Praise Jesus’ holy name,
Amen
Day 24
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought nearby the blood of Christ.
—Ephesians 2:13 (NIV)
We were once far away. That’s a frightful thought when you get down to it. Being far from God is a nightmare that many of us may feel on occasion, but the truth is, when you accept Christ as your Savior, you are placed front and center before the throne of the living God. He sees you. He knows you. He longs to journey with you each and every day. God sought you out when He poured out His Son’s blood. He was looking for you, gunning for you, chasing you down with each lash Jesus endured, with each nail pounded into His flesh. It was you He was after all along. It’s the death and resurrection of Jesus that brings us the privilege of standing before the very throne of God.
Whatever we pray, whatever we do, and whatever we say while standing in Christ, God hears, He sees, He wants to be a part of. All you have to do is show up, dirty and dangerous, with your filthy spiritual rags. Jesus is the only one who can cleanse you. There’s no point in trying on your own. Let’s sit at the Father’s feet and pour out everything in our hearts to Him. Love Him, worship Him, offer thanksgiving and praise, make your requests known to Him, sit and talk, sit and listen. This is the one who breathed the universe into existence. Congratulations, you have His full attention.
Thank you, Lord, for the death and resurrection of our hope and salvation, Jesus Christ. We are humbled to sit at Your beautiful feet and spend time with You. We are in awe that You have allowed us this spectacular access through the blood of Your son.
In Jesus’ beautiful name,
Amen
Day 25
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
— Isaiah 43:19 (NIV)
God has a new thing in store for you. How much relief does that bring you? In life we often get trapped doing the same things over and over. Or perhaps your situation is desperate enough to warrant a daily yearning for something better, something new. God already had that in store for you. Have you ever wondered why people have such an obsession with new things? We like them shiny, out of the box, sparkling as we adore them in all their never-before-used glory. It’s because the Master Himself has embedded in us a desire to shed the old and seek something better. God has the ability to wow us with new thoughts, concepts, relationships, dreams, desires, places to go, things to do each and every day. In fact, He has an eternity of new things ready to share with us. The thing that strikes me in this verse is the Lord posing a question to the reader: “Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” To perceive means to consciously become aware of something, to really understand.
God wants us to understand, to become acutely aware that not only is He doing something new, but that He is more than capable of what the next line declares: “I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” He is blazing a trail amid the impossible thicket you’re lost in. He is springing up wells of water, streams in the desert. He is making the impossible possible. Perceive it.
He says it will be so—so it will be.
Lord, we are in awe of Your power. We are in equal awe of Your love for us. Thank you for making a new way for us in the wilderness of our lives. Thank you for giving us streams of living water in this desert we live in. Praise Your holy name.
In Jesus’ name we lift up our praise,
Amen
Day 26
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
—Matthew 17:20-21 (NIV)
Jesus spoke those words. His disciples were floored by the fact He was easily able to heal a demon-possessed boy and they were not. The disciples lacked faith. Astonishing, isn’t it? By then they had witnessed a myriad of the Lord’s miracles firsthand. They had seen them with their own eyes and were in awe along with the crowds who followed Jesus, and yet they lacked faith when they needed it.
I suppose when you get right down to it, they lacked faith in their own ability to heal the boy. They saw him seizing. His own father said the demon had thrown him into the fire. He must have been disfigured, in the least heavily scarred from his predicament both physically and emotionally. The disciples tried their hand at healing him. I’m sure they spoke, prayed, and commanded but to no avail. What Jesus is pointing out is that they lacked faith. They were facing a proverbial mountain, and they needed to move it into the sea. That takes great faith. Jesus said that faith was not heavy or hard, or too big—it was small as a mustard seed. It almost makes faith sound like something simple you merely switch on like a light bulb. It’s quite possibly more like a muscle, which for most of us takes time to build up, but we can’t contest the words of Jesus. A small amount of faith is enough to move a mountain. It’s true. It’s wonderful news. Believe in what you ask for. Understand it to be true, even though reality
