The Gospel Shaped Life

“The shock of the gospel is that we can do nothing to sustain our relationship with God—His faithfulness alone can do that. He’s powerful enough to take the worst of sinners and use their screwed up lives to bring Him glory. This should teach us to place no confidence in ourselves, but rather, to train our focus on Him and His steadfast love. The glory of the gospel is that God’s love is lavished upon the unlovely, His grace is given to the unworthy, and His promises are fulfilled by Him alone.” (shereadstruth.com)

I haven’t been able to shake the words of the above paragraph from a devotion I read for days. These are things I know and have been taught for years but for some reason reading them again has almost felt like a huge sigh of relief for me.

I don’t know about you but in our crazy busy, non stop, full throttle society, where everyone is running full speed ahead and expecting you to do the same its such a relief to know that my relationship with Jesus is not based on me and what or how much I can do but it is entirely based on Him and His grace and love for me.

When I fall short in the eyes of others or my to do list seems to never end or when I just don’t feel good enough- God’s grace covers me. His grace is sufficient. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

I was recently reading 1 John again and some of the verses in this book have been great reminders of this truth as well. 1 John 3:20 “For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything.” Thank you Jesus! When we condemn ourselves and even when others condemn us we can rest in knowing that Jesus doesn’t condemn us, He knows our hearts FULLY and still loves us unconditionally! WOW!

1 John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

“We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

Even our love for God is first based on His love for us! He made the first step to love us and He continues to pursue our hearts every day.

So no matter how we feel or what is going on in our lives or who is pleased with us or not, this is what we can be sure of.

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:37-39

May I encourage you today to let go of everything else and embrace His pursuit of your heart!

Praise:

We had 17 volunteers attend volunteer training Monday night!

More pastors are coming together to pray for each other and the city.

Prayer:

That the youth pastors/youth workers who attend the Youth Worker Luncheon on Thursday would be encouraged.

For the high school student leader retreat this Friday.

For the student missionaries to be bold witnesses.

That God would continue to raise up more volunteers.

Protection for the staff and their families.

Pray for the Brunz family and the community as they mourn the loss of Bob (husband, father, grandfather, Pastor). Bethany, Daniel, and Micah have previously worked with us and were instrumental in the ministry and in students’ lives. Bob and Laurie spent a lot of time praying for us/the city, encouraging our staff, and poured out the love of Jesus Christ to many.

#TabithaSadler