Today’s Scripture: Matthew 6:25

“Do not be anxious about your life.”

Why do we worry? Because we don’t believe. We’re not really convinced the same Jesus who can keep a sparrow in the air knows where our lost luggage is, or how we’ll pay that car repair bill. Or if we believe he can deliver us through our difficulties, we doubt if he will. We let Satan sow seeds of doubt in our minds about God’s love and care for us.

The great antidote to anxiety is to come to God in prayer about everything. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). Nothing’s too big for him to handle or too small to escape his attention. Paul said we’re to come to God “with thanksgiving.” We should thank him for his past faithfulness in delivering us from troubles. We should thank him for the fact that he’s in control of every circumstance of our lives and that nothing can touch us that he doesn’t allow. We should thank him that in his infinite wisdom he’s able to work in this circumstance for our good. We can thank him that he won’t allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13).

The promised result is not deliverance, but the peace of God. One of the reasons we don’t find this peace is that all too often we won’t settle for anything other than deliverance from the trouble. But God, through Paul, promises us peace, a peace that is unexplainable. It will guard our hearts and minds against the anxiety to which you and I are so prone.

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Today’s Scripture: Exodus 15:11

“Who is like you, majestic in holiness?”

God has called every Christian to a holy life. There are no exceptions to this call. This call to a holy life is based on the fact that God himself is holy. Holiness is nothing less than conformity to the character of God.

Holiness in Scripture describes both the majesty of God and the purity and moral perfection of his nature. Holiness is one of his attributes—an essential part of the nature of God. His holiness is as necessary as his existence—as necessary, for example, as his wisdom or omniscience. Just as he cannot but know what is right, so he cannot but do what is right.

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Today’s Scripture: Romans 1:18, NIV

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men.”

Some people like to think that although the wrath of God is a reality in the Old Testament era, it disappears in the teaching of Jesus, where God’s love and mercy become the only expressions of his attitude toward his creatures. Jesus clearly refuted that notion: “Whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36, NIV). And he frequently referred to hell as the ultimate, eternal expression of God’s wrath. (See, for example, Matthew 5:22; 18:9; Mark 9:47; Luke 12:5.)

In the inspired letters of Paul, we read of God’s wrath being “stored up” for the day of judgment (Romans 2:5) and that God’s wrath is coming because of sin (Colossians 3:6). And the whole tenor of Revelation warns us of the wrath to come.

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Today’s Scripture: John 10:10

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Why do we not experience more of the endless supply of God’s grace? Why do we so often seem to live in spiritual poverty instead of experiencing life to the full as Jesus promised (John 10:10)? There are several reasons that may or may not apply to a particular believer. One that might apply to most of us is our frequent misperception of God as the divine equivalent of Ebenezer Scrooge, demanding the last ounce of work out of his people and then paying them poorly. That may sound like an overstatement of our perception of God, but I believe it’s a fairly accurate representation of how many Christians think.

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Today’s Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 1:6

“You received the word . . . with the joy of the Holy Spirit.”

Joy is a fruit of the spirit, the effect of his ministry in our hearts. Paul wrote, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13, NIV). It’s by the power of the Holy Spirit that we experience the joy of salvation and are enabled to rejoice even in the midst of trials.

The Spirit uses his Word to create joy in our hearts. Romans 15:4 speaks of the endurance and encouragement that come from the Scriptures; the next verse says that God gives endurance and encouragement. God is the source; the Scriptures are the means. The same truth applies to joy. Verse 13 speaks of God filling us with joy and peace as we trust him. How would we expect God to do this? The reasonable answer is by means of the Scriptures.

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Today’s Scripture: Psalm 118:6

“The Lord is on my side.”

How can we develop our love for God so that our obedience is prompted by love instead of some lesser motive? The Scripture gives us our first clue, or beginning point, when it says, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Our love to God can only be a response to his love for us. If I don’t believe God loves me, I cannot love him. To love God, I must believe that he is for me, not against me (Romans 8:31) and that he accepts me as a son or a daughter, not a slave (Galatians 4:7).

What would keep us from believing God loves us? The answer is a sense of guilt and condemnation because of our sin. The same tender conscience that enables us to become aware of sins that lie deep beneath the level of external actions can also load us down with guilt. When we’re under that burden and sense of condemnation, it is difficult to love God or believe that he loves us.

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Today’s Scripture: Zechariah 9:17

“How great is his goodness!”

Joel prophesied God’s judgment upon Judah through a plague of locusts that would devour all the trees and plants, resulting in widespread famine. Then, in the midst of a prophecy of restoration, God made the following promise: “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you” (Joel 2:25).

