“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” —EPHESIANS 4:30

It is possible to be sealed by the Holy Spirit, but to have allowed things in our lives to grieve Him and continue to grieve Him. To grieve is to experience a deep, intense sorrow or mourning. Grief is a unique combination of both positive and negative emotions. Anger and disappointment are involved, but also love and gratitude. Love mingled with anger is grief. We read in Genesis 6:6, “The LORD was grieved that he had made man on earth, and his heart was filled with pain.” God is not above emotions. This is a revelation of Himself. He grieves and His heart is pained.

What causes God to be grieved? In Ephesians 4:26-27, Paul says, “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” Anger leads us into sin because it becomes bitterness, and bitterness is anger that has been pushed down and poisoned our hearts. When it comes to the things that anger God, it may also grieve the Holy Spirit if they do not anger us. All things in God are a virtue, including anger. That does not mean there is something wrong with God, but there is something wrong with us if we do not have that righteous anger over the things that anger God, such as injustice, oppression, greed and dishonesty. 

Paul also lists rage, slander, brawling and malice as grieving the Holy Spirit (4:31). There is also a falsehood where Paul tells us to put off our old self, which is being corrupted by deceitful desires. If we are not honest with others, we are not honest with ourselves. When we hide behind falsehood, it is because we lack the humility and/or courage to be honest. Isaiah 28:15 says, “We have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.” In this chapter, Isaiah reveals it is the coming of God Himself, washing like a flood in our lives that will wash out the falsehood and lies.

If we grieve the Holy Spirit His presence in us becomes clouded, His power diminished and His blessing absent. Consequently, our Christian lives are not experiential, but dull and dry. Are we grieving the Holy Spirit? Is there a barrier that prevents Him from working to the fullest measure in us? If our Christian lives are not moving forward and exciting us, then we need to confess what we know in our hearts is grieving the Holy Spirit. Let us pray that in the strength of Christ, we can banish the barriers, allowing the Holy Spirit complete liberty to do all that He would do in our lives.

Dear Lord, I pray for your strength to overcome the barriers that may be grieving the Holy Spirit in my life. Thank You, Lord.

In what way(s) could I be grieving the Holy Spirit?

“Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.” —EPHESIANS 1:13-14

We tend to associate personality with physical being, but what makes a person is the possession of a mind, a will and emotions. The Holy Spirit has all three. He has personal attributes and engages in personal activities. He speaks, intercedes, teaches, guides, commands and appoints. The Holy Spirit is the active member of the Trinity and is the actual presence of God who lives the life of Christ within us. It is by His revelation and wisdom that we come to know Christ.

The Holy Spirit seals us in Christ, and a seal is a mark of ownership. As Christians, we are not asking Jesus Christ to become our servant, but our owner, and this is fundamental to the Gospel. The seal of the Holy Spirit is a seal of ownership in which we belong to Christ and are under his Lordship. Once we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, He is in us until the day of redemption. We will never lose Him.

A seal confirms something as being genuine. The sealing of the Holy Spirit marks the authenticity of our salvation and our union with Christ. This comes about as Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:13, “By having believed.” On our part, we believe, and on God’s part, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit. 

But something far deeper than believing goes on in the heart of a Christian that is inexplicable apart from the fact that God is doing something. There is internal evidence which Paul speaks of in Romans 8:16, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” We cannot be confident of this until we know that inner assurance only the Holy Spirit gives. It is an experiential awareness in which we were once blinded to the truth and dead in our transgressions, but now we see and are made alive in Christ. 

Romans 5:5 tells us, “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” We have this wonderful awareness that we are loved by God, not because we believe it as an article of faith, but because experientially we know something of the Spirit of God pouring His love into our hearts. How God confirms this will vary from person to person, but something happens to us as we recognize that Jesus Christ is both the Truth and the Life. They cannot be separated because we need to know the Truth in order to experience the Life.

Dear Lord, it is wonderful to know that once we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, we can never lose Him. I cherish His presence within me. Thank You, Lord.

Am I strengthened and comforted knowing that I am sealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit all the days of my life?

“And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” —ROMANS 8:30

To be “in Christ” is to be in union with Him, but the big question many people wrestle with is: Did we have a choice or were we predestined before the foundations of the earth?

Paul says in Ephesians 1:4, “He chose us in him before the creation of the world.” In verse 5, he says, “He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ...”, and in verse 11, “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” It is all “in Christ” that we are chosen by God and become the chosen people of God. Nowhere in Scripture does it say we are chosen to be “put into Christ”, but we are chosen by virtue of being “in Christ”.

It is only “in Christ” that we are baptized into one body of which Christ is the head. We cannot read Ephesians 1:4 as, “God chose us before the creation of the world.” What it says is that, “God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world.” That is, God determined before the creation of the world that Christ would be the means by which He would choose His people, and the emphasis of being chosen in Christ is that we are now the means by which Christ is going to do His work on earth. 

Revelation 13 tells us about Jesus as the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. When we are brought into relationship with Christ, we are brought into a history that goes back to the beginning of the world. What is important about predestination is not how we became Christians, but what we are predestined to become as Christians. 

To be predestined, we do not stand still. We are in Christ to be on a mission with Him that has been predetermined from the beginning of the foundations of the earth. Romans 8:29 says, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brothers.” Our lives in Christ become purposeful with the expectancy that we are being conformed to His likeness and become partakers of His work in this world with every spiritual blessing made available to us. It is only through Christ, being chosen in Him, that we share in the immense gift and blessing of being in union with Him.

Dear Heavenly Father, the gift of being in union with Christ is the most precious relationship of my life. Thank You, God, for making that possible.

How would I convey to others what being chosen in Christ means?

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” —JOHN 16:33

The 20th Century has been one of the most tragic in history where the naked evils of Nazism under Hitler, and Communism, particularly under Stalin in Russia and Mao Zedong in China, were exposed and many millions of lives were lost. For the most part, that has imploded, but the 21st Century has opened to an obsession with international terrorism where there are no lines or demarcation and millions more live in fear. 

