 “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” 1 John 4:16 (NLT).
God defines Himself as love. As you read the Bible, you will find that God is often described by His attributes. In some cases, God defines Himself as an attribute by say, “I am holy or I am love.” In this case, God is defined by love. Love describes every aspect of the Trinity. Love is also one of the aspects of God that is most satisfying for your soul. Love reaches across boundaries and through barriers to speak to your heart. Love sets aside everything else to find you and bring you into His loving family. Love meets you before you’re worthy of love. God is love, and He has paid the price you could never pay so that you can always experience His love every day for ever. “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love — not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10 (NLT). God loves you so much that He willingly sacrificed His Son on the cross for your sin and death. God loves you so much that He willingly became the sacrifice on the cross to absorb all of His Father’s wrath and purchase your wholeness and healing. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Romans 5:8-9 (NKJV). The New Testament was originally written in the Greek language. The Greek word for love that describes God and His actions is a word that means “love without conditions.” This means that God gives His love regardless of whether people merit His love. He doesn’t have conditions placed on His love before He begins to love you. He loved you before you became a believer and He loves you now. His love flows out to you without Him asking you to deserve it. One of the ways that you can know if you have experienced God’s love is that you will begin to want to love like He does. You will feel drawn to be kind and patient to people who don’t deserve your love. You will feel compassion for others. You will begin to love God and listen to Him. His commandments for your life will become a good thing. You will want to be holy like Him. You will want to be loving like Him. His patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control will begin to grow inside of you. This is because LOVE is living inside of you. “And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” 1 John 4:13, 16 (NLT). Not only does LOVE (the Holy Spirit) live inside of you, but you are also a new creature made from LOVE (Jesus Christ). You have the DNA of God’s LOVE woven into your spirit’s DNA. You were born again to love and are filled with God (LOVE). How has God’s love affected your soul? How has God loved you without conditional love? Do you see evidence of God’s love living inside of you now? Prayer: “Dear Father of Love, Thank you that you define yourself by love. I know that your love caused you to create me, die for me, save me, and fill me with your love. Please help me feel your love and acceptance for me right now. Please show me how much you love me. Please forgive me for doubting your goodness and love sometimes. Please forgive me for not loving other people sometimes. Please help me to be a person who loves you and loves others. Today, please show me how to love other people. Please fill me with love and overflow that into how I act towards others. In Jesus’ name amen.”
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 “The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit. Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part.” 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 (NLT).
As a new creature in Christ, you are a representative of Jesus on Earth. That’s an amazing position to have. However, your identity on Earth is even more important than that! You are a physical part of Jesus’ physical body here on Earth. Each believer in the world is a part of Jesus’ physical body. This means that Jesus does a lot of His work here on Earth through His physical body, which is composed of many, many believers. He wants to do some of His work through you! “My Father who lives in me does his work through me… “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. John 14:10b, 12. (NLT). Just like the Father lived in Jesus Christ and did His works through Jesus. Jesus lives in you through the Holy Spirit and does His work through you. What if you decided not to do Jesus’ works? What would happen? There are two possibilities. First, that work might not get done. Second, Jesus might choose another body part (believer) to do that work. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10 (NIV). Just like God the Father prepared specific works for Jesus Christ to do on Earth 2000 years ago, He has prepared specific works for Jesus to do through you during your lifetime. You are part of the physical body of Jesus Christ on Earth. Jesus wants to do His works through you and bring blessings, the gospel, and a clear image of Him for the world to see. How do you think Jesus wants you to handle conflict? How do you think Jesus wants you to show His love? Who does Jesus want you to forgive? “Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.” 1 John 2:6 (NLT). Think about this verse from the perspective of Jesus being the brain and you being the body. Should the body obey the brain? Should the muscles obey the brain’s directions? If you are part of Jesus’ body, should you obey Jesus’ directions? If you say that you are in Christ, you should live your life as Jesus did. It’s a simple way to make decisions about your attitudes, plans and actions. What type of attitudes does Jesus have? What type of priorities does Jesus have? Today, how can you be Jesus in your home and community?  “All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those who speak in unknown languages.” 1 Corinthians 12: 27-28 (NLT).
