Category: Daily Lesson

As a Christian you are obliged to view your actions in light of how they will affect other Christians. You will discover God’s will for your life when you consider His activity in the lives of others. This goes contrary to worldly thinking. The world encourages you to live your own life, taking care of your own needs and wants first. Sin promotes independence. It isolates you from others and separates you from those you could help or who could encourage you. God designed you for interdependence.

Whenever you meet another Christian, you come face to face with Christ (John 13:20). There ought to be a deep respect within you as you encounter other lives guided by the Holy Spirit. Do not live as if you have no responsibility toward your Christian brothers or sisters. God holds you accountable for how you relate to them. Don’t revel in your “freedom in Christ” to the point that you neglect your responsibility toward others (Rom. 14:15). Paul celebrated his freedom in Christ, but he was keenly sensitive to what might cause other Christians harm (1 Cor. 8:13). He was aware that his sin could not take place in isolation but could bring pain to many others (1 Cor. 5:6).

You have a responsibility to live in such a way that you do not hurt others. You must deny yourself and allow the Holy Spirit to put to death your natural inclination to be self-centered. As long as you focus on yourself, you will be oblivious to the needs of others. Ask God to free you from selfishness so that your life is free to bless others.

Jesus, realizing that His role was that of a servant, never sought to initiate activity for the Father (Matt. 20:28). The servant never sets the agenda–the master does. The servant must be so alert to what the master is doing that whenever the master begins to move in a direction the servant quickly joins him. Even the Son of God did not assume He knew the best thing to do in a situation. Instead, He looked to see the Father’s activity and then joined Him. Jesus knew His Father so well that He was keenly sensitive to divine activity around Him, immediately recognizing His Father at work.

It is possible for us to be so busy trying to bring God into our activity that we don’t even notice Him at work around us. He seeks to redirect our attention so that we might join Him, but we tend to be self-centered, evaluating everything by how it affects us. We must learn to view events around us from God’s perspective. Then we will see our world very differently. When God brings someone across our path, we will look to see if God is convicting that person of his need for salvation. Perhaps God is comforting someone in her sorrow. God might be encouraging your friend as she faces a challenge. We will then adjust our lives to join God as He works in that person’s life. We ought to live each day with tremendous anticipation as we look to see where God is working around us. As our eyes are opened to His activity, we will marvel at His great works.

One of the paradoxes of the Christian life is that God’s gifts often require labor on our part. God brought the Israelites to the Promised Land and told them He was going to “give” it to them (Num. 13:2). The gift of the Promised Land sounded great to the Israelites until they realized that, with the gift, came battles against giants and fortified cities! Perhaps they assumed God was going to obliterate the inhabitants of the land before they entered. Ideally for the Israelites, they could then have entered a vacant land with houses and cities already built and ready to inhabit.

Instead, God said they would have to fight for it. They would not have to fight in their own strength, however; God would be present to fight for them. God would bring down the walls of cities, give them strategies to defeat their enemies, and empower their warriors to fight. The Israelites would have a divine advantage over anyone they fought, but they would still have to fight.

It would be wonderful if, when we become Christians, God would fill our minds with a complete knowledge of the Bible and with Bible verses already memorized. It would be easy if God would instill in us a delight in spending hours in prayer each day and a fearless desire to share our faith with others. But God doesn’t relate to us that way. Instead, He gives us the free gift of His salvation and then tells us to “work out” our salvation in fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12b). Are you discouraged because the Christian life is more difficult and challenging than you expected? Don’t be. God’s gifts to you are perfect because, through them, God makes you perfect as well (Matt. 5:48; James 1:17).

It is possible for people to become so accustomed to their bondage that they resist efforts to free them. The Hebrews had been slaves in Egypt for four hundred years. Slavery meant that they were not free to do God’s will or to go where they wanted. Moses had come to tell the Israelites how they could experience freedom, yet they were more concerned about the reaction of their taskmasters than they were about pleasing God. For them to be free would mean that the pharaoh they were serving would be angry! It would mean that the Egyptians they had served all their lives might attack them. Freedom from their slavery did not seem to be worth the hardships they would inevitably endure.

When God sets out to free us there will often be a price we will have to pay. Grief can be a terrible form of bondage, yet we can become comfortable with it. We can grow so comfortable with fear that we don’t know how to live without it. As destructive as our sinful habits and lifestyle might be, we may prefer living with the familiar, rather than being freed to experience the unknown. We may recognize the harmful influence of a friend but choose to reject God’s will rather than offend our friend.

As incredible as it seems, the Israelites were angry at Moses for disrupting the life of slavery to which they had grown accustomed. Have you been lulled into a comfortable relationship with your bondage? Do you fear change more than you fear God? Are you willing to allow God to do what is necessary in order to free you?”

When Moses encountered God in the burning bush, he still had much to learn about his Lord. Moses was impressed with the miracle before him (Exod. 3:3). However, it would take much more than a burning bush to lead Israel out of captivity from the most powerful nation of Moses’ day. Would the same God who could cause a bush to burn without being consumed also be able to do what was necessary to deliver a multitude?

God’s answer was, “I AM!” That is, “Moses, I’ll be whatever you need Me to be as you carry out my assignment. If you need miraculous signs in order to convince Pharaoh, then that is how I will express Myself. If you need Me to interrupt nature and part the waters of the Red Sea, then I will demonstrate Myself in that way. If you require food and water, then I will be your provider. If you are afraid, I’ll be your strength.”

At the beginning of Moses’ walk with the Lord, Moses had no idea all that he would need God to do for him. Yet each time Moses faced a need, He learned something new about God. Moses came to realize that there was much more to God than a burning bush. What if Moses was so enamored with his experience at the bush that he built a tabernacle on the spot and established “The Church of the Burning Bush”? He would have missed out on so much more that God wanted to reveal to him! Think back to your understanding of God when you first began walking with Him. How have your experiences expanded your knowledge of Him?

