Author: mary

Sometimes when people come to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ, they think that everything will change in an instant and their life will be good with no suffering. They think that immediately God will take away their pain. Maybe they think that because of the way we as Christians present it to them. Maybe the better way to present it is that even though you will experience pain and suffering at various points in your life, God promises you will not walk alone.

Unfortunately, everyone will experience some sort of suffering at some point in their lives. Whether that is losing a loved one too soon, a broken relationship with a friend or family member, or even just standing up for your beliefs and experiencing strife in the Christian life. Suffering is all around us because we live in a broken world.

God never promised us that there would be no suffering, but He does promise that we will not go through it alone. We will have His Word to guide us, His heart to comfort us, and His people to walk with us. The other thing he promises is that we will attain a future glory. Romans 8:18 says that what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later. We are waiting for the day when our faith shall be revealed. And as verse 20 says, we wait with eager hope. Someday there will be no more pain. There will be no more suffering. There will just be God and his people forever.

When Christ went to the cross, He took on the power of sin and its hold on His people. He took on all of the sins of the world. They were on His shoulders. When He died and rose again, He defeated death. No other “god” had ever accomplished resurrection. He defeated death and sin. That means He defeated the hold sin had- its grip- on the people. When He crushed Satan, just as the Bible had foretold, He also crushed the chains and bondage sin had on the people of God. Just like that He won the victory. Romans 6:9 said that death no longer had a power over Christ.

Not only does sin have no power, but it can no longer be your master. In verse 14, it says that sin is no longer your master, and you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live in the freedom of Christ’s grace. When you make a mistake, sin has no hold on you. You can delight in the grace of God, knowing His forgiveness will pour over you. You can live in the hope of His salvation.

Romans 6:17 says that we are no longer slaves to sin! We can now serve God wholeheartedly. There is nothing weighing us down. He is a good Father who rescued His children, and we can live in His love, grace, and forgiveness!

Knowing Jesus is the best gift we can give our children. It is the best thing we can offer them. Living our lives with God as our Father and guide is the best way to find peace and happiness. Romans 8:14 says, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” Think about that for a moment. If you have found God and have been rescued by the blood of Jesus Christ, then you are a child of God! You are a child with a new family. A new life. A new legacy. Galatians 3:26 says that you are a child of God through Jesus Christ. When He died on the cross, He gave us adoption into the family of God. We became heirs with Christ!

This is why His Word says He is a father to the fatherless. He is a hope for the hopeless. Since we are His children and He is our Father, we can trust that He can take care of us and that He knows what is best for us. Just as a good parent makes decisions for their children with their well-being and future in mind, so does God the Father! Except He can see the future and knows what it will bring. This should make us want to teach our children about Him. He is the best one to care for our children, so we should seek Him for advice and wisdom when it comes to parenting. We can parent as a child of God!

Why wouldn’t we want to share the greatest story ever told with our children? Why wouldn’t we want to share the gift we have been given? Take some time today to think about how you can share Christ with your children on a daily basis.

According to Dictionary.com the word obligation has several meanings. It can mean something by which a person is bound or obliged to do certain things. It can mean a binding promise, contract, or sense of duty. Or it can simply mean law. Romans 8:12 tells us that we do not have any obligation to do what our sinful nature urges us to do. If we live by the Spirit, then we are not bound by the law. However, some people live as though their sinful nature is law. They live as though they are under its obligation and will suffer consequences if they do not do what their nature tells them. But Romans 8 goes on to say that if you live by the flesh’s dictates, you will die, and through the power of the Spirit, the deeds of the sinful nature were put to death. So we can truly live. Basically living by the flesh equals death and living by the Spirit equals life.

It is not surprising that someone that is lost will live by their flesh and its rules and laws. But when a Christian lives as though they are bound by their flesh, it is almost as if they have forgotten the freedom that they found in Christ. So to find Christ is to find freedom from sin and the obligation it desires. To stay with Christ means to continuously live in light of His freedom and the gift of salvation.

Is this something you struggle with? Fill your mind with the things of God and the Holy Spirit and ask God to continuously give you strength and power over your flesh so that you may serve God. We cannot serve the pleasures of the flesh and God. We have to live by God’s Word. When we delight in His Word, we will want to serve Him and live in His freedom.

Satan has always been at war with God. Even though God won the victory over man when He sent Jesus to the cross to be a sacrifice for man’s sins, Satan is still at work all the time to try and win as many little battles as He can. He is constantly trying to entice man away from the Lord with his temporary joys and momentary pleasures.

John 10:10a says, “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.” He is a thief. He tries to take away anything that can give lasting joy. He is not just a thief that finds happiness in taking things away, but this verse also says he kills and destroys. He will stop at nothing until it is all gone. There is hope in the second part of John 10:10, “My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” While the thief comes to destroy, the Savior comes to give us life. Not just any life, but a rich and satisfying life. An abundant life. Satan is the destroyer and the thief, and God is the giver of life. He wants us to truly live! We find life when we surrender our life over to Him. We find hope when we trust Him with our future instead of taking things into our own hands.

Do you live in your abundant life every single day? Or do you find yourself giving into the thief, allowing him to destroy the good in your life. Every time you choose momentary pleasures and sins, you are allowing the enemy to win battles in your life. Pray to God today and ask Him to help you live in light of eternity everyday.