In your daily life, your purpose is to be Jesus’ body and do His works. This is an amazing opportunity to live a life of ministering to others in love, kindness, justice, and integrity. However, as a believer, your purpose is far greater than everyday life. You are designed and called to be part of a local church, which contains many more parts of Jesus’ physical body. The Holy Spirit has given each member a unique personality and specific talents, which should be used to bless the local church body. As you grow in Christian character and in integrity, you will become more effective in your skills and talents. Along with your personality, talents and skills, you have been given spiritual gifts. Each part of the body has been given special gifts which help to create a healthy body of Christ in your local church. As each member ministers to each other, the whole body is healthy and able to obey the mission of Jesus and make disciples. The gifts that are listed above are not all of the spiritual gifts, but they are a good sample of the types of gifts to look for in yourself and the other body parts of Jesus in your local church. The Holy Spirit has chosen to spread the spiritual gifts out into all of the members of the body. This means that each member will have a few gifts, which he will use to make the other members of the body healthy. Sometimes, people who have a teaching gift or a preaching gift feel very needed, while people who have a serving gift or accounting gift aren’t noticed. The truth is that each person and each gift is equally important and needed by the local church body. When a church celebrates some gifts and ignores other gifts, the body becomes spiritually imbalanced and less effective. Which spiritual gifts do you think are most important? Which spiritual gifts do you think are missing from Jesus’ physical body at your church? Do you have a missing gift? Can you contribute a spiritual gift to the body? Often, your spiritual gifts are connected to your personality, interests, and talents. For example, you feel compassion for people and desire to see people healed. This may be an indication that you should begin to pray healing for people in your church. Another example is that you have a deep concern for other people. During your quiet time, God brings a person to your mind and gives you an encouraging word to speak to them. So, you think about whether the word is Biblical and appropriate to share. Then, you seek out the person and share the encouraging word. A final example is about a person who loves to learn and share information. God might give that person the spiritual gift of teaching and they begin to teach the Bible to others in their church. Think about what you enjoy doing. Is there a connecting between what your skills and your spiritual gifts? How can you bless other members of the local body of Jesus, making the church more balanced and effective in ministry? Prayer: “Dear Heavenly Father, Please help me grow in my spiritual gifts and be able to use them effectively in my church. Please help me to recognize how you’ve made me and how you gifted me, so that I can be a blessing to Jesus’ body on Earth. I want to be sensitive to Your Holy Spirit and be accurate in how I use the spiritual gifts that He’s given me. Thank you for giving me spiritual gifts and please help me to grow in my recognition of the works that you have planned for me to do! In Jesus’ name amen.”  “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.” Galatians 5:16-17 (NIV).
Walking by the Spirit means to live according to the nature of the Spirit and to live by the power of the Spirit. What is the nature of the Spirit? The Spirit is the 3rd person of the Trinity, so He is fully God and has all of God’s attributes. These attributes of God are characterized by the fruit of the Spirit. “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT). The nature of the Spirit is characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. When you live according to the nature of the Holy Spirit, He will produce these fruits inside of you. They will germinate in your desires, flower in your thinking, and produce fruit in your actions and attitudes. If you live by the Spirit, you will not produce evil, worldly fruit. You will produce good, godly fruit. Remember that Jesus Christ is the LIGHT of the world. He is the living Being who is completely light. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ because Jesus, the Father and the Spirit are one Being who is three Persons. Can you imagine that Jesus is a Person who is radiating light? Now, think about the Holy Spirit as a Person who is radiating light. To live in the Spirit means that you live in His light. The darkness in your soul is replaced by His wonderful light. The darkness in your past is replaced by healing and wholeness. The Holy Spirit has “called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9 (NKJV). Evaluate the activities of your normal day. Are you living in a relationship with the Holy Spirit? Are you listening to His voice and guidance? Are you using the means of grace and producing healthy fruit? Every day, you are faced with a lifestyle choice. Will you plant seeds that produce sins or will you plant seeds that produce righteousness? Jesus is characterized by righteousness and He is identified as life. When you plant seeds of righteousness, you will experience more of the fullness of Christ’s life inside of you. “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” Galatians 6:8 (NIV). You have been selected by God to live a lifestyle of light, life, and spiritual fruit. Will you participate? What ungodly habits or behaviors do you need to change? What good behaviors and habits do you need to increase? Prayer: “Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for making me your special possession. Thank you for making me a child of light and life. Please fill me with your Holy Spirit and give me a daily experience of His power and gifts. Please show me how increase my life in the Spirit. Please radiate Your light into my soul and clean out every dark thing in my soul. Please help me to plant the seeds that please the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name amen.”  “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14 (NKJV).