Persecution of race, religion, political beliefs and of the weak and oppressed has left an indelible stain on the course of humanity throughout its history. There is, however, a natural moral law which states that although evil seems to dominate our world this natural law will bring it back to something better. The killing fields of Pol Pot could not survive. The exploitation of colonialism would have its fling for about a century and then collapse. The oppression of communism survived 60 or 70 years, and North Korea cannot survive in its present oppression. In due course, the natural law will correct the evils.

But it seems just as one evil diminishes another emerges. When Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” we do not have to scratch our heads and wonder what He was talking about, but we can certainly wonder why all the atrocities of war are taking place. James asks, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God” (James 4:1-2). What does this tell you about the state of our world? It begins with the human heart and Scripture gives us a diagnosis of the heart. It is fallen, corrupt and in need of repair. The entire world is in need of a Saviour. 

Millions have sacrificed their lives fighting valiantly for equality and freedom. We honour them on Remembrance Day. At the United Nations building in New York City, engraved on a plaque, is the passage from Micah 4:3, which says, “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” 

All reconciliation to God, not just of humanity, but of all creation funnels through the cross of Christ. It is the pivotal moment in history whereby all God created will be restored to Him. That day has yet to come, but we can live with the knowledge that Jesus has overcome the world and in Him, we stand on the side of victory.

Thank You Lord Jesus for your work on the cross. I pray for peace in our world and look forward to the day when humanity will live as one.

How is the state of the world affecting me and am I praying for peace? 

“Then Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” —MATTHEW 4:1

The first assignment of Jesus following His baptism by John the Baptist is a very interesting one. He was not called to preach a sermon, nor to heal anyone or perform a miracle, but was led into the wilderness by the Spirit of God to be tempted by the devil. 

To be subject to attack by Satan while alone in the wilderness was a deliberate strategy. Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights of solitude in the hostile environment of the desert with no food in His stomach and with the devil on His back, guns blazing! This is the consequence of His being led by the Spirit for God’s purpose in testing Him, not only for His ministry that lay ahead, but for the grueling day when He would be made sin for us and hang on a Roman cross, despised and rejected by men. 

There is an insupportable idea that our comfort and God’s interests coincide. This is simply not the case. The Holy Spirit’s presence does not set us free from difficulties but equips us for them, and so often the rough, tough situations in life are His tools for accomplishing His will and purpose for us.

This time Jesus spent in the desert needs to be understood from two points of view; from the antagonist, the devil, and from the instigator, God. From the devil’s perspective, these were forty days of temptation designed to weaken and disqualify Jesus from His ministry. From God’s perspective, they were 40 days and nights of testing, designed to strengthen and qualify Him. The exact same events had the potential of the exact opposite effects. Every attack of Satan is a potential springboard to growth as we respond to God in the attack, and every experience of the Holy Spirit carries with it a potential of opportunity of shipwreck if we allow the devil to intrude. 

It was Satan who attacked Jesus in the wilderness, but it was the Spirit who led him into the conflict. The very thing the devil would use to destroy us is the very thing God uses to build us. That is why it is true to say that sometimes the devil will do us good. It is never his intention, but with the appropriate response such as we see in Jesus, drawing upon the word of God, the devil’s attack becomes a springboard to greater blessing and a deeper experience of God.

Dear Heavenly Father, in times of testing and temptation, keep me mindful to always draw upon your Spirit and be my strength, Lord. Thank You.

In difficult times, am I turning to Christ and trusting Him to work out His purpose in them?

“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” —JOHN 4:10

Many people feel as though their lives are sinking into a bottomless well and nothing is going to stop their descent. They know they have made many mistakes and are thirsting for a way out, but every effort they make only drops them further down. 

It was at a well Jesus encountered the woman of Samaria. She had been married five times and was currently living with a man she was not married to. Ostracized by her community, she made the trek by herself to collect water in the heat of the day. Her life had been one failure after another and her history symptomatic of a thirst we all have for identity, purpose, fulfillment and love. But along the way, like the woman of Samaria, we have done the wrong things and have trapped ourselves in a tangled web of our own doing.

Jesus does not stop at the well, stare down and say, “I told you so.” He does not condemn, judge, or even throw lectures our way. He gets down into the well, right into the thick of the tangled mess our lives are in, and He says, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14). 

We can be so concerned about the symptoms of our sin and what we do that we seek only to deal on that level, but that is not the intent of Jesus. He wants to go deep into every area of our lives to exercise His reign and provide His resources. He said to the woman, “If you knew the gift of God…you would have asked…” Romans 6:23 says, “…the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” John 17:3 says, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” 

The first word of the Gospel is not about God demanding, but of God giving and the picture is this: the water Jesus gives will be deep like a well, and fresh like a spring. It does not simply address the symptoms (what we do), but the cause (what we are). We are sinners, incapable of living the way God intended, so God gives us Jesus. It is in His strength, His direction we climb out of the well, and begin to see how He meets the deepest needs of our hearts.

Dear Lord Jesus, I ask You to come into every area of my life to cleanse me, forgive me and take the reins of my life. Thank You, Lord, with all my heart. Amen.

Have I felt my life at a dismal low and did I turn to Christ? 

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” —LUKE 19:10

It has been the experience of many people who are seeking the truth and know about Jesus to have been disappointed with different churches they have attended. Jesus said we never find Him casually, but those who are genuinely seeking Him will find Him. 

I remember preaching for a week in a church in Australia. It began on a Sunday night and went through to Friday. At the end of the first meeting, two young women approached me and asked, “What do we need to do to become a Christian?” I told them they needed to meet with Jesus, and explained, “You need to seek for Him and find Him. If you do, you will find Him and He will draw you into a relationship with Himself.”

