If God is for us...

Romans 8:31-32
31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things? (WEB)

Our heavenly Father gave up everything He loved in order to secure our love. When He sacrificed His own Son on our behalf, He demonstrated once and for all His love for us. In today's Bible reading, the Apostle Paul reminds of this eternity altering truth. If God didn't spare His own Son, would He not freely give us all things?

We determine the value of anything we purchase by the price we are willing to pay for it. God determined our value by paying the unfathomable price of His own Son's life. If you are questioning the love of God for you today, my encouragement is to ask Holy Spirit for a deeper revelation of the price that God paid for your salvation.

The cross of Jesus Christ will always be the eternal expression of God's love for humanity. My prayer today is that every person who reads this devotional will say 'yes and Amen' to this promise. If God is for us, who can be against us? The truth of the gospel is and forever will be... GOD IS FOR YOU!

And if our heavenly Father is for us, then there is no one in the universe that can stand against us in Christ. May we be comforted by these words in the midst of a world that may seem to be opposing us at every turn. We are not alone. Our God and Father is for us in every way because we are His beloved children!

1 John 3:1
Behold, how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him. (WEB)

May love abound...

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13
11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you; 12 and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we also do toward you, 13 to the end he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. (WEB)

I love how the Scriptures often talk about how God the Father and God the Son work together in tandem. In today's passage, Paul says that it is the Father Himself and our the Lord Jesus Christ that were directing Paul's way to the Thessalonian church. The Trinity is always moving in step with each other in all that They corporately do.

Paul goes on to pray that the Lord will make the Thessalonians (and us) increase and abound in love one toward another. Not only to each other, but toward all men! There is nothing that pleases the heart of a father more than when his children get along. I believe it is more so for God Himself for He not only loves, but He is called "Love" itself in 1 John 4:16.

I echo Paul's prayer for my life and for your life today... May the Lord Jesus Himself and God the Father make our love abound towards each other and towards all people! May we grow in the knowledge of His love today and learn to be on the receiving end of His love to that it would spill out of us to every one we meet.

Ephesians 3:14-21
14 For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to him be the glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (WEB)

Stand firm in freedom...

Galatians 5:1
1 Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage (WEB)

God's heart for us is that we live a free life because it is for freedom sake that Christ has set us free! In John 8:36, Jesus tells us that if the Son sets us free, then we will be free indeed! We are free to live a godly life. We are free from the power of sin and death. We are free to be the person our heavenly Father created us to be.

In today's Bible passage, the Apostle Paul reminds us to stand firm in the freedom by which our elder brother, Jesus Christ, has set us free. If Paul exhorted the Galatian church to 'stand firm', there must have been some pushing and pulling on them that was threatening their freedom.

As it was then, so is it now. There are many external forces that are tugging on us trying to get us to be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. My encouragement to you today is to simply remind you to stand firm in the freedom the Christ has already secured for you. Jesus died so that you would be free! So having all you can to stand, keep standing!

Isaiah 61:1-3
1 The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is on me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to appoint to those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified. (WEB)

I will be a Father to you...

2 Corinthians 6:16-18
16 What agreement has a temple of God with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 17 Therefore “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you. 18 I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.” (WEB)

God promises to be a Father to you. Not just a father figure, but your real Father. He is the One who knew you before you were conceived (Jeremiah 1:5). He is the One who knit you together in your mother's womb (Psalm 139:13). He is the One who was there the day you were born (Psalm 71:6). In Hebrews 12:9 tells us that He is the Father of our spirit.

We were only on loan to our earthly parents until the day when the eyes of our hearts would be opened and we would be born again into His marvelous kingdom. This has always been His plan. He sent His Son Jesus (John 3:16) so that we could be completely restored and reconciled to His heart (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).

My prayer today is that each one of us would have faith to believe that this is the truth. We are not orphans destined to live a life of slavery, but we truly are Almighty God's sons and daughters! God Himself (through Paul) prophesied this truth in verse 18 of today's Scripture when He said...I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.” (WEB) May everything within us rise up and cry out 'Yes! You are my true Father!'

John 1:12-13
12 But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: 13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (WEB)

Eternal glory...

John 17:4-5
4 I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do. 5 Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed. (WEB)

John 17 is an intimate revealing of the loving relationship that Jesus had with His Father. All that Jesus did on earth was to simply bring glory to His heavenly Dad. His heart was always to honor His Father and obey all that He commanded Him to do. Of course this was what the Son delighted to do. In John 4:34 He even told His disciples... My food is to do the will of Him who sent me. (John 4:34)

Now as Jesus was turning His attention toward the cross, His prayer was that the Father would glorify Him with the glory that He had before the world even existed. Both Father and Son loved each other with an everlasting love and their desire was to bring glory to one another.

I am sure that none of us will be ever able to fully comprehend the glory of God in all its fullness, especially on this side of heaven. I think it would be futile for me to try and even imagine what that might look like. However, let me refer to one aspect of the glory of God that we read in Exodus 33.

Moses is talking to God and in verse 18, he asks God to show him His glory and God responds in verse 19 with this statement... “I will make all my goodness pass before you". I truly believe that the glory of God is expressed in His very nature. I believe that is what Jesus was asking for when He said in John 17:5... Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed. (WEB)

My prayer today is that we would truly value the glory of God in the same way that Jesus values His Father's glory. While His glory may be manifested in signs and wonders at times, the very essence of God's nature and goodness is the glory that we should all seek.