Seeing the Triumph

Luke 18:34

But they understood none of these things.

In the Gospel of Luke, we read how the apostles were told in advance about all the suffering that their Master was about to endure.  They were told the details concerning His coming crucifixion and they were told about His glorious rising from the grave on the third day.  Yet they understood none of these things.

The apostles did not understand because they could only see failure in Jesus' destiny.  They could only feel the heartbreak of losing their teacher.  They could only visualize their promised King.  They could not visualize their suffering Savior.  They could not see that God considered it all a tremendous triumph.  They could not see that they would soon show the world the way, the truth and the life that Jesus had come to show them.

The most difficult thing about understanding the purpose that God has for our lives is that we are quick to seek God's blessings, but we are slow to realize that God is in sovereign control.   We are baffled by our trials.  We allow them to hold off our calling in Christ, because we only see ourselves in our trials and we do not see Almighty God who is working out all things for His purposes. 

We will move forward in our calling when we look forward to each day without fear or worry.  We will become who God calls us to be when we are in communion with Him and recognize the He is taking us into His purposes.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have a perfect plan for our lives.  We bless the name of Jesus Christ, who made it possible for us to fulfill the plans that You have set aside for us.  We pray, Lord, that You will open our eyes so that we may see past the sorrows in our lives.  We pray that You will open our hearts in communion with You so that we may see the triumph that You have planned for us.  May we live our lives without fear, knowing that we are in Your hands, living according to Your purposes.  May it all be for Your glory, the glory of Jesus and the glory of the Holy Spirit.

His Grace is Always Sufficient

2 Corinthians 12:9

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

The apostle Paul was told by Jesus that Jesus' strength was sufficient for all of Paul's needs.  Jesus emphasized to Paul that His power was made perfect in Paul's weakness.  Paul recognized this truth and leaned upon it through all of his trials.  He became the most prolific writer in the bible and led the way of evangelizing the gentile world to Christianity.

When we come to recognize that there is nothing in us that is worthy without Jesus Christ, we open the way for His perfecting work in our lives.  We humble ourselves to build on our relationship with the One who seeks to perfect us.  Through it all, in spite of our weaknesses, the evidence of His presence in our lives becomes visible for all to see.  We must be ever mindful that it is not about the work that we do.  It is about the relationship we have with Jesus and the atmosphere produced by that relationship.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the grace that You pour into our lives through Your Son, Jesus.  We seek the power of Your grace in our lives.  We ask forgiveness for the times that we by-pass Your grace in order to operate out of our own perceived strength.  We pray that Holy Spirit will aid us in leaning on You for all of our needs and guiding us in all that we do.  May Your strength be perfected in our weakness. 

Preparing for the Wedding Feast

Revelation 21:2

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

As we grew up in this world, most of us were taught to set goals and to develop step-by-step plans to reach our goals.  For most of us, attaining the goals that we set for ourselves has become what life is all about.

In God's supernatural world, things are totally different.  Goals are not set for this world, because God did not create this world to be about our accomplishments.  God created this world to prepare us for the eternal life that we will spend in heaven for all eternity.  Everything we go through here on earth is part of the process that God puts us through or allows us to go through in order to prepare us for life in new Jerusalem.

We go up to new Jerusalem, not to fulfill our own purposes, but to fulfill the purposes that Almighty God has for us.  We are being prepared to go to a place where all things are new.  There will be no trouble or tumult.  The new Jerusalem is the church of God in its new and perfect state.  It is a holy church without blemish and we will be there fully prepared for our place at the wedding feast of the Lamb.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for preparing a place for us at the wedding feast of the Lamb.  We praise You and worship You for providing a way for us to be made acceptable to take our place at this great banquet.  Father, open our eyes that we may see Your perspective of what our lives are meant to be.  We pray that you show us how to set aside all that this world offers in exchange for the eternal life that we will spend with You for all eternity.

Focusing on the Solution

2 Corinthians 4:7

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

Whenever the trials arise in our lives, the natural response is for us to focus on the problems or the pain they cause.  In doing so, we are taken down a path of looking to our own capabilities to resolve the difficulties of our circumstances.  In many cases, we are woefully incapable of handling or resolving our issues alone.  Often times our efforts even make matters worse. 

As children of God, we have an alternative available to us which is completely different and produces dramatically different results.  When we choose to respond in our spirit instead of in our flesh, we focus on the solution, Jesus Christ, instead of our problems.  We avail ourselves to a supernatural solution.  We avail ourselves to the power and grace of the One who sees the beginning and the end.  We surrender ourselves to His will and plan for our lives.  We bring honor and glory to Almighty God as we allow Him to work in our lives for our good.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the will and plan that You have for our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that You delight in using Your power to work out all of the things in our lives that trouble us.  We praise You for using each of our trials to shape us into the unique individuals that You created each of us to be.  May all the honor and glory be Yours, Father, as we turn to Your Son for all of our needs.

Living a Life that Speaks to Others

1 John 3:18

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

There is an old adage that states that actions speaker louder than words.  Nowhere is the old adage more applicable than in our living testimony.  No one wants to learn about Jesus from us if they have not seen Jesus in our lives.

Our greatest orations will never win a soul without a visible expression in our lives that we are living what we are preaching and teaching.  Let those around us see the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  When others see these things, they will seek the source.  We will not have to say a word to entice them.

Jesus understood human nature completely.  Thus He labored constantly among the people, showing them His perfect love and forgiveness.  His living testimony drew people to the message that He had come to deliver.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You for providing Your Son as a living example of the way, the truth and the life that You intend for us to accept and to proclaim.  Blessed is the name of Jesus who surrendered all so that we may be drawn to Him, receive Him as Our Savior and allow His presence to flow through us to the world around us.  We pray that our lives will become living testimonies of the One who dwells within us.