Only one of the girls came back, but she attended every evening, and that week found Christ and became a Christian. She told me she had been seeking for a long time and had been to six churches in that town. She asked the same question of one of the pastors, “What do I need to do to become a Christian?” He said it was fantastic she had asked because they were having an evangelistic meeting that evening. 

He invited her to come and at the end of the meeting, he extended an invitation for people to come forward. She came forward and was taken into a room where someone prayed for her, but she said nothing happened. 

She went to another church where elders put hands on her and prayed, but again nothing happened. She tried another church where people stood around her, again placing their hands on her and praying, but nothing changed. At another church, someone began speaking in tongues and told her to waggle her tongue and things would happen, but nothing did.

The intentions were well meant, but the problem was no one had ever told this girl to seek for Jesus Himself. The tragedy in evangelism today is that we can put people through different programs and techniques, which in themselves are dead, because they have become detached from Christ. Jesus said, “Seek and you will find...” (Matthew 7:7). It is dealing directly with Jesus that the doctrine of Christianity becomes real and alive to us because Jesus has become real and alive to us!

Sometimes all we need to do is get alone with Jesus and ask Him, “Will You meet with me? Will You speak to me and show yourself to me?” Jesus is also seeking and what we will discover is that it does not take long for a seeking Saviour and a seeking soul to meet.

Dear Lord, thank You for the wonderful privilege and blessing of dealing directly with You. I pray for your Spirit to be at work in me every minute of the day.

Have I been frustrated by programs that I thought would make Christ come alive for me?

“Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’” —JOHN 1:38

In the above verse, Jesus was talking to Andrew and another disciple who started to follow Him after John the Baptist declared, “Look, the Lamb of God!” (John 1:36) “What do you want?” is a question Jesus asked on several occasions and it is an important question we need to ask ourselves. In our relationship with Jesus, what do we actually want? Maybe we just want our sin forgiven and our consciences made clean, which is good and valid, but as true Christians is that all we really want? 

The disciples’ response is an interesting one. They asked Jesus, “Where are you staying?” (1:38) This seems way down on the scale of important things to be wanting. They have at last identified the Messiah who asks them directly, “What do you want?”, and at first glance our interpretation of their response is in effect saying, “Hey, Jesus, where is it You hang your hat?” However, with deeper inspection we see a very profound meaning to their question. 

This event took place in Bethany by the Jordan River, which was a long way from where Jesus lived in Galilee. “Come and you will see”, Jesus said to the disciples and brought them to where He was staying. As an itinerant preacher, this was to become the pattern of Jesus. In fact, on one occasion, when a man said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go,” Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Luke 9:58). In other words, Jesus was of no fixed abode.

The answer to Andrew’s question comes to a climax in John 14:23 when Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” Later, Paul describes our bodies as “a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you” (1 Corinthians 6:19). In the Old Testament, the temple was the place where God lived, but under the New Covenant, as we come to Christ, our bodies become His home. 

This is what the heart of the Gospel is about. Our sins are forgiven and we are cleansed in order that we might be indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. The home of Jesus Christ is within the hearts of people who receive Him. As Christians, it is our task to introduce Jesus to those who are lost so that they too may receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and become a home the Lord Jesus can work in and through.

Dear Lord Jesus, I pray that You make your home in me and fill me with your Spirit. Thank You, Lord. Amen.

What am I looking for in my relationship with Jesus and have I provided a welcoming abode for Him?

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” —PSALM 23:5

David wrote many of the psalms hiding out in caves and wooded areas while on the run from King Saul. One of his best known is Psalm 23, “The Lord is My Shepherd”, which includes the beautiful sentence, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” In that sentence there are two contradictory aspects – a feast and a fight.

Victory and ease should never be confused or made synonymous with each other. To say that God gives victory does not mean we do not fight. The feast represents the full and free provision by God of everything we need. But where is the feast? The startling answer is “in the presence of my enemies”. It is in the thick of battle, nose to nose with the enemy that the feast is laid before us. If we are to enjoy the feast, we must engage in the fight. Avoid the fight and we miss the feast!

In our early Christian days, many of us probably thought the more we grow in our walk with God, the easier the fight. Temptations would dwindle, the old nature would lie down and the devil would give up. But actually, the reverse is true. The more we grow in Christ, the more we unsettle the devil and the more intense the battle. 

Job is a prime example. The Bible describes him as a blameless, upright man who feared God and shunned evil. He was the greatest man God had among all the people of the East. But Satan wanted to discredit Job as being faithful to God, so God gave Satan permission to attack, but within boundaries which were extended. As a result, Job suffered devastating loss. In the midst of it, he says of God, “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I will come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). In other words, I cannot see God, but I know God sees me, and out of this He is bringing forth gold!

In our own lives, the fight is persistent, but so is the feast. God’s victory is enjoyed in the midst of our conflict; our poverty for His riches and our weaknesses for His strength. Whether the tactics of Satan or our own vulnerabilities, the battle of flesh against the Spirit will be ongoing until the day we die, but so will the liberating presence and counteraction of the Holy Spirit who alone is equal to the task and prepares the table before us.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for the ample provision You provide in my struggles. It is the “feast” that sees me through.

Am I drawing upon the provision of God in my times of hardship? 

“…whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” —GALATIANS 6:8

Sowing to the Spirit is to actively plant the things of the Spirit. To deliberately and earnestly be taken up with what pleases God and satisfies His agenda is to sow seeds that germinate, grow and produce the fruit of life in all its fullness. This applies in our lives to both the present and the future.

To love Jesus Christ, to love His word, to live in submission to Him, to obey His instructions and be dependent on Him is to be sowing good seed into good soil. Paul describes the harvest of this good seed when he says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). He lists nine qualities, but he does not say, “The fruits of the Spirit are…” in the plural. He says “fruit of the Spirit” – singular. We may reduce these qualities to just one word and call the fruit of the Spirit ‘character’. We may be even more specific and say, “The fruit of the Spirit is the character of Jesus Christ.”

