Raised to Walk in a New Life

Jesus poured out His life on this earth for all of mankind. During three years of ministry, He had no place to lay His head (Luke 9:58). He was criticized for eating with publicans and sinners (Matthew 9:10). 

He experienced rejection, even from his own people (Matthew 13:57). Jesus ultimately laid down His life on Calvary’s cross for the salvation of anyone willing to accept His redemption (Revelation 22:17; Acts 17:11).

Then on the third day, He raised up His own life again to exactly fulfill the Biblical prophecies about His life, death and resurrection (Isaiah 7:14, 53:12; Psalm 49:15, 24:7-10). Jesus then delivered those who died prior to His death and set them free (Ephesians 4:8-9). 

He became the first child of God to raise from the dead (Colossians 1:18). Then God lifted Him up to the greatest measure of His glory and authority (John 17:5).

God raises us to walk in a new life as well. Since Christ now lives within us by His Spirit, His power and authority are working in the life of every authentic Born Again Believer. 

As we walk in His Spirit, we fulfill the will of God. We mature in our walk of faith and we realize the awesome attributes of God in us. This humbles us and causes us to bow to Him in complete surrender.

God’s Spirit points out sin in our life, and then we cooperate and allow His Spirit to transform us both with the mind and character of Christ (2 Peter 1:4; Philippians 2:12-13). He frees us from sin and the corrupt desires of our flesh. 

He cleanses us from the root issue causing our penchant for sin. We die to our humanity and allow God to mature us in the Spirit, so we can live in the fullness of His resurrected life (Ephesians 3:19).

Prayer:

Father God, You never, ever leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8; Hebrews 13:5). We have faith in Your faithfulness. We rely on You and relinquish to You our worries, fears and insecurities (Matthew 6:25-34). 

 

Your love provides us with safety in the storms of life, as well as the provision we need in order to walk in our new life on this earth. Help us to glorify You on this earth just like Jesus did (John 17:4).

Thought for the Day:

Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, self-control and faith are not dependent upon our circumstances or our feelings or even our health, but only on the Holy Spirit within us in our new life.

Too Proud to Believe

 

Our human penchant for self-centeredness and rebellion stems from our pride. Pride is the downfall of every human being. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). This is what caused Adam and Eve to believe the serpent’s lie that they could be like God. Mankind still wants to be like god, and many New Age religions promote this falsehood, as if saying or believing it will make it so.

The wonderful news of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ dwells within us and gives us the nature of God, as we are led by God’s Spirit. He also gave us His Word, which is His ultimate wisdom. Over the years, hundreds of Biblical prophecies were fulfilled just as they were predicted to occur (Isaiah 42:9). This proves that the Bible is true and trustworthy. We can stake our life and our eternity on it.

God’s Word also informs us of historical and scientific facts, which it took humans years to discover using experiments and research. These scientists and historians validated the scriptures as the result of their studies and tests. Actually, the truth was in front of them all along! Even today, mankind is still finding answers to age-old questions in the pages of the Bible.

Prophecy, history, archeology and science continually prove the veracity of the Bible (Psalm 119:160). We can believe it, because its words are true (John 3:12). God, Creator of heaven and earth, gave us the answers to our origin and our destiny, which people of every generation still ponder. Archeologists uncover, almost daily, the proof of Biblical claims. Yet many are still too proud to believe.

Prayer:

Father God, there is no reason that we should allow our pride to prevent us from accepting Jesus as our Savior. We thank You for bringing us to our knees through the circumstances in our life. You humble us for our benefit, and then You bless us for our humility. You are an amazing and loving Father, and we cannot find anyone or any philosophy, which mankind invented, that fulfills us and completes us like You do (Colossians 2:10). You gave us Jesus as our sacrificial Lamb and He dwells within us by Your Spirit.

Thought for the Day:

With specific details, simple truth, and flawless precision, God's Word consistently reveals to us the origin of our past and the destination of our future.