but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (ESV) Cynics question how God loves us. They point out all the wars, famines, plagues and so on in the world and question how God can exist. It could well be questioned how atheists make sense of suffering, because without our Creator, life is meaningless, and therefore who cares about suffering? Thankfully, God demonstrates His love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It's not like we can earn God's salvation. It's only by His grace that we can be saved. The implication of this verse is that if we trust in Christ, we no longer become defined by our sinfulness. Instead, the perfect righteousness of Christ is credited to our bankrupt spiritual accounts. We can be blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. The reformers used to describe us as simultaneously sinful and yet justified. Yet a day will come when we will be like Christ, for we will se...
Psalm 143:8 ESV Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. What’s the first thing we do when we wake up? Is it to scroll our phones and check our notifications? Or is it to check in with God through His word, without technological distractions? If we trust in the Lord, we ought to long to hear from Him first thing in the morning. We need daily reminders of His unfailing love. His mercies are new every morning, thankfully. Every day, we need God to direct us. We might be in a groove (or a rut!) of regular practices, yet we should be open to being flexible to whatever life throws at us and what God has for us. He can help us deal with anything that seems to attack us. Morning by morning, we should lift our souls to the Lord. We are to wait in expectancy up Him. He will never fail us. ‘Dear Lord, we come to You this morning expectant of Your goodness to us afresh this day. Please ...
Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Ephesians 4:2 (NLT) We're to be Christlike. He is the ultimate example of humility, gentleness, patience and love. Not only so, but He empowers us by His Holy Spirit to become conformed to His likeness. Christ humbled Himself to death on a cross on our behalf. He was gentle with people who were cruel to Him. He was patient with those who murdered Him, and prayed, 'Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing'. Because of Christ's love, God can make allowances for our faults. We deserve His condemnation, but thankfully we can be forgiven because of Christ's sacrifice on our behalf. Our sins can't just be brushed under the carpet, they have to be dealt with at the cross. We're not to be humble, gentle, patient and loving to earn God's favour. Because God favours us in Christ, we're to be humble, gentle, patient...
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