When God promises something, you can be sure that He will keep His promise. When you believe the gospel and are changed into a child of God, you are trusting in God’s promises to forgive you and give you new life because of Jesus’ work before and on the cross. The reason why you trust God’s promises and have new life is because the Father has sent the Holy Spirit to draw you, make you alive inside, and give you faith in God’s promises, specifically His promise of redemption through Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 1:13, the Holy Spirit is called “The Holy Spirit of Promise.” Take a minute to think about the God’s promises that are most special to you. The Holy Spirit is given the name of “guarantee.” He is also given the job of guaranteeing your arrival in Heaven. How does He do this? All of the work that the Holy Spirit does is for the purpose of giving you eternal life and growing that eternal life inside of you. He gives your dead spirit new life. He gives you faith to believe God’s promises. Inside of your alive spirit, He grows godly desires to read the Bible, listen to Him, repent of your sins, and live for Christ. The Holy Spirit uses your new nature to keep you going in the direction of Heaven. Logically, if you are a believer who is growing in your desires to be close to God, to be godly, to be in fellowship with other believers, and read His word, then you will be a believer who keeps growing and eventually successfully arrives in Heaven. What type of desires has the Holy Spirit given you that help you stay close to Jesus and keep growing? The Holy Spirit uses the means of grace to guarantee your arrival in Heaven. All of your salvation and life in the Kingdom is given to you because of grace. It is even grace that empowers you to participate in the means of grace. When you participate in a means of grace, you will see more grace in your life. You will see more godly desires, more power to change, more fruits of the Spirit and stronger faith. The Holy Spirit motivates you to pray and helps you pray. When you pray, you will grow in wisdom, faith, and in your relationship with God. When you read the Bible or study the Word at church, you will grow in a Biblical mindset, truthful thinking, wisdom and in your relationship with God. When you fellowship, learn, worship and use your spiritual gifts at church, you will grow stronger as a believer and increase in godliness. As you open the faucet of God’s grace through prayer, the Word, and church, you will see the Holy Spirit’s work guaranteeing your arrival in Heaven. The work of the Holy Spirit is designed to grow you, strengthen you, and bring you safely to Heaven. Where do you see the Holy Spirit working in your life? Prayer: “Dear Heavenly Father, Please fill me with the Holy Spirit and give me the desires to grow in godliness and in my relationship with you. Please give me a hunger for reading your Word. Please give me a thirst for communicating with you in prayer. Please draw me to fellowship with other believers in my church. Please make me such a strong believer that I will never fall away. Please make me such a healthy believer that I will naturally walk in Your will and presence all of my days here on Earth. In Jesus’ name amen.”  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Ephesians 1:3-8 (NKJV).
God is the most important and richest Being in the Universe, and He has the most incredible future planned for His family. Imagine being the child of the richest person in the world. What kind of confidence would that give you? What kind of authority? How many opportunities would be yours to discover? What would your relationship be like with your parents? To be a son or daughter means to be an heir to the inheritance. For most children, they have a good relationship with their parents but don’t receive the family wealth until death separates them from their parents. To get the inheritance, they have to give up their parents. In God’s story, it is the opposite. You are born into the world separated from God and without the ability to be in a relationship with Him as your parent. You don’t have any spiritual wealth. Your only inheritance is to live a life void of ultimate meaning and then be tormented in eternal separation from God and everything good. But, God, through the life, torment, death and resurrection of Jesus, changes your future by changing your family. You suddenly become blessed with a meaningful, loving relationship with God. Your situation changes from cursed to blessed. In fact, you are given every blessing. You are given the inheritance that you can enjoy within a relationship with your Parent, who won’t die or leave you. If you’ve lost a parent, you might understand that you’d rather have your parent alive than have his wealth. Through God’s grace, you get to enjoy His wealth and enjoy His presence. In fact, the real treasure that you find is being in His presence. Where is your heart? Do you prefer success or friendship with the Savior? God uses the word “adoption” in this passage. Usually, a parent seeks out and adopts a child. The child doesn’t realize who the parent is until he grows into a relationship with him. It is like this for believers. Before God created Adam and Eve, He made a plan to find you and adjust your destiny so that you meet Him. In history, Jesus came and paid the legal fees for your adoption, which cost Him his life. Then, the Holy Spirit waited until you were born into this world, and at the right time, He came and found you. You were introduced to the oldest brother in God’s family, Jesus and you trusted Him as your Lord and Savior. You were legally and relationally adopted into God’s family. Why? Because it was what God has wanted from before time began. Today, live in the realization that God knew you, chose you, bought you, found you, brought you into a relationship with Him and adopted you because it made Him very happy. Are you happy to be His child? You can enjoy the inheritance, while enjoying the relationship and fellowship of your Father and His family. Prayer: Dear Dad in Heaven, Please fill me with a sense of your acceptance and let me feel your presence through the Holy Spirit. Please speak to me about what is important to you and to our family. Please teach me the family values and help me to think like your child. Thank you for adopting me and making me part of your Heavenly family. Please help me to grow in my understanding of what it means for you to be my Father. Please help me to think like Jesus and represent your family well here on Earth. In Jesus’ name amen.”  “But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:15-16 (NLT).