God did not deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt so that they could enjoy the Promised Land. He freed them from their bondage so they could come to know and worship Him. Three months after they left Egypt, God reminded His people why He had delivered them “on eagles’ wings.” It was to bring the people to Himself. That is, God saved them so that they could enjoy intimate fellowship with Him. The Israelites had been slaves with no freedom to worship God. Now, with their own land, they could come to know and serve God freely. God’s call was not to destroy the idolatrous nations in Canaan, not to settle the lands they conquered, and not to establish a new nation, although all of these would be accomplished. Rather, God called them primarily to be a people who loved and worshiped Him. Through God’s act of deliverance they came to know Him as an almighty and compassionate God, and they were now free to respond to Him.

We are so activity oriented that we assume we were saved for a task we are to perform rather than for a relationship to enjoy. God uses our activities and circumstances to bring us to Himself. When He gives us a God-sized assignment, its sheer impossibility brings us back to Him for His enabling. When God allows us to go through crises, it brings us closer to Him.

If we are not careful, we can inadvertently bypass the relationship in order to get on with the activity. When you are busy in your activity for God, remember that God leads you to the experiences in order to bring you to Himself.

If there is anything that ought to characterize the life of a Christian, it is joy! Jesus spoke many times to His disciples about His joy being complete and full in them. His disciples were filled with joy as they realized who they were: children of God and joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:16-17). They had been dead in their sins but were now made alive in Christ (Rom. 6:4). They had once been helpless victims of death, but now death had no hold over them (1 Cor. 15:55-58). With such a marvelous salvation experience with Christ, how could the disciples be anything less than joyful?

Don’t deny yourself that which is your birthright as a child of God. Don’t be satisfied with a joyless life. There ought to be in every Christian a deep, settled fullness of the joy of Christ that no circumstance of life can dispel. This comes as you allow the Holy Spirit to express Himself in your life. One of the fruits of the Spirit is joy (Gal. 5:22). This joy is unlike any happiness that is produced by the world. It fills you and permeates everything you do.

Jesus did not pray that you would merely be happy or even that you would escape grief. He prayed that you would have the same joy that the Father had given Him: a divine joy, a joy that comes from a deep and unwavering relationship with the Father. It is a joy that is grounded so firmly in a relationship with God that no change in circumstances could ever shake it. This is the kind of joy that Christ is praying will be in you.

Nothing that Satan can do to you should cause you to fear (2 Tim. 1:7). Jesus chose the twelve disciples the Father had given Him and then jealously guarded them from the evil one. Jesus sent His disciples into the world where they experienced difficult and dangerous circumstances, but He interceded on their behalf with His Father that they would have His strong protection from the evil one (John 17:15).

In the same way, Jesus said that we, as His sheep, are held securely in the Father’s strong hand (John 10:28). There is no better place to be than safely in the hand of almighty God. Do you believe this, or are you fearful of what Satan or people can do to you? The apostle John encourages us that we do not need to fear: “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). This is not merely a theological concept but a profound reality in which you can have absolute confidence. It is not just a truth for meditation in the security of your home; it is a promise you can cling to in the midst of a hostile and menacing world.

What you do reveals what you believe. If you are living a fearful, anxiety-filled life, you are proving your lack of confidence in God’s protection, regardless of what you may say. Live your life with confidence that Jesus is continually interceding with the Father on your behalf. If you trust Him completely, you will have nothing to fear.

There is an important difference between doing something for people and doing something for God. God always deserves our best effort. People will disappoint us, betray us, neglect us, and mistreat us. Some will constantly ask for what we can give while offering nothing in return. From our human perspective, these people deserve our minimal effort at best. What then should motivate us to serve people, except our love for God? God deserves our love, and He demands that we love others in the same way He does. We are to love our spouses, not as they deserve, but as God commands (Eph. 5:22-33). We are to treat our friends, not as they treat us, but as Christ loves us (John 13:14). We are to labor at our jobs, not in proportion to the way our employer treats us, but according to the way God treats us. God is the One we serve (Eph. 6:5).

Mediocrity and laziness have no place in the Christian’s life. Christians must maintain integrity at home and in the workplace. Working for God, as opposed to working for other people, changes our perspective as we view our endeavors in light of what He has done for us. Our toil then becomes an offering to God. We not only worship God at church on Sunday, but our labor throughout the week is an offering of worship and thanksgiving to the One who has given us everything we have. When people do not measure up to our expectations and we feel our efforts are being wasted, we must keep in mind that we are toiling for holy God. He is worthy of our best effort.

Ministry is costly. When the heavenly Father wanted to save His creation from sin, He could find no other way except the sacrifice of His Son (Rom. 5:8). Scripture gives a stark picture of the price our Savior paid to obtain our salvation: “He is despised and rejected by men, / A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). If Christ is your model for ministry, you cannot avoid going to the cross for the sake of others. Salvation comes with a great price, and if we are going to “take up our cross” and follow Jesus, then we must be prepared to go with Him to the place of suffering if that’s what it takes to bring salvation to those around us.

If our goal is to bring others to Christ we must be willing, as He was, to risk rejection. People may disappoint us, misunderstand our motives, even despise and persecute us. Our Savior did not let suffering prevent Him from being used by God to bring salvation to those He loved. Love for His Father provided all the motivation that was necessary. Are you presently experiencing hardship because of the ministry to which God has called you? Have you begun to wonder if the price you are paying is too great? Take a moment to reflect on the price God was willing to pay in order to bring salvation to you. Are you glad He was willing to do what was necessary? Will you not join Him in whatever is necessary to bring salvation to those around you?