God holds no greater ambition for us than to become like His Son as a result of the presence and working of His Spirit in us. These qualities are the fruit of the Spirit therefore they are divine in origin and supernatural in expression. The harvest, however, does not come overnight. In 2 Corinthians 3:18 Paul tells us, “We are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory,” glory being the character of God. It is a process that begins the moment we are indwelt by the Spirit and will continue throughout our life time. Paul writes, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). 

God is totally committed to reproducing the character of His Son in us – and He is doing it! We will be the last people to see this in ourselves because we will be conscious of the old nature fighting against the Spirit to keep us from doing what we would like to do, and we will also be able to present every reason in the world to be discouraged. But others will see Christ in us. We will be conscious of the battle; they will see the victory. We will know the struggle; they will see the rest. That is why our task is to “fix our eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2), be taken up with Him and His interests, and leave the consequences with God.

Dear Lord, I want to be wholly taken up with You, and pray for a deeper and fresher work of your Spirit in conforming me to your likeness. Thank You, Lord.

Is my life focused on Jesus?

“Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction…” —GALATIANS 6:8

We may sow seeds designed to satisfy and please the flesh and we will reap the consequences – destruction. Or we may sow seeds designed to satisfy and please the Spirit, and reap those consequences – a greater enjoyment of a new quality of life that is the eternal life of God in us.

When we find ourselves falling into major areas of sin, it is rarely because the sin has crept up on us and caught us unaware. Long before events take place we have unwisely sown the seeds that have, in their own time, germinated and produced their fruit. When a Christian of standing falls in a public way, as many sadly have, we may be shocked by it, but we can be fairly sure it did not take place overnight. Long before a fall took place, unchecked seeds sown in the soil of their minds germinated, and in the course of time, came to life and produced their inevitable fruit.

When Paul speaks in Galatians of destruction as the consequence of sowing to the flesh, he is not speaking of eternal damnation as he is addressing those already indwelt by the Spirit and sealed by His presence as God’s people. Paul talks about this same destruction to the Corinthians, using a different metaphor; the need to construct a building on the foundation of Jesus Christ. He writes, “If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames” (1 Corinthians 3:12-15). 

This is a destruction that involves ‘escaping through the flames’ but with empty hands. To sow seeds that are purely humanly oriented and detached from God is to sow things that may well please the sinful nature in the short term, but will carry no eternal dimension or quality. On the contrary, they will actively rob us of the eternal benefits otherwise in store on the Day of Judgment.

Burying the seeds of sin does not deal with it. Seeds love to be buried! That is how they spring to life, grow and reproduce themselves. The only way sin ever leaves our bodies is through our mouths. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Lord, I come humbly to You to confess my sin and ask for your help in overcoming areas of sin that have a hold on me. Thank You, Lord.

Am I confessing my sin and asking for the Lord’s help in dealing with it? 

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” —HEBREWS 11:1

Undefined words can be a source of confusion, especially when interpreted in different ways. There are two popular notions of faith in widespread use today, and both are untrue to the biblical meaning of faith.

Faith is not a mystical power. Some think of it as a force, a mind-over-matter phenomenon whereby the actual act of believing something long and hard enough has the effect of making it come true. For example, the weather forecast can be calling for a rainy, cloudy day and it is raining and the sky is thick with clouds. We can believe in sunshine all we want, but it is not going to make the sun appear. That is foolishness, not faith. Believing in something never, in itself, changes the facts. Things simply do not happen by sheer force of belief.

Faith is not a substitute for facts. Many people see faith as something that comes into play only when they run out of facts. As long as they have facts they are secure, but when facts run out and things become uncertain, it is then they need to exercise faith. In other words, a basic ingredient in the exercise of faith is a good imagination – a willingness to believe in things that cannot be substantiated. It is actually the reverse that is true. Faith is not an alternative to facts, but is valid only when it is placed in facts.

Faith does not exist alone, but is an attitude of trust toward something or someone. In this respect, it is like love. Love does not exist alone but has to have something or someone as the object of our love. Similarly, faith is an attitude of trust in something or someone who works on our behalf. We place our faith in a myriad of things everyday. We place faith in a chair to hold our weight; faith in a car to get us to work; faith in our refrigerators to keep our food cold. The most important aspect of faith is not faith itself, but the quality of the object in which we place our faith. Having a little faith will not detract from the quality of the object and conversely, a lot of faith will not improve the quality. 

In the Christian life, the object of our faith is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the exercise of our faith is an attitude of trust toward Him. When Scripture states that we are “saved by faith”, it means we recognize our utter inability to save ourselves. And in trusting Christ, we come in humble repentance and submission to Him, allowing Him to work on our behalf. 

Dear Lord, who better to place our faith in than the One who created us? Thank You, Lord, for working on my behalf and being the rock in my life. 

Am I trusting Christ on a daily basis to work on my behalf?

“And without faith it is impossible to please God…” —HEBREWS 11:6

If we were to construct a top ten list of the most misunderstood words in the Christian vocabulary, I would nominate the word ‘faith’ for the number one spot. It is a word which introduces us to the key factor in Christian living, designed to bring freedom, liberty and power into our experience. Yet, like no other word, it has brought frustration, discouragement and even a sense of condemnation to people.

It is by faith that truth becomes experience and without it, truth remains elusive, impractical and theoretical. The writer of Hebrews, comparing Israel in the Old Testament to his readers, states, “For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard it did not combine it with faith” (Hebrews 4:2). Two groups of people heard the same truth. To the one group it was of immense value, but to the other it was of no value at all. The reason? One group combined what they knew with faith while the other group did not. It is the combination of truth with faith that makes the truth of the Gospel work effectively in our lives.

One thing we cannot escape as we read the Bible is that faith is an indispensable part of Christian experience. Scripture tells us that we are cleansed by faith, saved by faith, justified by faith and that we have access to God by faith. However, having been saved by faith, we also discover that we are to live by faith and to walk by faith. In so doing, we discover we are to fight the good fight of faith, to take the shield of faith and to overcome the world by faith.

