January 7: Your strength = your problem

So let the one who thinks he is standing be careful that he does not fall. No trial has overtaken you that is not faced by others. And God is faithful: He will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear, but with the trial will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it.  (1 Corinthians 10:13 — NET)

We need to be careful of being over-confident and proud. Satan prowls around like a roaring lion seeking people that he can devour, and he has destroyed many people who at one point were stronger and more experienced than we are, so we need to humbly remind ourselves that we are nothing without the Lord Jesus Christ. No one can afford to assume that sin and the devil have no hope of sneaking into his life — we are all sinners, and in need of God’s forgiveness and strength.

On the other hand, we can never throw a pity party for ourselves and believe the lie that our problems are worse than anyone else’s. Whatever trial we are experiencing, others around the world are experiencing also, and we all have what it takes to conquer. God will not allow us to be tried beyond what we are able to bear — in other words, your problems are the size of your faith. It may not feel that way at the moment, but we cannot trust our feelings. God’s promise is what we have to stand on.

Because of this, we need to be bold, determining that we will never be defeated. When we are confident in face of temptation, we will attract God’s power. God will provide a way out of each and every situation. At times the “way out” will be to run away from temptation like Joseph, when his master's wife tried to seduce him (Genesis 39:12). At other times the “way out” will be supernatural strength from God that empowers us to triumph over our trial. Other times it will be uncommon wisdom that gives us crystal clear vision about what is the right thing to do, or a person that God sends to warn, teach, or encourage. However it happens, God will come through for us!

January 6: Submit, then resist

Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you…Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.  (James 4:6-10 — New English Translation)

James quotes from the Old Testament (Proverbs 3:34) to prove his point at the beginning of this passage. When we submit to God’s commands and way of doing things, we will receive God’s power to overcome in life, but when we oppose Him we end up with a formidable foe — God Himself! He will oppose us when we insist on doing things our own way.

Notice the two commands in this passage that we have to follow, in the right order. First we have to submit to God, abandoning pride and the flesh. After we do that we will have the boldness and authority to resist the devil and demons and make them flee. They will not turn their backs and walk away, they will run. Obviously, one thing that is a part of submitting to God is putting on His armor — this enables us to fight him effectively. In addition, we have to rebuke the devil. This is not God’s job, but ours. This cannot be limited to a prayer, true resisting involves changing our thoughts and behavior. Resisting the devil involves saying “yes” to God more often, and “no” to the devil and demons more often. A pastor can pray for us and cast every demon out, but only when we submit to God and do what He wants us to do will they truly flee.

Evil has no choice but to flee when we belong to the army of the living God. Remember, the war has already been won by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross — all we are doing is enforcing it in our own lives.

We would all like to be exalted, especially by God, but this involves humbling ourselves. If we are smart we will gladly do it — the rewards far outweigh any pain or discomfort we might go through. Humility means lowering ourselves in relation to God, understanding that He is our Creator and Lord, and that we are His servants. Accepting Him as our supreme authority is something that this world increasingly looks down on — “What about you?” our flesh asks. “Don’t you have any say in this?”. The modern world sees our humble attitude as demeaning, when in fact it is a truly spiritual attitude that even the Lord Jesus had while He was on earth.

There are two things that we desperately need as we begin the new year: for the devil to flee from us, and for God to exalt us. Let’s make sure both of these things happen.

January 5: Fathered of God

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been fathered by God, and everyone who loves the father loves the child fathered by him. By this we know that we love the children of God: whenever we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments do not weigh us down, because everyone who has been fathered by God conquers the world. This is the conquering power that has conquered the world: our faith. Now who is the person who has conquered the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.  (1 John 5:1-5 — New English Translation)

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been fathered by God… everyone who has been fathered by God conquers the world. These two statements are a summation of the truth of God. Understanding and applying these truths will give us victory in life. If we are sick of defeat, if we are tired of being a victim of circumstances and the oppression of demons, the ideas spoken about in these verses have the power to turn our situations around.

Conquering the world means something completely different to most people. The world sees it as financial success, possessions, money, fame, holidays, being respected by their peers, driving a certain car or living in a certain neighborhood, having a family, etc. God sees conquering the world as having victory over sin, over demons, over the flesh, experiencing the presence of God, and adopting His nature. Conquering the world in God’s eyes is being saved, something that cannot be bought with money, and yet costs all that a person has (Jesus’ parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price). When we are born of God — or fathered of God — that is when we truly conquer the world. All other attempts are false and short-lived.

If you have not yet undergone the radical change of being fathered of God, changed into His image, I encourage you to fight for this with all the strength you have as we start this new year. Our lives are a waste as long as we lack His presence. Tell God that you are not content with the life that your parents gave you, you want the life that only He can give.

January 4: I am willing!

After he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. And a leper approached, and bowed low before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” He stretched out his hand and touched him saying, “I am willing. Be clean!” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.  (Matthew 8:1-3 — New English Translation)

It’s common to hear people pray, “Lord, if it’s your will, heal so-and-so of his disease.” I would agree that we don’t always know what God’s plan is, but in general we should assume that healing is from God and sickness from the devil, long life from God and premature death from the devil, freedom from God and oppression from the devil. When it comes to certain requests we don’t need to wonder whether or not they are God’s will — He has already answered that question for many things in life. When we say, “I know God can heal, but I don't know if it’s His will to heal this person,” we are not speaking by faith. We can’t imagine Jesus saying that, and neither should we.

