GraceCreates

By Jon Walker

Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity . . . . Hebrews 6:1 (NIV)

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Although God does the heavy lifting in our transformation to Jesus-beings, we still bear the responsibility to keep discipline part of discipleship.

Therefore, we no longer run aimlessly; we have the sizeable objective of becoming just like Jesus. And so, as Paul describes it, we beat our bodies into submission as we press on toward our objective in Jesus (1 Corinthians 9:26–27).

But, as we’re beating discipline into our thoughts and behavior, we too often slip into beating ourselves up over the inability to do the things we ought to do (Romans 7:16–25).

Here’s the thing, becoming like Jesus is difficult enough without this “Try harder!” mentality we tell ourselves. It sucks us into a cycle of I must, I ought, and I should that leaves us feeling defeated, which only fuels the cycle.

It flips the wow with the how, shifting our focus on how we can’t do it—instead of keeping our focus on the wow within us, who, having begun a good work in us, “will carry it on to completion” until we see Jesus face-to-face (Philippians 1:6 NIV).

Paul, ever the exhorter, says we’re to push toward the ideal, but his standards are never imperative ought-to statements demanding immediate perfection from us. Perhaps more than any other student yoked to Jesus, Paul understands our desperate need for God’s grace.

We make it our objective to make every effort to mature into believers who think and act just like Jesus, which expresses the truth that we’re no longer aimless; we can see who we need to be.

But it also reminds us of the direction in which we’re headed—we may slip, we may fall horribly, but we press on to take hold of the abundant life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Philippians 3:12).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty—he is the King of glory. Psalm 24:8, 10 (NIV)

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In Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and gave it to man.

We, too, steal things from the One True God:

• We steal when we take matters into our own hands, thinking God is too slow or not coming at all;
• We steal when we insist on our own answer instead of being content with God’s;
• We steal when we grab for something we want, because we think God won’t give it to us;
• We steal when we say we did it when the truth is it only happened because God worked through us.

The problem with this promethean pattern is it destroys our ability to be grateful. If we took it, then we got it no thanks to God or anyone else.

When we snatch things out of the hands of God, it says more about our ability to trust God than it does about whether or not God is trustworthy.

When we grab for what we want, it quite possibly reveals a root of bitterness growing within us, defiling us to think God will not be there for us when we need him (Hebrews 12:15).

When we steal from God’s infinite bounty, we’re submitting to the lie that we’re unworthy to be blessed by God and so we have to take because he’s unlikely to give.

Gratitude is one gauge that measures our dependence on God. The more dependent we are, the more grateful we become.

The psalmist sings of gratitude that overflows your soul, compelling you to praise the Almighty, King of Glory: “I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the LORD. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God” (Psalm 84:2 NLT).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

. . . Because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth. Ephesians 4:14 (NLT)

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My brother once got caught in a lie while sitting at a stoplight in Kansas City, Missouri. It was back in the day, when kids hung out at drive-ins, and a place called Allen’s was a popular chain in the Midwest.

We lived near Topeka, Kansas, and there was an Allen’s just a few miles up the road. So there wasn’t anything unusual about my older brother telling Mom and Dad he was cruising to Allen’s.

What he didn’t tell them was that he was actually driving to an Allen’s in Kansas City, which was roughly sixty miles away and not on the list of approved places to go.

My brother didn’t count on Mom and Dad loading my sister and me into the family station wagon so we could all head over to Kansas City to do some Christmas shopping.

There, not far from an Allen’s Drive-in in Kansas City, sat my brother waiting for the light to turn green when up pulled my dad in the lane next to him. You can imagine his surprise when he looked over to see my dad eye-balling him, my mom leaning forward to give him one of those mother looks, and my sister and me waving happily from the back seat.

What my brother did was tell a lie of omission. He told the truth, but not the whole truth. He deceived by leaving critical information out of the conversation, thereby, leaving a false impression.

Some of us who would never consider telling an outright lie habitually tell lies of omission, probably without even thinking about it.

Our objective is to live the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help us God, and when we fail, there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus because the Holy Spirit will continue to push us “until we all . . . become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13 NIV).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:20 (NIV)

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After we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we return to the office; we return to school; we return to the things we normally do.

The shepherds of Bethlehem did the same thing. God sent them to find the baby Jesus in a manger. They marveled at God and knew they’d been blessed to see the Messiah’s arrival.

And then they returned to their fields and flocks. They returned with an energized faith, glorifying and praising God. But, still, they returned to their routine.

God takes us to the mountaintop where he shows us great miracles and wonders, but he doesn’t leave us there. It is in the fields and among the flocks we tend that our faith grows, nurtured in the soil of the day-to-day, the mundane. This is where we die to Christ, allowing his life to blossom within us (Galatians 2:20).

Practical Nativity:

• The things we truly believe emerge day-to-day. It’s the conflicts over who makes the coffee, who cleans up the mess, who gets to go home early, or who gets the biggest piece of pie that test whether it is Christ who lives in us or if we’re still saying, “It is I who live.”
• God’s lessons are mastery-based. This means his intent is not to catch you doing something wrong; his intent is to reveal where you still need to yield to the Jesus-life growing in you.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.