We then discover that without faith it is impossible to please God and “everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). Whatever else we may think about faith, we have to agree it is not only of utmost importance, but essential! If we have difficulty living the Christian life, in all probability, it is related to our exercise of faith or lack of it. 

It is by faith God designed the Christian life to function. Many Christians recognize their need for Christ to save them, and the act of becoming a Christian by faith is basic and fundamental to them. However, the problem arises when there is a failure to recognize the equal necessity to live each day by faith in the same way they became Christians. The result of exercising faith in God is what enables Him to work in us, through us and for us.

Dear Lord, grant me an unwavering faith in You that enables You to work in me and through me every day of my life. Thank You, Lord. 

Am I exercising the same faith today as when I first became a Christian?

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” —ROMANS 6:23

There are many things that could legitimately be described as gifts from God, but Paul tells us the gift of God is eternal life. There is much confusion as to what eternal life is, why we need it and how we receive it. 

In the New Testament, eternal life is not something we receive when we die. It is spoken of in the present tense. John 3:36 says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life...” It does not say “will have” but “has” eternal life. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life…he has crossed over from death into life” (John 5:24). Eternal life is a present tense experience that is the result of being born again of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus later defines eternal life: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). It is knowing God and knowing Christ, not in an intellectual sense, but experientially. Eternal life is nothing less than the life of God lived within a person. It is that quality of life that derives from the presence of Jesus Christ in us, which now makes sense of this life on earth, but which we continue to enjoy through all eternity.

The reason we need eternal life is because the only other alternative is what the Bible calls “perishing”. 1 Corinthians 1:18 says, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing…” 2 Corinthians 4:3 says, “If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.” Every one of us is naturally in the process of perishing. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is about His intervention in a person’s life, halting the process of perishing and replacing it with eternal life. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Unless the process of perishing is replaced with the process of living an eternal life through Jesus Christ, perishing will culminate in eternal separation from God. There is no third path; perishing or living, which is why we need eternal life.

Receiving eternal life is a gift of God. The marvelous thing is there is nothing we have to do to earn it. Eternal life is never a reward and never payment for anything we do. It is a gift which simply requires coming humbly to Christ with empty hands, accepting it and saying, “Thank You, Lord.”

Thank You, heavenly Father, for the gift of eternal life. It brings me much comfort and peace knowing I will be in your presence forever.

Do I realize eternal life has already begun for me in Christ?

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” —JOHN 15:5

For many years following the Reformation of the 16th century, Protestant theology concentrated on Paul’s doctrine of “justification by faith” and understandably so. The rediscovery of this cardinal truth of the New Testament opened the floodgate for the Reformation, led by Martin Luther, and represented a liberation from the tyranny of “justification by works” to which the church had succumbed for centuries.

More recent scholarship in the past century, however, has shown that as valuable and vital as the theme of justification by faith is in the writings of Paul, the heart of Paul’s teaching about the Christian life is “union with Christ”. To be in union with Christ is for Christ to be in us and for us to be in Him. It is the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to His disciples when He said, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20). 

The term ‘in Christ’ or ‘in Him’ or the combination of ‘in’ with a type of designation for Christ is used some 200 times by Paul, and is the most characteristic phrase of his terminology. This term does not originate with Paul, but with Jesus who said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.” (John 15:4) Some translations use the word ‘abide’. “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.” The source of fruit is the life released by our abiding in Christ and His abiding in us. Jesus did not teach His disciples foolproof methods for living, but spiritual principles which enabled Him to work in them so that the explanation for their lives would be God at work.

Just as Jesus lived on earth in a relationship of love, trust, obedience and dependence on His Father, we are to live in the same relationship with Him. As God the Father lived in Jesus, Jesus lives in us. In fact, the only thing God has to give us is Jesus, for “apart from him you can do nothing”. God is committed to His agenda for us and for the world, which can only be carried out and accomplished in union with Christ.

There are two invitations Jesus gives in which all of the Christian life is encompassed. His first invitation is “Come to me” (Matthew 11:28), and His second invitation, “Remain or abide in Me”. If we understand and respond to both these invitations we are on track to enjoying the full orb of all Christ has to give us in union with Him.

Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for the ultimate privilege and blessing of living in union with You. I am humbled by it. Your grace is overwhelming. 

Am I perpetually aware of Christ’s presence in me?

“So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” —GALATIANS 2:16

The theology of the Apostle Paul was not formulated in his study but in his evangelistic exploits on the mission field. He did not sort out his doctrines to make them tidy or even give them systematic form, much less to stereotype the kindness and grace of God. He formulated them to address the crying needs of the people to whom he ministered.

Unlike professional theology, Paul’s doctrines are about life, behaviour, victorious living and enjoying the presence and activity of God in the real world. He did not set out to write handbooks of Christian doctrine, for his letters were provoked by the need to address particular situations and problems that had arisen in the churches to which he wrote.

We may never have known what Paul believed about the Lord’s Supper had some believers in Corinth not acted irresponsibly when they gathered to celebrate it. If it were not for the Judaizers who insisted on circumcising Gentiles, thus provoking the letter to the Galatians, we would know little about Paul’s view of the place of the law in Christian experience. An emerging heresy in Colosse provoked Paul’s letter to the church in that city, giving us insight into what he believed about the undermining of the pre-eminence and centrality of Christ. We would not know Paul’s stance on the gift of tongues, had not some Christians in Corinth gone overboard in the use of it, provoking Paul to rebuke and correct them. It is only Paul’s letter to the Romans that stands alone in not being instigated by a pastoral concern for the people to whom he was writing.