This passage mentions that the leper bowed low before Jesus. He did not just bow, he bowed low. He came to Jesus is humility, acknowledging his weakness and Jesus’ superior strength. This is an attitude that we need to develop. It’s so easy for us to be proud, and to make God feel unimportant. So many people, including Christians, daily insult Jesus by excluding Him from their lives, and by treating church attendance, financial giving, and the sacrifice of their own will as distasteful and unnecessary annoyances. This man was healed because he honored God… truly honored Him. When is the last time you did that?

A shocking thing that Jesus did was stretch out His hand to touch this man. The word for leprosy in the original Greek includes a number of skin diseases — not just leprosy. And yet anyone with a skin disease was considered unclean, was banned from the city, and forbidden from touching anyone. Leprosy itself was very contagious, and would infect with a simple touch. Jesus’ touch, according to the Law of Moses, would have made Him unclean, but His desire to help this man and respond to his humility and faith overrode everything else. But isn’t it the same with us? We are all unclean (if you don’t think so you’re in real trouble) and unworthy of Jesus’ touch, but He ignores that and reaches out to us when we come to Him in humility and faith.

Some or all of us need to learn from this outcast. He received what he needed from Jesus. Though he smelled bad and was deformed (characteristics of leprosy), and had virtually nothing to offer Jesus, he received healing that day. You may appear much better than him on the outside, but if you are not receiving what you need from God, that leper knows something that you don’t.

Let’s learn from him.

January 3: A spirit of power, not fear

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.  (2 Timothy 1:6,7 — New English Translation)

We cannot live in fear. The world wallows around in fear, and most people around us are constantly afraid of all kinds of things. But when we have surrendered our lives to God and are trusting in Jesus’ promises to come true in our lives… there is no room for fear. The only fear we should have is the fear of God. When we have that, we should not fear anyone or anything else. In fact, if fear is more than a temporary distraction that we brush aside — if it is constant and oppressive — that is a sign that we are in serious spiritual trouble. That level of fear will kill us unless it is pulled up by the roots and dealt with immediately.

The spirit of power, love and self-control mentioned in this passage does not refer to the Spirit of God, but our spirit. God’s Spirit obviously helps us, but Paul is here referring to our part in allowing God’s power to flow through us. We all have the choice to be fearful or powerful, hateful or loving, lazy or self-controlled. God cannot, and will not, do what we need to do. 

In everyday life this means that we have to choose to resist fear and determine that we are powerful even when we don’t feel like it. We have God’s promises and the many stories of people of faith in the Bible — and in the present — who have overcome impossible odds, and so there is no reason for us to give in to fear. When people attack us and lie about us, we have to fight against the natural tendency to hate. We have to choose love over hate, knowing that they are deceived and in need of a Savior. This way we avoid the wasteful, toxic attitudes of unforgiveness and grudges, and slam the door in the face of demons who would like to work in our lives.

I wonder if the daily thoughts you have about yourself match up with this passage. Do you think of yourself as powerful, loving, and self-controlled? Do you call yourself these three things every day? If not, if you are constantly telling yourself the opposite, how can you ever hope to live up to this ideal? With the help of demons, many people allow themselves to be brainwashed into believing the exact opposite of what these verses communicate.

Let’s all begin to define ourselves with these three words: powerful, loving, self-controlled… just like Paul encouraged the young Timothy to do.

January 2: Everyone who believes…

For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.  (John 3:16-18 — New English Translation)

One of the most famous, frequently cited passages of the Bible — this is a short but profound description of God’s plan of salvation for the world. It’s hard for some to swallow because it makes several strong, unambiguous statements about how eternal life is only for those who believe in the Lord Jesus. The idea that we should be accepting of all religions because they all lead to God in the end, may sound nice and humble, but the simple truth is that it contradicts this verse and many others like it in the Bible. God’s word is very clear about who He is, and that He is the only way to salvation. 

C.S. Lewis said this about Jesus: “Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.”

Don’t treat the Lord Jesus as a “great human teacher”, and don’t treat His house — the Church — as one of a list of places you go each week or month. Jesus is God, and we need Him if we are going to survive life on earth… and His house is the most important place we visit during the week. As we begin the year, let’s make God and His house our top priorities in life.

January 1: Created in God’s image

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.” God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.  (Genesis 1:26,27 — New English Translation)

We are made in the image and likeness of God; we have not descended from animals or from lower life forms. God created animals, plants, and all other things, but when He created us, He made us like Himself. We have the ability to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him. God’s original plan is that we live forever in His presence.

A part of being made in His image is that we were made to have authority and rule over the earth. All of creation was put under us by God; we were made to be God’s partners — to rule over His creation. Psalm 8 says this about mankind: “You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor."

But Adam and Eve rebelled against God. Their disobedience caused humankind to fall from its high place. The rule and authority that rightly belonged to man was handed over to Satan (because we are servants of the one we obey). God’s image and likeness in people was ruined and defaced by sin, and Satan and demons began to dominate and oppress them. People back then, and even today, are trapped in a world where they have little control over events and what happens to them.

But the Lord Jesus changed all that. In the book of Hebrews He is even called the Second Adam — the one who came to undo all the damage of the first Adam. Through His death and resurrection humankind can reestablish its connection to God, and enjoy His image and likeness again. When we place our trust in Jesus, and obey Him, because He defeated the devil, we begin to share in that victory. 

What belonged to Adam and Eve in the first few chapters of the Bible, and was lost, can now be ours again through Jesus’ sacrifice, and our obedience to Him. Let’s do this as we begin 2014. Discover your rightful place in this world.