Are you ready to fight the good fight?
This week’s devotions are based on this week’s message: Key #2: Be Ready for the Battle! (WATCH HERE)
1 Timothy 1:18 Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, 19 holding on to faith and a good conscience.
To fight the good fight, one must be a good soldier. This phrase Paul writes to Timothy literally could be translated, “Be a soldier good at soldiering.” It defines the person more that distinguishes the battle. The battle is not for ground or power, but to hold on to “faith and a good conscience.”
Or as Paul wrote to the Ephesians:
Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
How ready are you to engage in this battle every day?
How aware of the battle are you every day?
Do you win or lose these spiritual battles?
Most probably would say that their awareness of the spiritual battles we face every day are not that acute. We probably don’t spend a ton of time thinking about it, unless the direction we are headed is obviously in a negative way. However, every day, Satan “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)
Satan is looking to remove you from God’s grace. Paul didn’t want Timothy to lose grace, but much more to ensure individuals in the Ephesian congregation didn’t lose grace. He knew it was going to be a battle, because he himself had waged it. As his time on the earth was coming to a close, he encouraged Timothy: Timothy 2:1-4 You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. 3 Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer.
Timothy was going to be at the front end of the spiritual battle for grace.
Today, you and I are on the front lines of the battle for grace.
So how are we going to soldier as a good soldier? How are we going to “fight the good fight”? How will we be ready for the battle that is at hand?
In yesterday’s message I referred to the five parts of the oath a Roman soldier would make as an outline to ensure we are ready at all times for Satan’s attack.
The Roman soldier would take an oath to do the following:
- Remain at your post until given permission to leave it.
- Never steal from the army.
- Never abandon your weapons.
- Never flee from a battle.
- Be willing to give your life for Rome.
For the Christian, these have application that we will unpack further this week. But like the ROman soldier was convinced Rome was worth fighting and dying for, today I ask that the reality of grace and its impact for our lives would engender a true commitment that grace is worth fighting for and grace is worth dying for.
Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
Apply: Reflect and write down five reasons why grace is worth fighting for?
Prayer: Lord thank you for your grace. Give me a commitment and the courage to combat all that would oppose grace. AMEN.
Grace is the key!
This week’s devotions are based on this week’s message: The Key to life and leadership is Grace! (WATCH HERE)
The Apostle Paul had a dramatic conversion story. There was a clear “before” picture that contrasted with the “after” picture. Before was a clear opposition to anything that Christ stood for and after was a clear zeal for all to know Christ and the power of his grace.
But what about you?
Do you have a “clear” before and after story that makes the reality of grace so evident and obvious?
I have to admit, I don’t.
There has not been a day in my life where I have not known grace. From the waters of baptism at ten days old in 1971 to today, I have been blessed to live in and under the reality of God’s grace.
So, does that make the impact of grace any less?
Impact no. Realization of the impact? Honestly, that can be a challenge.
But this week has helped. I pray it has for you as well.
Max Lucado put it this way in an opening video for a small group study on grace:
God’s grace has a drenching about it. A wildness about it. A white-water, riptide, turn-you-upside-downness about it. Grace comes after you. It rewires you. From insecure to God-secure. From regret-riddled to better-because-of-it. From afraid to die to ready to fly. Grace is the voice that calls us to change and then gives us the power to pull it off.
His point in these phrases is grace is not just an academic or theological concept, it is a life changing reality that defines our being and guides our lives. It is what calls us to faith and gives the power to believe and live that faith. It’s what settles the question of what life is all about and where I’m headed when life ends. It is what makes me secure in my relationship with the holy God and settles my identity as a child of God. It is not an “out there needing to be grasped” reality, but an “in my heart, life changing” reality.
Grace is the key.
We don’t need a dramatic conversion story like Paul or others in our lives. If you do, you may have a different experience with grace, but you still have the same power of grace as someone in whom grace took hold at ten days old. Grace is a gift that is to be loved and lived. It is a reality that is to live in you and flow through you. It is to be appreciated and applied. It is to affect not just part of life, but all of life.
Grace is the key.
Perhaps you have other words to speak of its impact in your life. But let me just share a couple personal ways it is affecting my heart these days.