We must be cautious, however, of attempting to put Paul’s teaching into a watertight system of theology, which he does not do himself. At the same time, we must seek to understand the major concerns and thrust of his ministry. Interestingly, no matter what his starting point is, Paul always returns to the central issue of the Gospel. Sheer repetition alone would give us a good indication of what was central to his thoughts. Paul’s primary message is the righteousness of God; a righteousness imputed to us as an act of faith, and then imparted experientially as an ongoing process, also on the grounds of faith. 

Paul writes, “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith’” (Romans 1:17). At the heart of this experience of God’s righteousness is the believer’s union with Christ. In all his Epistles to the churches, Paul directs the people to Jesus.

Dear Lord, thank You for the remarkable teachings of Paul that directs us to You and your sufficiency in every problem and situation I face.

Am I bringing my problems, concerns and doubts to Christ?

“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” —REVELATIONS 2:4-5

What are the grounds on which we may please God? Is it what we do for God: our discipline, our obedience, our doctrine, evangelism, strategies and generosity? OR do the things that please God derive from what we allow Him to do for us: His strength in place of our weaknesses; His riches in place of our poverty, His victory in place of our failures and His wisdom in place of our folly?

When John penned the letter from Jesus to the church in Ephesus, Jesus was able to commend it for “your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary” (Revelation 2:2-3). We would commend any church with such a reputation, but there was just one problem that undermined and devalued everything else that was good in the church at Ephesus. They had forgotten and forsaken Jesus! “You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen.”

Every outward appearance may be good, impressive and commendable, but if the church is not primarily an expression of Jesus Himself, whose body is the church; if it is not fulfilling the desires of the head of that body, who is Christ; if it is not operating in the power of the life of the body, which is the Holy Spirit who inhabits the body, then says Jesus, “I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place” (2:5). In effect, Jesus is saying, “I will switch you off!” The need of this doctrinally pure and hardworking church in Ephesus was to “repent and return”; to get back to a love relationship with Jesus that would be expressed in dependency on Him alone. 

What pleases God is not human effort, strategy or wisdom. It is the “fruit of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). This is not the fruit of the Christian, but of the Spirit as these things are impossible apart from the Spirit’s enabling, which represents nothing less than the expression of the character of Christ within us. There is, of course, a personal discipline that works out godliness. What we are to ‘work out’ is a result of what God ‘works in’ us.

What pleases God centers all on Jesus. It is living in a loving, committed relationship with Him in which we are dependent upon Him to produce in us the fruit of His Spirit.

Dear Lord Jesus, I pray for more discipline in working out what You have worked in me so that my life exhibits more of the fruit of the Spirit. 

Do I see my life more as an expression of what I do for Jesus or what Jesus does for me?

“Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” —GALATIANS 3:3

The bigger problem Paul addresses in his Epistles lay not with those who were as yet unsaved, but with those who were already in Christ and trying to attain their goal of pleasing God by human effort rather than by the working of the Holy Spirit. 
 
It is this temptation that remains a real one today and one that must be resisted and spurned. Any addition to Christ is by definition a subtraction from Him for any needed addition can only be a reflection of a sense of His insufficiency. The problem is that when we attach any addition to faith in Christ as necessary for effective Christian living, the addition often becomes the means whereby our Christianity is defined.
 
Christ plus circumcision is a dead issue to most of us today, but Christ plus a certain mode of baptism is not; Christ plus speaking in tongues is not; Christ plus a right understanding of election is not; Christ plus a particular doctrine of the church is not. The problem is that whatever we add to Christ becomes our defining point. Although we claim to be “all in one in Christ”, our fellowship with one another is based on our common agreement about the ‘additions’ to faith in Christ that we see as necessary.
 
Some believers meet as ‘Baptists’, their name defining common ground regarding the essential nature of a certain mode of baptism. Some people meet as ‘Pentecostals’ defining their common ground relating to events on the Day of Pentecost, and some meet as ‘Congregationalists’ or ‘Presbyterians’, defining their common ground as a view of church government. It is not that any of these things are unimportant as each of them are very important, which is why they take on such significance for some Christians. Scripture does not address these issues and we have to know how to respond rightly to them.
 
The point is that the real problem arises when the issues that make us distinct from one another become our defining point and thus contain the latent inherent danger of taking priority in our identity. These issues then become more fought over than those that make us distinct from the world. Paul writes, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:13). And this needs to be our defining point – one Spirit and one body which is Christ Himself.

Lord, may I keep my focus on You alone as the all encompassing defining factor of my faith and my life.

In my effort to please God have I added to Christ in any way?

Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’. —MATTHEW 28:18

In the above verse, some translations use the word “power” in place of authority. The original Greek word is “exousia” which literally means power in the sense of authority. This is the power that belongs to a president or a king, and in this context, speaks of the position as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 
 
In Acts 1:8, Jesus told His disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.” The word Jesus uses here is the Greek word “dunamis” from which the English words ‘dynamic’ and ‘dynamite’ are derived. This means power in the sense of sheer ability. ‘Exousia’ and ‘dunamis’ must be understood together. 
 
To illustrate, a number of years ago I travelled on an overnight bus from Glasgow to London. A few miles into the journey, it became quite clear one of the passengers was inebriated and being a nuisance to other passengers. After several complaints, the bus driver parked on the side of the road and asked the man to get off the bus. The man totally ignored him and simply stared out the window. The disturbance continued and after several more complaints which met with the same contempt, the bus driver turned off the main road, drove into a little town and parked outside a police station. The driver got out and came back with two big Scottish policemen who had to forcibly escort the man off the bus.

Though the bus driver had the authority to order the man to disembark the bus, he did not have the power to make it happen. Authority without power is somewhat pathetic and useless. On the other hand, power without authority is dangerous. We only need to look at acts of terrorism around the world. There is plenty of dynamism with the ability to carry acts out, but no legitimate authority to do so. 

