HAPPY TUESDAY!
Today’s scriptures are about the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ. Each person was created for a reason; some like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who played a major part in the lives of an entire race of people, and others like the maid that takes care of our home with so much precision and care. We each are servants of God in our own right, but there is none like Jesus Christ. He’s the only person who ever was, or every will be, qualified to be the Lamb of God, and He carried out this position with great integrity, longsuffering, obedience, and humility. He followed the will of God to the letter, and gave up His life for the greater good of all humanity. He was exactly who God created Him to be, and lived the life He was expected to live. Thanks be to God that He did what I was incapable of doing, all because He loves me.
From the beginning of time Jesus was present, because He has always been a part of God. Jesus was exactly who God expected Him to be—He was loving, loyal, faithful, truthful, giving, strong, encouraging, and I can go on and on. He was able to live like this without fail, because He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, as one of today’s verses points out. We’re not too different from Jesus because we were created just a little lower than Him. You and I aren’t expected to be Jesus, because there was only one Him—we can only strive to be “like” Christ. I am expected to be Saundra, Dr. King was expected to be Dr. King, and you’re expected to be you. I believe that we start to struggle in our spiritual life when we become unhappy with who we are, and try to change ourselves to be like people we weren’t meant to be. You must embrace, and love who you are. There’s no one like you, and in the eyes of God you’re special and unique. Yes, you must do your best to live a life pleasing to God, but you must look to Him, and Him only, to find out what that’s supposed to be.
The enemy will always defeat us with “great expectations”. We must know what God expects from us, and what we should expect from Him. Jesus laid out what He expects from us when He said: “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” (Matt 22:37-39) I include these verses in so many devotionals because a lot of believers don’t understand that this is all that God expects from us. He created us for love and fellowship. Jesus went on to say said: On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. (vs.40) He said this because when we love God, and love each other, we’ll automatically do our best to follow the laws put in place, which helps us live a civilized, happy and peaceful existence.
What can, or should, we expect from God? It’s written: Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. (1 John 4:17-19) It’s also mentioned in this chapter that God is Love, so we can always expect unconditional love from Him. He gave us life through Jesus, and the freedom to live it; we could’ve only gotten that from Him. We’re no longer to fear life and how it will end, but we’re free to live our life according to the Will of God, and if we make mistakes along the way, that’s okay, because He loves us. He came in the flesh to atone of our sins—He was here on earth walking, talking, living and breathing just like you and me. When He was sad He cried, hungry He ate, tired He slept, lonely He sought comfort through His friends, and when His skin was pierced He bleed.
Jesus’ experience here on earth gave God insight on what it is to be human. He literally can feel our pain, which deepens His love for us. He offered us freedom, which is something that we could never get from another human being. In life we can only expect the greatest from God, because He proves His love and existence to us every single day, when the sun rises and sets. Jesus proved His love for us, when He willingly endured pain, heartache, rejection, and a brutal death, so that we could live beyond this world, now and forevermore. All you have to do is believe, as it’s written: Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (1 John 4:15) Jesus is the ONE and ONLY way to gain salvation, so if you don’t know Him, take some time to take the God Quiz right now. My favorite verses today are: Who made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. (1 Philippians 2:7-9)
ENJOY! http://www.bible.com/scripture-detail.php?juli=2455510&dtype=Scripture
http://www.intouch.org/broadcast/today-on-radio
http://www.intouch.org/magazine/daily-devotional
I love you!
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