In an election year and a world that is topsy turvy and at unrest and in conflict, I sleep well at night knowing that I have God’s grace which gives peace. To the extent I can show up as a citizen and affect people in a positive way, I know that the ultimate solution to evil in people’s hearts is the grace of God that changes a heart yearning for evil to a heart that is zealous for good defined God’s way.
In my relationships, I am asking God to fill my heart with grace so that his love flows first out of my heart to my words and actions with my wife, my girls, the people of Crosspoint and our Georgetown community. I am asking him to help me be a conduit of grace to the people around me so that they see his grace living in and through me.
Reflect on your grace story. Realize the profound impact of God’s grace to you. Let it dwell in you and live richly through you!
1 Corinthians 16:3 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. 24 My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Apply: Write out your grace story, taking time to reflect and realize the profound impact grace has had on your life no matter what your story is. Use this story of grace to witness to others the magnificence of God’s amazing grace.
Prayer; Lord, thank you for your incredible love and amazing grace. AMEN
Grace sends us with Purpose!
This week’s devotions are based on this week’s message: The Key to life and leadership is Grace! (WATCH HERE)
“What God gives to you is meant to flow through you.”
A speaker at a campus ministry used this phrase as he wrapped up the school year to encourage the students as they scattered from the campus to their summer internships, breaks, or family vacations.
Do we carry this thought as we go through life?
Perhaps it is easier to grip and hang on to the grace of God and treasure it for ourselves. Without a doubt, grace is an amazing blessing and reality for ourselves. It gives us security in our status before God and it solidifies our identity as a child of God. These are realities I pray we never let go of.
However, the message and impact and power of grace are not just for our heart. God has given it to us to be a blessing, but also for us to bless others. What God has given to us is meant to flow through us. I like that phrase because it reminds me that grace sends me with purpose.
Life no longer is about my sinful nature, selfish agenda, but rather the agenda and purpose which God has given me to be an ambassador of his grace. Look at what the Apostle Paul wrote: 2 Corinthians 5:18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
I’ve imagined a conversation in heaven after Jesus finished his work on earth. The imaginary scenario was posed that Jesus was talking with the Holy Spirit in heaven, who congratulated Jesus on a job well done. But then the Spirit asks, “You entrusted this great message to those 11 disciples? What happens if they don’t take the truth you gave them and share it with others?” To which Jesus replied, “I don’t know. I have no plan B.”
The amazing thing about grace is, like Paul, God has called us to a ministry to be an ambassador of grace, to take what God has given to us and let it flow through us. What is incredibly powerful about this is that it is simply sharing your story with grace. You get to relate to others the impact God’s grace has had on you.
But, that means realizing the impact God’s grace has had on you!
The Apostle Paul understood the impact that God would take him “the worst of sinners” and appoint him to his service.
1 Timothy 1:15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.
Could we say the same about ourselves? To be sure. Sin is sin. Grace is grace. Paul had his story. We have ours. If we were the only sinner in the world, Christ Jesus would have come to display his unlimited patience for us and to us. We are the example today of God’s grace. If God can save us by his grace, he can save anyone else in this world. It’s this simple reality that we get to share with the world because grace sends us with this purpose: Be an ambassador of grace!
Apply: Notice today the people around you. To whom is God sending you to share the message of grace. Let what God has given to you, flow through you today!
Prayer: Lord, thank you for showing me unlimited patience by giving me your grace. Use me, wherever you send me, to be an ambassador of your grace to the people around me. AMEN.
Grace secures my identity!
This week’s devotions are based on this week’s message: The Key to life and leadership is Grace! (WATCH HERE)
Who are you?
Really. Who are you?
The question of identity is one that is front and center in the culture dialogue today. We have identity politics that takes a certain skin color or gender or ideology and assumes that everyone of that “identity” will vote a certain way. We have gender identity issues which leave very young children questioning whether they are male, female, cat, dog or dinosaur. To be sure, these are not issues to be made light of, but to recognize are very real in our society today.
At the heart of them? What is my identity and who gives it to me?
Identity has shifted away from some objective reality (Example: I am male – because I have the male chromosomes and body parts.) to personal feelings. Identity has become more what you feel about yourself than objectively who you are. Identity can become what others put on you to try to create a “group think” on a particular issue. Identity is complicated.
Listening to a leadership podcast (sorry can’t remember which one), identity issues were highlighted as a key struggle for young people. The issue is compounded by social media and the image that one feels they must portray on those platforms to have the “likes” and “followers.”