The definition of holy has two meanings, which both define a true believer. First, being holy means that God has set you apart from the world’s citizens. Secondly, being holy means that you have been set apart for moral purity. Every person who is a new creation in Jesus Christ has been set apart from the world to live a life of moral purity that reflects the holy nature of God. The foundation for your holiness is not trying to be good enough to get into Heaven. No, the reason why you should be holy is because your Heavenly Father is holy. You are made in God’s image to reflect His holiness. “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9 (NKJV). The seeds of your holiness are planted inside of your identity as a saint who is part of a holy nation of people. The roots to your fruits of holiness find nutrition in your identity as God’s special person who is chosen leave the darkness of sin and proclaim the praises of God. Take a few minutes to think about what affect God’s choice to make you a citizen in His holy kingdom has had on you. How have your priorities changed? How have your beliefs about yourself changed? How has your life’s purpose changed? When Jesus lived and died to make set you apart as a morally pure being, He gave you a gift of grace. You couldn’t earn God’s forgiveness and righteousness. You could only receive it by depending entirely on Jesus Christ for your justification. The Holy Spirit drew you to Jesus and gave you a new spiritual person inside and filled you with faith. That was grace. Now, living an authentic life to that identity is also grace. Say this proclamation out loud, “I am a chosen, special person, called out of moral darkness into God’s marvelous light. I am a holy citizen in God’s nation of saints. I hate moral impurity, blasphemy, sexual immorality, idolatry and unforgiveness. I love moral purity because God is infinitely morally pure. I will choose to be set apart to bring God praise through my holy lifestyle. I will be holy because my Dad in Heaven is holy!” Prayer: “Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for choosing me and bringing me into your family. Thank you for declaring me holy because of Jesus’ obedient life and death on the cross. I want to be holy like you are holy. I love holiness and hate sin. Please show me areas in my mind and life where I have agreed with unholy ideas, spirits, or actions. Please show me what to confess to you. Please clean out the unholy ideas, spirits and actions and make me clean inside. I am a holy saint, set apart for your purposes. Please fill me to overflowing with your Holy Spirit and his gift of grace to be holy. In Jesus’ name amen.”  “Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit. Some of the traveling teachers recently returned and made me very happy by telling me about your faithfulness and that you are living according to the truth. I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.” 3 John 1:2-4 (NLT).
John tells his friend that he heard some first-hand reports that made him very happy. He heard that his friend was consistently making life choices according to God’s truth. He uses the word “faithfulness” to describe the consistency of his friend’s choices. As you learn more about God’s nature and your nature, you will become more aware of God’s plans for you. You’ll understand that God’s moral commands match your moral nature because you’re made in God’s image. God has designed you to reflect His moral character through your thoughts, words and choices. Has your consistency in applying God’s truth been increasing? Are you becoming predictable in your godliness? “I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.” John is saying this, but it also could be your Heavenly Father’s words. I believe that God feels joy when you follow His truth and apply it to your life. To change your behavior, you must first change your thought processes. When you come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, your internal spirit becomes alive and new. This produces new desires in you and you begin to think more Biblically. However, you don’t yet have a mental measurement to know whether your thoughts are truthful or not. You must read the Bible and evaluate your own ideas about morality, life, finances, sex, gender, dating, marriage, work, attitudes, and everything else that you think and do. As you learn the truth of the Bible on various topics, you will be able to measure the truthfulness of your own cultural ideas and ways of thinking. Your mind has already been programmed by years of cultural and worldly thinking. The challenge is to think about your own ideas and evaluate them using the Bible’s teachings. This is a process that takes time. As you read and honestly evaluate your thinking, you will begin to consistently follow God’s truth. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV). You have been trained to think like the world about almost every topic because of your culture, media, and education. Cultures emphasize some behaviors as good and other behaviors as bad. Media highlights sexual identities, attitudes, and behaviors as either good or bad. Educators tell you what is ethical, what is equitable, and how to find meaning in life. The Bible says that you must transform your thinking by evaluating these beliefs in light of the Bible’s truth. Biblical truth originates from God’s mind, which is incapable of sin or error. You can trust the truths of the Bible as an accurate way to judge good and evil. The Bible’s truths give you a criteria or matrix for evaluating the ideas that you assume are correct. As you adjust your philosophies and beliefs to be truthful, you will be more consistent in making godly choices, “holy and acceptable to God.” Prayer: “Dear Heavenly Father, Please help me to be hungry for your truth. Please teach me how to compare my own thinking to your thinking. I want to follow your truth and align my life to your Biblical principles. Please show me some areas that I need to adjust to be Biblical. Please give me the wisdom to follow your truth consistently. In Jesus’ name amen.”  “So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law… For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. Galatians 5:1, 4-5 (NLT).
