Getting 'Rea;'

‎Wednesday, ‎June ‎22, ‎2022

Good morning, Lord

Verse of the Day: Psalm 121:7-8

The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore.

Memory verse: Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Today's reading: ESTHER 6-8 ACTS 6

Getting 'Real'

In his book, "Mere Christianity", C.S. Lewis calls Jesus Christ the only complete realist. He bases this on the fact that Jesus never fell to sin. He faced temptation with all the power the enemy could use and never once sinned.

Lewis says that we never learn of power by surrender-we never know the strength of an army until we enter the war.

I agree with all that. But we have to dig a little further. After the French surrender of World War Two, the French had an extensive underground who fought and many gave their lives for what was right. But make no mistake-they lied, deceived, and murdered to achieve their goals but it was all against a greater evil.

We must surrender our lives to God's will-now, some of us have fought and denied God for years before our surrender but some innocently surrender to God's love. So how do we know His power? We know God's power everyday because of the war that goes on in our 'underground'-our 'heart of hearts' that fights the enemy.

The enemy fights us everyday with temptation. Lewis says that some people who are bad do not know it because they are accustomed to it. But we have the Holy Spirit and we know right from wrong. When we sin, we know it.

Jesus says that we must take up our Cross everyday and follow Him. This means we die to self desire and allow the Holy Spirit to rule our heart of hearts and do battle for us.

We must face reality and our reality is that we cannot defeat sin in our lives without God's power-period. The more we resist sin the more we learn of God's power and the more 'real' it becomes.

We hear it all the time-"This is getting real" or "This just got real".

How real is God's power and presence in your life? Do you depend on Him for just the big things in your life or do you actually depend on Him to 'deliver you from evil' and 'lead you away from temptation' in everything?

Ask God to make it real in your life right now and all this day and be ready to do it again from now on.

..because He loves us...

Father in Heaven,

Help me resist sin and teach me to depend on You. Holy Spirit, remind me of my need all the time. Forgive me my failures.

Great and empowering God of Grace!

In the name of Jesus,

Amen