In fact, even in spiritual matters, identity has become a leading issue people are wrestling with. Why? Because identity goes down to the core of our being. We may “identify” with some surface issue, but identity is really who we are or who we believe we are.
So how can we take an unsettled, confused, misguided culture about identity and begin to establish truly godly perspective on the issue of identity at large, but most importantly for our own hearts?
We look to the one who really matters. Not to friends or family, but we look to the Lord God who created us. What does he say about our identity? Here’s just two passages:
Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
By faith in Jesus, we ARE children of God. This is an identity statement. You ARE a child of God. We don’t just “identify with” children of God…we ARE children of God. Why does this matter?
I can stop looking for an identity outside of God’s reality. When we came to faith in Jesus at baptism or later in life, God GAVE us the identity as his child. Embrace this reality to your core because here is the consequence (in a very positive way.)
As a child of God, I am loved, accepted, and forgiven…regardless of what other people say.
As a child of God, my identity is settled in Christ…not my social media platform.
As a child of God, I know he doesn’t make mistakes and he made me male or female.
As a child of God, I am not identified by my sins and mistakes, but by the blood of Jesus who made me perfect.
As a child of God, I am defined by the riches of God’s grace, not the riches of my bank account.
As a child of God, I am free to love others without need for them to fill in my identity by how they respond.
As a child of God, my identity is settled.
As a child of God, I live in the reality of grace that God so lavishly spread on me!
Grace settles my identity because grace makes me a child of God!
Apply: You are a child of God. How does that change how you show up in life today?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for lavishing your grace and love on me to make me your child. Let my soul always be settled in the identity you gave me, “I am a child of God!”
For additional reflection today: Listen to this song: I’m no longer a slave to fear (LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8TkUMJtK5k)
Grace settles my soul!
This week’s devotions are based on this week’s message: The Key to life and leadership is Grace! (WATCH HERE)
Do you ever have moments where your past comes back to haunt you? When you consider thoughts, decisions, and actions of the past and whether they measure up to godly standards, do you break out in a cold sweat?
Maybe it’s not a cold sweat, but Satan loves to take our past and make it a worrisome reality in our present. What are we worried about? Does God still love me? Will God forgive me? Will he ever let me into heaven?
God has placed inside of us a conscience that is our inner moral compass that directs us toward things that are right and away from things that are wrong. But, to be honest, we are good at overriding our conscience with justification as to why something that is wrong is OK in this instance. We can dull our conscience by telling ourselves, “I could be doing worse things.”
But then it hits us.
We have that moment when we are faced with our own mortality and the reality of standing before a perfect, holy God who has clearly laid out the standard that we are to be perfect as he is perfect.
But we don’t want to even deal with that reality.
So we put words in God’s mouth and say, “He just wants us to do our best.” We tweak the standard of perfection and think, “Just do a bit more good than bad.” We can look at what others are doing and tell ourselves that we are better than most and at least we haven’t done the “big” sins.
But we are not being honest and Satan is getting us to believe lies about our current reality and our status before God.
Why do we do these things? Because we want to have peace with God and when we do things that are outside of his will, it creates unrest, division, and discord that is not fun, not comfortable, and honestly, we just don’t want to deal with.
But if we don’t we are never at peace in our souls.
The Apostle Paul had a past he was not proud of. He relates to Timothy:
1 Timothy 1:13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.
How could someone with this past EVER have peace with God and have a soul that was settled in its status before God. How could God EVER forgive Saul for persecuting believers, blaspheming his name and violently acting against other people. There’s no amount of good that could overcome that, right? He should burn in hell, don’t you think?
One would think. But that’s not what changed Paul’s status before God. Here’s what did:
1 Timothy 1:14 The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Grace settles our soul. Grace settles my status before God. I am forgiven. My past is covered in the blood of Jesus. The perfect life of Jesus is applied to my account. I have peace with God because GRACE has been given to me.
Grace puts our souls at rest…no matter what our past the lies of Satan cannot overcome the truth of Grace. You are forgiven. You are loved.
Apply: How does Satan work in your heart to unsettle it with sins of the past? How can you use the truth of grace to rebuke Satan’s lies and allow your soul to be settled?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for your grace which settles my soul. I am at peace with you because of Jesus. AMEN.