfulness. Our trials also produce in us a glory that vastly balances out our suffering now and surpasses the ill-effects of what we are experiencing (2 Corinthians 4:16-17).
We are wise to ignore the issues that our trouble causes us, and to focus instead on the eternal weight of glory that they are producing in us. The issues that we can see now are not worthy to be compared to the rewards we shall reap from them, and which will last into eternity (2 Corinthians 4:18).
In Romans chapter seven, Paul makes it very clear that in our flesh there is found no redeemable qualities. We often put an abundance of human effort into reaching perfection, and never quite measure up. We are helpless, hopeless, and incapable of attaining any lasting goodness on our own (John 5:30).
The Good News comes from Paul’s words in chapters six and eight were he points out that our success depends solely on God’s redemptive work in us through His revelation of Jesus Christ in our life. As we enter God’s rest and establish our union with His Spirit, we reap bountiful blessings each and every day.
Prayer:
Father God, thank You for birthing in us the presence of Your Holy One, the only wise and perfect God, Jesus Christ. As we imitate Him, and He lives and performs through us, we exhibit His righteous and divine nature through our Spirit-controlled thoughts, words and behavior. Remind us not to seek our identity in our own worth, but in our relationship and intimate union with You.
Thank You for removing condemnation from our soul for the failings in our life (Romans 8:1). Remind us that being led by Your Spirit is our ultimate goal in life. Of our self, we cannot bear fruit, but in You we can accomplish all things that You require of us (Romans 8:2). We no longer spin our wheels to produce lasting achievements through our human effort, but we walk in Your Spirit each moment of our day.
Thought for the Day:
God’s Spirit allows each of us to be controlled and guided in His perfect plans for us; Christ in us is uniquely Himself and He works in and through us, in restful freedom and with a clear conscience, free of religious works and void of the influences of satanic lies and attempts to thwart our effectiveness for God’s Kingdom.
