It’s the Lord’s desire that we walk by faith. Yet if we consider our lives honestly, most of us will find a number of areas where we struggle to trust Him. Some days it’s easy to relinquish control, while at other times we quickly take matters into our own hands.
Thankfully, our heavenly Father is patient and loving. His Word clearly teaches that sanctification is the process of making us holy, not just the end result. Children are a great illustration of how this works. When toddlers learn to walk, they start by pulling up on something, standing, and then taking a step. Inevitably, they fall, at which point we help them back up so that they can keep progressing. In the same way, God shows us how to live according to our faith in Him, but we’ll make mistakes. Falling and getting up again are part of the learning process.
The Lord teaches us, but we also have a role. Our responsibility is to study Scripture, get to know God’s nature, and learn His promises. As we do these things, our confidence in God grows, enabling us to make choices requiring us to believe in and lean on Him. When we step out in faith and experience Christ’s provision and dependability, our trust grows.
Consider the responses, actions, and decisions that you’ve made in the past few days. How many of those were led by the Spirit? How many were human reactions done from self-reliance? Living on the basis of trust in Christ requires belief and action. As you allow Him to lead, faith will grow.
Sometimes God may seem far away. In those moments, we might wonder how personally involved in our lives He actually is. At such times, we should rely on what the Lord Himself has said in Scripture.
Psalms 139:13-17 (NIV) says that the Lord knit us together in the womb and loves us with an unconditional love. We also know that He plans to prosper us spiritually (Phil. 1:6). These truths confirm that our Father knows us intimately and loves us deeply.
The life of Jesus Christ further testifies to the divine desire for intimacy. He consistently reached out to strangers, inviting them to draw near to Him. He spoke words of encouragement to His disciples and other followers and taught them the profound truths that He’d received from His Father (John 7:16). He held them accountable for their actions. He invited certain ones to accompany Him for deeply personal experiences, such as the transfiguration and His last prayer retreat to the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 9:2; Matt. 26:36-37). These are all indications of real friendship.
Jesus’ final act—dying on the cross—made it possible for us to join His “inner circle” as a part of the family of God. The Holy Spirit, each believer’s indwelling companion and guide, also witnesses to God’s closeness and detailed knowledge of those who are His.
God has made intimacy with Him possible. Yet, all too often we hold back. Distracted by earthly concerns, we put limits on His involvement in our lives. Let’s commit to pursuing the Lord with all of our hearts (Mark 12:30).
Intimate relationships are characterized by a close connection to another person and a commitment to his or her well-being. Acquaintances have superficial information about us, but true friends know our deeper emotions, thoughts, and desires.
God, who is perfect and holy, has always desired such a personal relationship with man, but human sinfulness made that seem impossible. We all have rebelled against God’s perfect authority and deserve death (Rom. 3:23; Rom. 6:23). But more than that, we were all born with a corrupt nature inherited from Adam (Rom. 5:12), and neither good works nor moral values can overcome it.
God alone could remedy the situation. His solution is to change our nature so we can be a part of His family. Nonetheless, divine justice must still be satisfied, and only a perfect sacrifice can pay for our sins (Deut. 17:1). God requires the death of someone without a sin nature as the payment for our debt. Throughout history, only one qualified: Jesus, the perfect God-man, who gave His life so we could have a relationship with the Father. Our friendship with God came at a very high price to Him—the death of His beloved Son.
The Father has done everything necessary for us to be in His family and experience intimacy with Him. Have you entered into a relationship with Him through the saving work of His Son? If not, make today your spiritual birthday by receiving Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. This Christmas season, discover the gifts of freedom, satisfaction, and joy found only in Him.
In today’s reading, Isaiah prophesied that a Savior would come to atone for the sins of mankind (Isa. 53:5). The Jews were expecting a Messiah, but Jesus didn’t match what they anticipated.
The people imagined a strong ruler who would lead their nation with worldly power, but the Lord was a servant who spent time with outcasts and the lowly. They hoped for a man who would end Israel’s persecution; He died a criminal’s death and warned His followers that they would not be accepted by the world. So it’s no surprise the Jewish people rejected Him. He didn’t fit what they wanted—yet He was so much more than they understood.
All of us will one day stand before God. In our iniquity, we’d be unworthy to remain in His presence. His judgment of sin will be death, an agonizing eternal existence apart from Him. This is why He warned Adam that if he sinned, he would die (Gen. 2:17).
Yet Jesus bore our sin so that whoever trusts in Him can look forward to eternal life (John 3:16). Christ chose to bear our punishment—the Holy One voluntarily dying the death of a criminal so we could live forever in His presence. Jesus was the way that God could satisfy His justice yet love His people (John 14:6).
Jesus’ gift of salvation is free. It requires nothing on our part except the willingness to surrender. Have you accepted His death on the cross as the atonement for your sin? The Redeemer’s death leads to life. He doesn’t guarantee an easy road, but He promises to stay with you always.
The apostle Paul understood the awesome responsibility of being entrusted with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He considered this calling a stewardship for which he would one day give an account to the Lord, and he was willing to suffer for Christ’s sake to complete the task. As believers, we have this same obligation to share the gospel with whomever God places in our lives. But we must ask ourselves if we have a similar level of commitment.
Paul felt compelled to tell people about Christ. In fact, he said, “Woe is me if I do not” (1 Cor. 9:16). No matter how anyone treated him, he wasn’t ashamed of the message of Christ. The prophet Jeremiah had a similar experience. He became a laughingstock and was persecuted for delivering the Lord’s message of the coming judgment. Yet he discovered that not speaking created a far worse feeling in his heart—like fire shut up in his bones (Jer. 20:7-9).
We may not want to warn people about God’s judgment for fear of driving them away from Him. But in reality, the lost are already far from the Lord and need to hear about His offer of forgiveness. Paul was willing to die to get the message out, yet too often we’re not even willing to face a little discomfort to share our faith.
We are surrounded by people who are desperately hungry for something, and they don’t even know what. Yet we have the answer—and the responsibility to share it. Never be ashamed of the best news ever offered to mankind. It can change someone’s eternal destiny.
