Improved vs. New // 02.13

"Jesus was very clear: 'Apart from me you can do nothing' (John 15:5). We may have thought that being a Christian meant being better, improving ourselves, and having a profound reason to obey God and do good works. If so, we set our eyes on the result of the Christian life and forgot the means to get there. We cannot become mature disciples except by supernatural means. Jesus did not come into this world to make us better; He came into this world to make us new. There's a significant difference."

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"Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ." —Galatians 3:2

Internally received & externally expressed // 02.12

"God's character is expressed in His works. What He does emanates from His personality. He expects the same of us—our faith will result in works. The fruit of the Spirit is not just internally received but externally expressed. God meets us in the deep, inward spaces, but He always leads us outward. His Spirit does not invade our being to remain hidden. We are the display of His glory, not its best-kept secret."

What am I doing on a daily basis that expresses that God lives within me? It seems too little to be of importance. There are moments of volunteering, but far too few moments of daily affirmation and love for those around me.

Dear God,
Please use me. Fill me with your Spirit and show me how to live every day. Help me to love more, to think of you more, to express your will and desire through me. Help my expressions to be worthy of You.
Amen.

No need for human approval // 02.07

"The need to impress. The desire to stay out of trouble. The tendency to compare ourselves to others. The urge to maneuver and manipulate. All of these are products of our natural fear of man. If 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom' (Proverbs 9:10), the fear of man is the end of it. We cannot serve Him well with our eyes on popular opinion....
"God commands us to resist the urge to run with the crowd. It's an urge based on insecurity, rooted in our former alienation from our Creator. But once reconciled to our Creator, w have no need for human approval. There is no crowd to please, no culture to accommodate, no hoops to jump through for the momentary applause of a fickle audience. Best of all, there is no snare to fall into. Living Godward lives, we are kept safe from the false values of this world."