2020-03-26
Psalm 139:16 NLT
How we see ourselves determines the kind of relationships we establish. Many of us live with low self-esteem. We believe everyone else is more important than ourselves and think meeting their needs is more important than meeting our own needs. We compare ourselves and allow others to determine who we are, and then we found our whole identity on their approval. But we shouldn’t look at another person and say, ‘I wish I were like them.’ God made each of us to reflect a unique aspect of His glory. We’re all one-of-a-kind creations who can’t be compared. As Christians, we’ve been given a new identity as children of God. The Bible says: ‘If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!’ (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV). God’s making us more like Jesus, and making us whole (have a read of 2 Corinthians 3:18). In Him we don’t ever need to be afraid to be who we really are. The psalmist wrote: ‘You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!’ (v.15-16 NCV). God knew each of us before we were born. He already knew what we’d be like, and the things we would do. He already had amazing plans and purposes for us in His kingdom. When we find ourselves depending on others for approval, we don’t allow God to speak the truth of who we are over us. We should never forget that we’ve been uniquely created by the ultimate Creator, and that we’re always lovable and acceptable to Him.
Job 24-28; Matt 25:31-46; Ps 38:13-22; Prov 8:24-26
2020-03-25
James 1:15 NCV
When God says no to sin, He’s not being demanding and controlling – He’s being protective. The Bible explains the dangers of sin this way: ‘People are tempted when their own evil desire leads them away and traps them. This desire leads to sin, and then the sin grows and brings death’ (vv.14-16 NCV). We’ll all be tempted by things in our lives. We’ll all have desires that we want to fulfil, even though we know they’re wrong. But when we give in to those temptations and desires, we can find ourselves sinning against God. The Bible says: ‘A good person who gives in to evil is like a muddy spring or a dirty well’ (Proverbs 25:26 NCV). When we give in to our desires, we let sin pollute us. Sin never leads to good things. And God doesn’t want us to experience these bad things in our lives because He loves us so much. He just wants the best for us. Sometimes we can think that God’s trying to take all the fun out of our lives. But He knows that if we go down the wrong path, we’ll end up somewhere we don’t want to be. Jesus said: ‘If you love me, you will obey my commands’ (John 14:15 NCV). So if we truly love God, we’ll want to do the things He wants us to do. If we love ourselves more than God, we’ll be concerned about missing out on things and wanting to go our own way. Our obedience to Him is an expression of our love for Him. And His desire for us to continually do the right thing is an expression of His love for us. It’s not about rules and regulations, it’s about the love and protection of our Father.
Job 21-23; Matt 25:14-30; Ps 38:1-12; Prov 8:22-23
2020-03-24
Romans 5:1 NIV
Sometimes we can think that we have to earn our salvation and be good enough to be called ‘righteous’. We can burn ourselves out trying to do everything, and be everything. But the truth is, no matter how hard we try, we’re always going to mess up at some point. That’s because we’re human. The Bible says: ‘For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard’ (Romans 3:23 NLT). And God knows that we could never be perfect. That’s why He sent His Son to die for us, to save us from our sins and make us righteous in His eyes. This was His gift to us, because of how much He loves us (take a look at Ephesians 2:8-9). When we believe in Jesus, we’re made righteous because God sees us through Jesus. The Bible tells us that, ‘Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ We are now at peace with God, so we don’t need to worry that we’re not good enough for Him or that we need to do certain things to make Him love us. He loves and accepts us just as we are. But this doesn’t mean we can just do whatever we want, and think that we can do nothing until the day we die. God has a purpose for us and wants to work through us to build His kingdom and reach people who don’t yet know Him. And when we truly love God, we will want to do these things. When we do God’s work from a place of love, rather than a place of striving, we won’t end up burned out and disillusioned. Instead, we can rest in Him, and the knowledge that we’re righteous and saved.
Job 18-20; Matt 25:1-13; Ps 55:12-23; Prov 8:19-21
2020-03-23
2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV
How do you see yourself? Are you doing well or struggling to be good enough? God sees each of us as righteous. That can be hard to get our heads around, especially when we feel insecure. We can feel like we’ve made too many mistakes to possibly be seen as righteous. But our righteousness is nothing to do with us. God takes unrighteous people like us and makes them ‘righteous’. The Bible says: ‘People are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners’ (Romans 4:5 NLT). We can’t earn our righteousness. There’s no amount of good works we need to do in order to be righteous. It’s through believing in Jesus. God made His sinless Son to ‘be sin’ and to die for us so that sin was defeated. Now, when God looks at us He doesn’t see a sinner, instead He sees the righteousness of Jesus. When we do something wrong, we can feel guilty about it and that feeling can make us think we’re unrighteous. But Jesus took away all our guilt, along with our sin. When we become Christians, and we’re made righteous through faith, we are a new creation. The Bible says: ‘Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun’ (2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT). And guilt is really just our spirit telling us that we’re doing something that’s at odds with our new life. Because God sees us as righteous, we can approach Him at any time with complete confidence (take a look at Ephesians 3:12). We don’t have to hide from God, because He sees us through Jesus – the One who is completely righteous.
Job 15-17; Matt 24:36-51; Ps 55:1-11; Prov 8:17-18
2020-03-22
Exodus 2:2 NLT
In Exodus 2, we read about a mother who was brave and persistent. Her name was Jochebed and she was the mother of Moses. At the time when Jochebed gave birth to her son, Pharaoh had put out an order that all Hebrew boys who were born had to be killed. ‘Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River. But you may let the girls live”‘ (Exodus 1:22 NLT). This was because the Egyptians were worried that the Israelites would rise up against them and escape from slavery. Jochebed showed immense bravery by keeping her son hidden for months after he was born. We don’t know whether God had shown her who her son would grow up to be, and the amazing things he would do, but the Bible says Jochebed ‘saw that he was a special baby.’ When she couldn’t keep him hidden any longer, she put him in a basket and placed him among the reeds in the river, where he was found by Pharaoh’s daughter and brought up as a Prince. Jochebed may not have raised Moses, but her determination to give him a life meant that he became one of the heroes of the Old Testament. Whether we were brought up by our parents, or by others, we should never forget the things they did for us while we were growing up. Often people make sacrifices to ensure that we have a good future and can fulfil the plans God has for us. We might not see those sacrifices at the time, but looking back we can remember with gratitude those who have helped us become the people we are today.
Matt 5:5; Num 12:1-15; Ps 37:1-11; Phil 2:5-11
2020-03-21
2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV
There is so much power in God’s Word. Paul tells us, ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.’ And in Hebrews, we’re told: ‘For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart’ (Hebrews 4:12 NIV). God’s Word has the power to change us, inspire us, discipline us, comfort us, and encourage us. Even when we read passages of Scripture that we’ve read many times before, it still has the power to impact us. The Spirit can show us things we’ve never noticed before. As we take in the Word of God every day, amazing things will begin to happen in our lives. The psalmist writes that those who love God’s Word ‘are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do’ (Psalm 1:3 NLT). God’s Word has the power to sustain us through the tough times in life. But we need to choose to be open to that power. If we refuse to spend time reading the Bible and asking the Spirit to speak to us through it, we’re unlikely to experience the transformative power contained inside it. Even when life is hard and we’re walking through a valley, we need to spend time reflecting on God’s Word. The promises found inside are true no matter how we feel, and no matter how bad things in our lives seem. As we renew our mind with Scripture, our faith will grow, our outlook will be altered, and every area of our lives will start to change for the better.
Job 11-14; Matt 24:26-35; Ps 13; Prov 8:14-16
