GraceCreates

By Jon Walker

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:11 (NIV)

*** *** *** ***

In faith, I know this to be true:

Jesus loves me, even more than I love myself. He proves this by laying down his life for me (John 15:13).

He has my best interest in mind, even though it may not appear that way at times. God’s plans are to prosper me, not to harm me; to give me hope and a future with him (Jeremiah 29:11).

My Father knows how to give good gifts, even more than me. If, as a human easily led astray, I know how to love my children and to give them good gifts, how much more will my Father in heaven lavish them on me (Matthew 7:11).

In faith, I believe this to be so.

Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8 NIV).

In faith, I believe this to be so.

God is love, and in his love I find perfect peace. I am able to love because “God is love,” and “God lives in [me] and his love is made complete in [me]” (1 John 4:8, 12 NIV).

When I love in the center of God’s love, trusting the truth of his love, he will keep me in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3).

And as I live in peace, the “God of love and peace will be with [me]” (2 Corinthians 13:11 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

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13 (NIV)

*** *** *** ***

Jesus said no greater love has a man than to lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13), but Jesus laid down his life for more, including enemies, adversaries, and rebels.

His greater love now lives inside us, it abides in us, with the objective to move us toward laying down our lives for others in the same way Jesus did: “I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you” (John 13:15 NLT).

This greater love may not require that we die physically for others, but it does require that we lay down our demands for life on our own terms, our agendas to control, our needs to be noticed (suggested by Hebrews 12:4).

When others block our demands, frustrate our agendas, or neglect our needs, our tendency is to complain: “God, what are you going to do with these disagreeable people?”

Yet, if we’ll be still, and know he is God (Psalm 46:10), we might hear him respond, “I already did something. I laid down my life for them. Will you do the same?”

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

He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene . . . Isaiah 59:16 (NIV)

*** *** *** ***

Most of our prayers are of the low order, or maybe more like the fast-food order.

We pull up to the drive-thru and yell out our requests to God, and then expect him to have our order ready by the time we pull up to the window.

Yet, God’s view of prayer seems far above the utilitarian. He calls us to a violent form of intercession, where we take on the spiritual forces of darkness on behalf of our race, once invaded, now occupied by the prince of darkness.

Paul teaches us to put on the whole armor of God. If you follow the sequence of his instruction, we’re suiting up for battle so we can stand firm in prayer (Ephesians 6).

We prayer for others like Jesus would pray for them, thinking about them the way he would think, covering them with prayer, protecting them through prayer, and advocating for them in the same way Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father and advocates for us.

It is other-centered prayer on the extreme end of “other.”

Isaiah describes God as “appalled” no one was interceding for his people. We have the ability – more appropriately, the duty – to intercede on behalf of our brothers and sisters (Isaiah 59:16 NIV).

And we do not do this alone, for the Lord is already interceding and we are simply joining him. Like the armor Paul describes for us, the Lord is suited for battle. Isaiah says:

“He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak” (Isaiah 59:17 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

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 (NIV)

*** *** *** ***

In faith, I know this to be true:

By God’s grace, I am becoming other-centered, no longer focused on the interest of self.

I can look out for the interested of others because I know it is true that God will supply all my needs, according to his riches (Philippians 4:19).

In faith, I know it is true that I can give more than people expect; I can help more than people may request. I am ready and enabled by God to give to anyone who asks (Matthew 5:40-42).

The life of Jesus in me is working to “do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share” (1 Timothy 6:18 NIV).

And again and again, I will stand on the truth that God will meet all my needs; therefore, I can keep an intentional focus on supplying the needs of others (Philippians 4:19).

I am like Jesus when I look to the needs of others.

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.