Today’s reading is Psalm 22 Today’s Psalm one that plays a great deal of importance in Matthew. Jesus cries out, “My God, My God, why have forsaken me?” We read that and we think goodness. The Father abandoned the Son. Man, … Continue reading
Today’s passage has one of the most powerful and important concepts in all of scripture. Today’s passage lays one of the most important truths about God out for us.
Paul, in Romans, is laying out for us the fact that we are saved by grace through faith, not by anything that we can do. Our salvation comes not by our works, not by our actions, but it comes from the grace of God which is freely given, not earned.
Listen to what He says today in Romans 5:6-8:
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
While we were still weak, Christ died for the ungodly. Other versions translate that passage by saying that while we were still His enemies Christ died for us. And then says that God shows His love for us that while we sinners, Christ died.
Wow. Think about that truth for a second.
While you were at your worst moment. The moment you were furthest away from God. The moment that you had wandered away. At you weakest. Most sinful. Lowest moment that you have had in your life.
At that moment. That’s when Jesus died for you.
He didn’t die for you because you had earned it. He died for you because He loves you.
And He wants to redeem you. He wants to save you. He wants to give you grace.
At your worst moment. At your biggest failure. At the time when you blew it up the most.
It was at that moment Jesus died for you.
Wow. When we are at our lowest, God loves us the most. When we are at our weakest, God is the strongest. When we are most unlovable, that’s when God gives us the most grace.
Today, at your weakest moment, God loved you. Today, in our all of lives, no matter where we are, weak or strong, may we know how much He really does love us.
And may that love cause us to love, serve, and follow Him, each moment of our lives!
Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.
I can’t get the newest Chris Tomlin song from Passion out of my mind. At first, I didn’t care for it. I don’t know, it just didn’t do anything for me. But the more I listened to it, the more I liked it.
And now I can’t get it out of my mind. It’s the chorus – “We raise our white flag, we surrender all to you, all to you” that stays with me. In history, the white flag equals defeat. It is cowardice. It is quitting. It is giving up. It is surrendering. Bravery compels that you keep fighting, even to the last. The brave ones are the ones that fight to the end. Not surrender. Not wave the white flag. Not give up.
But I began to think about the notion of sin in my life. The areas I struggle with. The areas that I can’t gain victory and I fight and I fight and I fight. The areas where I am totally defeated.
And I raise my white flag. I surrender. All to you. All to you.
This song has hit me, the only way to victory is to wave that white flag. Admit our defeat. Admit our weakness and frailty. Wave it. Give up to God. Surrender.
And when I wave that white flag. When I admit my defeat, I find something that I never find on my own. Victory.
In raising our white flag to God, we find victory. The areas of my life where I’m living in defeat are the areas where I have not surrendered and waved the white flag to God. It’s the areas where I think I can do it, where I think I’m sufficient. Where I’m strong enough.
And in those areas, that’s where I’m defeated.
To win, I must admit defeat. I can’t do it. I wave my white flag to God. I surrender. I need Him. In the areas I am weak, the only path to victory is to wave that white flag and find His grace, victory, and strength.
The only path to victory is surrender. Total and complete surrender to Him.
We raise our white flag, we surrender all to you, all to you.
Just a reminder, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.
1 Kings 19 is a great chapter of the Bible. We could spend a to time talking about so many things here.
I mean, in this chapter, you have Elijah, the brave prophet of God, running from Jezebel when she threatens his life. So, even after a great victory, he doesn’t trust God like he should.
Then we have the Lord providing food and drink from him when he is at his lowest and most tire. The Lord took care of him.
And then we have the Lord speaking to him not in the loud and in the powerful, but in the still small whisper. There are so many amazing things here.
But today, I wanted to talk about verses 19-21. Listen to what happens:
So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.
In this passage, Elijah is returning home from all this. He had every right to be defeated. When he was faced with a challenge, he ran. He doubted God. He doubted God’s protect and provision. He didn’t trust God as he should have trusted. He literally had given into fear and doubt.
That’s something that we all know that we shouldn’t do. But, it’s something that we all do, and have done. So, at this point he was defeated. He had messed up. And that was that.
Yet, on the way home from this failure, the Lord directs him to meet a young man by the name of Elisha. And this young man would become his follower and become a great prophet just like Elijah.
From the moment of his failure, a moment of victory. Elijah had this great and embarrassing defeat, as he ran like a scared dog from Jezabel. And God used that. God used that defeat to bring out something good.
God literally brought victory from the jaws of defeat.
That’s what He did for Elijah, and that’s what He will do for us today. Today, God will use and failure, our defeats, our mistakes, for good. He will bring good out of everything. Everything that happens, God will bring good out of.
God doesn’t always stop bad things from happening. But God bring good out of everything.
Today, God will use your defeat. He will use your failures. He will use all of you for something great. Let Him guide and direct your path. He will do it.
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