In Jesus Christ we have both the authority and the power to make things happen. We must never detach the Lordship of Christ over our lives from the dynamism of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This comes together in the statement of Paul, “The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24). As God in Christ calls us to do something, so God the Spirit enables us to do it. In other words, there will never be any demand made upon us by the Lord Jesus that the Holy Spirit will not provide the empowerment to accomplish.

Dear Lord, help me to depend wholly on the working of your indwelling Spirit to accomplish what You have called me to do. Thank You, Lord.

Do I rest in both the authority and power of Jesus in what He has called me to do?

“He said, ‘Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet.”’ —EZEKIEL 43:7

Throughout the Old Testament, the ‘setting of feet’ signifies the occupation of land. It was to step into enemy territory and conquer it. The glory of God, as seen by Ezekiel in his vision, was the consequence of conquered and occupied territory.

 Paul writes of this same theme in the New Testament. Speaking of Jesus, he says, “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For ‘he has put everything under his feet’” (1 Corinthians 15:25-27). To conquer an enemy is to put him underfoot. By the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the last enemy has been defeated, putting death itself under the feet of Christ. 

This has fantastic implications for us. Jesus has defeated the last enemy, which is to say that every other enemy has also been defeated. If we have ten enemies and finally defeat the last one, it means the other nine are not still running around uncontrolled. In defeating the last enemy, Jesus has defeated everything that threatens to defeat us. That is why Paul can mock death as the ultimate enemy. “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting?” (15:54-55) Death will still stalk us and we will still die, but it will not defeat us. Sin will stalk us, but perfection in this life is not an option, yet we need not be defeated for in the cleansing of Jesus and the power of His indwelling Spirit we are justified and may know the power to live a holy life.

Into the heart of every Christian, the Lord Jesus comes not only to occupy the throne but to conquer and defeat the enemy. As the throne speaks of His position of Lord and His exercising authority, the “soles of His feet” speak of His activity, defeating the enemy and reigning as conqueror. 

These two aspects of His role must not be separated. They come together in two of the last statements Jesus makes in the interim between His resurrection and ascension to His Father. In Matthew 28:18, He said to His disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” In Acts 1:8, He tells them, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.” It is the power and authority of Jesus Christ that puts us on the side of victory and ensures an everlasting life with Him.

Thank You, Lord, for your work on the cross in defeating death and reigning as conqueror in my life. 

Do I realize that in Jesus Christ I am already on the side of victory in anything that threatens to defeat me?

“He said: ‘Son of man, this is the place of my throne…’” —EZEKIEL 43:7

Following the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem, the Ark of the Covenant where God had made His home was either stolen or destroyed, and has not been seen since. Fourteen years later, the prophet Ezekiel has a vision of a new temple that gives us significant information about God’s intention for His new home.

After Ezekiel goes through the outer courts and rooms, he says, “Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple” (Ezekiel 43:5). A voice explains to Ezekiel why the temple radiates the glory of God. “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet.” The display of the glory of God, which is His moral character, is a direct consequence of conditions that enable His glory to be seen.

God states, “This is the place of my throne.” In other words, “This is where I am in charge and exercise my sovereignty and rule.” There will be no demonstration of the glory of God without submission to the government of God. Submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in the heart of the Christian is the fundamental disposition from which everything else derives, for it is in the heart of the Christian God makes His home. Romans 14:9 says, “Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.” We must see Christ not only as Saviour and Redeemer, but as Lord and Master. These are His terms and they are non negotiable.

One of the simplest ways to trace the cause of spiritual breakdown is to go back to the breakdown in obedience. There is a danger in the church to look for psychological and emotional causes to spiritual barrenness rather than volitional ones. We sometimes see ourselves as victims rather than perpetrators. We are offended rather than guilty, and look for causes outside of ourselves instead of acknowledging personal responsibility. There may be factors we are not to blame for that have a direct bearing upon our attitudes and behaviours for which we may need help, but consistently in Scripture God holds people responsible for themselves.

We cannot bring legal counsel to the judgment seat of God. Our only mediator is Jesus Christ and He is totally capable of handling our lives and creating in us a godliness that has no other explanation than the miracle of His working. But it must begin in humble submission to His throne.

Lord Jesus, help me to live in submission to You and to be accountable for acts of disobedience, which I ask your forgiveness for. Thank You, Lord.

Does Christ occupy the throne of my life?

“Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” —ROMANS 1:22-23

The fingerprints of God are all around us, not only in creation but in our lives. God has revealed Himself in conscience. Inherent in all of us is a natural moral law, a sense of right and wrong that comes from God. A fool regards his own perspective as the only legitimate one, but in seeking God’s perspective, we are seeking wisdom that comes from the mind of God, which can only be revealed by the Spirit of God. 

We all need something to place our trust and belief in. Every city at any time in its history, whether primitive or sophisticated, has evidence of worship. Whether it is a temple, a shrine, mosque, synagogue, church or handmade images, there is always something people will worship. And if these are crushed for whatever reason, then we will create a celebrity culture where athletes, musicians, film stars and political leaders are idolized. This is very much the case in a secular society, because there is always a need to have someone bigger and better to admire and worship.

If what we worship is something other than the one true God, we will be led into a false sense of security. Paul’s charge in the opening verse is not that people do not know about God, but that they fail to acknowledge and follow through with what they do know. “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:21).

G.K. Chesterton said, “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing; they believe in anything.” Those outside of Christ do not follow the clues that creation and conscience have implanted, so they have only a human perspective to fall back on. According to their human perspective, they are wise, when in actual fact they have become fools. Not only have they limited themselves to human capability, but when their backs are against the wall, the temptation to go against their conscience is all the greater, which will inevitably lead to moral bankruptcy. 

In the Bible, wisdom has little to do with intelligence, and foolishness has little to do with lack of intelligence. Both are a disposition, and our disposition or attitude to life has everything to do with what we believe about God. Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” This is a gift of God and the only reliable source of life and security. While the fool spurns it, the wise will relish it.

