How is your January going, readers? My family and I had a wonderful holiday season filled with fun and friends and good food. And now we are back into school and work schedules, enjoying the daily rhythms of family life.
As much as I love the return of routines in January, January seems to bring with it the pressure to do MORE and be MORE. Everywhere I look, there seems to be 10 steps to be MORE organized, ideas of how to read MORE this year, how to lose MORE weight this month… You know what I mean, I’m sure.
There is value to making goals and plans in January, but I feel wearily defeated by all of these ideas that make me strive to be and do more.
But on Sunday, a guest speaker, Sam Morgan shared a message at church that focused on the complete work of Jesus on the cross. The pastor shared a lot of Scripture about how God reached out to us by sending his Son to us, with no effort on our part. When we focus on the complete work that Christ did for us on the cross, we stop striving and we find rest. (You can watch the message here; it was fantastic!)
Interestingly, the pastor compared the account in Exodus 19 of how God rescued the Israelites from Egypt without any effort of their own. They were slaves, poor, weak, and discouraged who had nothing to offer God. But, the Lord mightily delivered them from the bondage of slavery, met every need of their in their journey through the dessert, and gave them the Promised Land.
And God offers this same delivery, provision, and blessing to us today, He delivers us from our sins, he provides for all of our earthly needs, and he gives us the promise of eternal life with him someday.
The part that I really needed to hear in light of the pressures of doing MORE this January, is that God offers us this good-news-gospel without us being able to offer him anything first. Like the Israelites, we have nothing good enough to offer God, but he reached out to us instead.
One of my favorite Rend Collective songs says, “I will preach the gospel to myself,” and I guess that’s what I think we we need to being doing MORE of this January. If you’ve accepted Christ as your savior, then you are completely accepted by God. Let’s frequently remember who we are in Christ.
I am a child of God
Galatians 3:26 “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 4:7 “So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.”
I am God’s special possession
1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Exodus 19:5 “Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations–for the whole earth is Mine.”
I have been saved through the work of Jesus, not through my good works
Ephesians 2:8-11 “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. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Thank you, Annie, for this beautiful devotion and reminder that Christ “is able to do far MORE abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power that is at work within us” (Eph 3:20) so we don’t have to feel stressed about doing more! I’ve never heard that song, so thank you for that, too.