Living in grace means that you stop trying to earn God’s acceptance by obeying God’s laws and doing good works. Instead, you invest in the relationship that you have with God and receive His righteousness. This isn’t a mystery. If you are God’s child, spend time learning what is important to your Dad. As you spend time with Him, you will begin to think and behave like a family member. This is called living in grace. “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:23-24 (NIV). Before you were made a new person inside by the Holy Spirit, you measured your probability to enter Heaven by your good works. That is the thinking of the old self. In fact, it is impossible to be good enough for God to accept you. This is why Jesus had to do it for you and gives you His perfect record. The Holy Spirit gives you a fresh start in your relationship with God by giving you a new self. The new person that you’ve been made into is “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” This is grace. You being created to desire holiness and live in true righteousness is a gift that you don’t deserve. But, it is who you are, so live accordingly. It is Biblical to identify as holy and therefore make choices that match your identity. How do you view yourself? Do you identify as a saint or as a sinner? Do you identify as holy or wicked? Are you always behind in trying to be good enough? If you’ve been made into a new person by the Holy Spirit, the most Biblical way to view yourself is as a faithful, chosen child of God. This is the lens that God views you through because of Jesus Christ’s finished work. Your life is like a glass that is already full. You are full of the Holy Spirit and the potential for holiness that is written in your spiritual DNA. Your glass is already full. Forgive yourself for not being the perfect person on the outside. Instead, realize that you are already considered perfect by God in your being. Realize that God loves you and chose you to be holy. Be that person! “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.” Colossians 3:12-15 (NLT). Prayer: “Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you that you chose me to be your holy child who you love. Please show me how you see me. Jesus paid a costly price to make me a saint. Please help me to understand who I am in Christ. Please help me to clothe myself in love, mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Today, please help me to think and behave in a manner that matches my identity in Christ. In Jesus’ name amen.”  “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” Hebrews 4:15-16 (NLT).
Jesus Christ is the most important Person in your life because of who He is. Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human. This gave Him the ability to pay for your sin’s debt and clear your legal record. Being human also equips Jesus to be your High Priest. In the Old Testament times, a priest’s job was to mediate between God and the people coming to worship. The priest had to have several qualifications. First, the priest needed to be one of the people. Also, he had to be understanding their pain and difficulties. One of duties of the priest was to offer a sacrifice to purify the person who wanted to worship God. The sacrifice couldn’t take away the punishment for the person’s sins, but it could temporarily cover the sins in God’s sight. Every sacrifice in the Old Testament was a reminder to God that Jesus Christ would become the sufficient, perfect sacrifice for His people’s sins. “While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.” Hebrews 5:7-9 (NLT). Jesus experienced the stress and trials of being human. He set aside His divine privileges and lived on Earth in his humanity. Jesus relied on the Holy Spirit for power and on prayer to communicate with His Father. Jesus was already perfectly God and perfectly human. Yet, He became qualified to be your High Priest because He experienced the need to pray and He experienced the difficulties that make obedience to God’s will a hard choice. Have you been through trials? Jesus has, too. Have you been betrayed by close friends? Jesus has, also. Jesus “became the source of eternal salvation” by obeying God in every aspect of His life. Jesus was the only innocent person to die. He died a horrific death as the sacrifice. He was successful, and He rose again to be your High Priest and mediator. “Jesus became a priest… by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed.” Hebrews 7:16 (NLT). You believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Believe in Him also as your High Priest. Death could not hold Jesus because He was “life that cannot be destroyed.” Your High Priest is so powerful that even death couldn’t destroy Him. He now invites you to have access to the throne of God. It’s at the throne where you can find mercy and grace for your deepest needs and for your daily needs. Does this encourage you to pray? Jesus learned how to pray through difficulties, and He’s willing to help you bring your prayers to God’s throne for help. Does this encourage you to be bold? Jesus is so full of life that He couldn’t be defeated. Your High Priest is always listening and is undefeated. He says, “Don’t be shy. Come with me into your Father’s throne room. Let’s talk to Him, together. I’ll go with you!” Prayer: “Dear Heavenly Father, With Jesus as my mediator, I come boldly into your throne room. I’m glad that you are gracious and merciful. Please help me with (tell God your difficulties). Please be with me today and teach me your will for the difficult decisions that come my way. Jesus – Thank you for understanding my stress. Please give me the power of your life that can’t be destroyed. In Jesus’ name, amen.” |