Your wisdom is flawless, Lord, and I pray for everyone to recognize that and be drawn to You with open hearts and open minds. Amen. 

Is there something or someone I idolize other than God? 

“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” —PSALM 37:4

Many people have a misunderstanding of the above verse. It is not if we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us what we desire, but rather the desires themselves will be implanted in our hearts by God. As we delight ourselves in the Lord, His interests become our interests and His desires become our desires. The very desire, the will is God-given.

When we ask God to show us His will, we often want Him to give us a road map, but what He is more likely to give us is a compass. We do not need to know all the twists and turns along the way, but we need to know the direction. In Acts 26:19, Paul makes the statement to King Agrippa, “I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven”, which puts him in a long line of men and women who began with the end in mind. They had listened as God revealed His plan and purpose, and lived with this insight tucked away, pursuing the vision, but awaiting His timing for it to be fully brought to fruition.

Paul did not have any advanced knowledge of the details of his life, but only the compass bearing that was set by the Lord Jesus on the Damascus Road, which continued to be the governing principle of his vocation. He was not motivated by a desire to travel, or an ambition to establish a network of churches. His obligation derived from his vision, expressed in his sense of purpose and destiny. He was not a driven man so much as a drawn man, drawn by the power of a God-given desire for which he relentlessly gave his time and energy.

The journey had been long and lonely, the road steep and hard, but Paul had run the road Jesus Christ had set him on and he was satisfied. He writes to Timothy, “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day” (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

The clear vision of what Paul’s future would consist of is not unique in Scripture. Many leading characters – Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Mary and Joseph all started with the end in mind… a God-given desire will always be for the benefit of others and involves a much deeper significance to us than what is obvious to anyone else.

I ask, Lord, that You place your desires in my heart and that they become a force within me that accomplishes your purpose for me. Thank You, Lord. 

What is my most prevalent God- given desire?

“For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church.” —EPHESIANS 5:31-32

Marriage involves deeply knowing each other and that is a beautiful thing, but it takes time. Genesis 4:1 of the NIV says, “Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.” The King James Version says, “Adam knew Eve, his wife and she conceived and bore Cain.” The KJV points to an important idea in its translation. The Hebrew word for “knew” is ‘yada’, and the Hebrew definition of ‘yada’ is, “To know properly, to experience, to discover, to give, to have, to take, to be privy to and to be sure of.” This is the marriage Adam and Eve shared; a beautiful oneness of heart and soul. 

How do we come by this today? What is the mystery that lies behind a loving marriage that lasts until death do us part? Paul writes, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:25-27). The key in these verses is that the activity of the Holy Spirit within us is the source that brings us into that beautiful oneness of heart and soul. 

Jesus Christ’s relationship with His church is the role model. That means “husbands give to your wives.” If we do not see this as the big picture, then the gender roles become distorted and stretched. When reading verses such as Ephesians 5:24 which says, “Wives should submit to their husbands in everything,” we will have a mistaken interpretation if it is not understood in its context. The umbrella statement under which Paul writes this is, “Submit to one another out of reverence to Christ” (Ephesians 5:21). Paul is not only talking about marriage, but about family and business in which there needs to be two-way submission in these relationships. 

The headship of Christ to His church and the headship of a husband to his wife is the source of life to her. The husband gives himself up to her and presents her radiant and blameless. This, says Paul, is the relationship Christ has to His church. The assumption of Paul’s writing about marriage is that the initiative lies with the husband to set a good environment in which his wife is responsive. 

There is no hierarchy in marriage. It is an equal partnership, built on the hard times as well as the good. Throughout it all, we give of ourselves, seeking the well-being of each other, and in the giving is the receiving.

Dear Lord, I pray for all married couples to share the common bond of your indwelling Spirit to enrich and deepen their lives together. Thank You, Lord. 

Am I setting my spouse’s needs ahead of mine?

“The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife.” —1 CORINTHIANS 7:4 

Marriage brings us into a more intense proximity to another human being than any other relationship. There are layers upon layers that make us up, some of which we have not yet discovered, and it is often in marriage these layers become exposed.

One of the great myths about marriage is that it is a consumer relationship. In other words, it is about getting what I want and what I need. We marry for love, companionship, sexual satisfaction, children, a sense of identity and belonging. These are needs, desires and aspirations that are legitimate, but if our marriage is founded on “consumer” interest it will last only as long as our needs are met.

There are two conflicting ideas about marriage. One is that marriage is everything, but the idea that marriage is necessary to a fulfilled life is also a myth. Jesus was the most fulfilled man as God intended man to be; the most complete in Himself. The Apostle Paul was a single man and he extols the virtues of singleness. It is wonderful that someone loves us and wants to spend the rest of their life with us, but it is not necessary to a fulfilled life. 

The other extreme is those who say marriage is merely a piece of paper. Do I need a licence to be sexually intimate with my partner? How is that going to make a difference? The problem with this is that the sexual relationship cannot be detached from the real relationship where husband and wife not only belong to each other, but it is a union of heart and soul. Sex was not designed as an appetite to be satisfied, but to give expression to the deep intimacy of the soul. When that is broken, the sexual relationship may be functional, but it will simply be a mechanical process that will leave us empty. 

We cannot come into marriage expecting all our needs to be met. The best preparation for marriage is in learning to be complete as a single person. That is not to become coldly self-sufficient, but learning to be self-sufficient in a wholesome way in order that we may give to our marriage partners. Marriage is not a consumer relationship, but a covenant relationship. A consumer attitude says, “You are here for me,” but a covenant attitude says, “I am here for you.” This is a beautiful picture of the relationship Jesus has with His church, and is God’s intention of what marriage should be. It is sticking together, working through the hard times and reaping the wonderful reward of looking back over the years, enjoying a marriage that has been built on both the pain and the joys.

Dear Lord, help me to keep the same love and commitment in my marriage as You have for your church. Thank You, Lord.

Is my marriage more a covenant relationship or consumer relationship?