Consider the amazing generosity of God. He did not limit his promise merely to restoring the land to its former productivity. He said he’ll repay them for the years the locusts have eaten, years they themselves forfeited to the judgment of God. God could well have said, “I’ll restore your land to its former productivity, but too bad about those years you lost! They are gone forever. That’s the price you pay for your sin.” He would have been generous just to have restored them—but he went beyond that. He would cause their harvests to be so abundant they would recoup the losses from the years of famine. He said he’ll repay them, though he obviously owed them nothing.

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Today’s Scripture: Philippians 1:9

“It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more.”

How can we fulfill our responsibility to love “more and more” (1 Thessalonians 4:9-10)? Recognizing that love is an inner disposition of the soul produced only by the Holy Spirit, what can we do to fulfill our responsibility? First, the Spirit of God uses his Word to transform us. If we want to grow in love, we must saturate our minds with Scriptures that describe love and show its importance. First Corinthians 13:1-3, for example, tells us of the emptiness of all knowledge, abilities, and zeal apart from love. First Corinthians 13:4-7 describes love in terms of specific attitudes and actions. Romans 13:8-10 describes love in terms of fulfilling the law of God in our lives.

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Today’s Scripture: Hebrews 9:27

“It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.”

All of us will eventually face judgment before a holy and just God. As we think of that inevitable day, do we want to see justice done, or mercy? Except for the most arrogantly self-righteous among us, we would all hope for mercy. Here, however, is our dilemma: God’s justice is certain, and it is inflexible.

Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 1:6-8, “God is just: he will pay back. he will punish those who do not know God” (NIV). And in Romans 12:19: “?t is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (NIV). Though often delayed, God’s justice is nonetheless certain. Justice may be defined as rendering to everyone according to one’s due.

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Today’s Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:9

“You yourselves have been taught by God.”

God administers his discipline in the realm of grace. What does that mean? It means that all his teaching, training, and discipline are administered in love and for our spiritual welfare. It means God is never angry with us, though he’s often grieved at our sins. It means he doesn’t condemn us or count our sins against us. All that he does in us and to us is done on the basis of unmerited favor. To use the words of William Hendricksen, “God’s grace is his active favor bestowing the greatest gift upon those who have deserved the greatest punishment.”

Where the law condemns, grace forgives through the Lord Jesus Christ. Where the law commands but gives no power, grace commands but does give power through the Holy Spirit who lives and works within us.

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Today’s Scripture: Hebrews 3:14

“We have come to share in Christ.”

Christ’s work is not effective for everyone because not everyone is in union with him.

We’re united to Christ by faith—that is, by trusting in him as our savior. And the moment we trust in Christ, we become partakers of and beneficiaries of all that he did in both his life and death. We’re united to Christ both legally and vitally. We can distinguish these two aspects in this way: our legal union with Christ entitles us to all that Christ did for us as he acted in our place, as our substitute. Our vital union with Christ is the means by which he works in us by his Holy Spirit. The legal union refers to his objective work outside of us that is credited to us through faith. The vital union refers to his subjective work in us, which is also realized through faith as we rely on his Spirit to work in and through us.

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Today’s Scripture: Romans 6:23

“The wages of sin is death.”

Yet another reason we don’t experience more holiness in our daily lives is that we don’t take some sin seriously. We’ve mentally categorized sins into that which is unacceptable and that which may be tolerated a bit.

In commenting on some of the more minute Old Testament dietary laws God gave to the children of Israel, Andrew Bonar said, “It is not the importance of the thing, but the majesty of the lawgiver, that is to be the standard of obedience. Some, indeed, might reckon such minute and arbitrary rules as these as trifling. But the principle involved in obedience or disobedience was none other than the same principle which was tried in Eden at the foot of the forbidden tree. It is really this: Is the Lord to be obeyed in all things whatsoever he commands? Is he a holy lawgiver? Are his creatures bound to give implicit assent to his will?”

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Today’s Scripture: Romans 8:32

“How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

The fact that God deals with his children on the basis of grace without regard to merit or demerit is a staggering concept. It’s opposed to almost everything we’ve been taught about life. We’ve been generally conditioned to think that if we work hard and “pay our dues,” we’ll be rewarded in proportion to our work: “you do so much, you deserve so much.”

But God’s grace doesn’t operate on a reward-for-works basis. It’s much better than that. God is generous beyond all measure or comparison. The Scripture says, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son”; and Paul spoke of this as God’s “inexpressible gift” (John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 9:15).

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