Tag: holy-spirit

Christian

A Heavenly Peace

Highlighting Hope

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, and all is bright
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace

We sing this song at Christmas time to worship our King. Our King who left His throne to come and abolish the great wall of separation that exists between God and man because of sin. Jesus came to abolish this great abyss that would have otherwise remained. Jesus came, despite our unworthiness, to bestow His grace, upon grace on and in our lives. We sing in worship of this holy birth!

For those who have been redeemed by Christ, this song has a very profound meaning. There are no amount of penned words that can fully articulate the majesty of Jesus and His holy birth, but bestowed to His children are significant blessings that can readily be identified and these significant blessings are markings of a stark contrast in our lives- before and after His entrance.

Before Christ coming into your life, do you recall a restlessness, a deep longing within your heart, always left unmet? Take a moment to recall the moment when Jesus became your Savior and consider these differences.

Silent night. I’m not sure how silent that night literally was, but this significant birth now silences the voice of our accuser. John 3:17, 18 says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned” Revelation 12:10 says, “Now have come the salvation of and the power of and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.” Do you hear the constant sound of accusations in your heart and mind? Look unto this Savior who has been born for you and allow Him to give you your first, true silent night.

Holy Night. No day is as sacred as that first moment God captured your heart and stamped you as ‘His’. The moment that you first began your life in Christ, was certainly a holy moment, and was certainly your first true holy night. This is a holiness that we could not produce on our own, but rather it is one that had to be done for us and on our behalf. Paul addresses the believers in Corinth, as those sanctified in Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 1:2). The word sanctified is a past tense verb, which means to be set apart or declared as holy. This clearly indicates an action needing to be taken on our behalf. We in ourselves, are not holy, but Jesus is holy and in Him, we can be declared holy, and thus allowing us to experience our first, true holy night.

All is Calm, All is Bright. Your once restless heart, your life once lived in darkness, is now filled with a calm, and a light that you had never known or had ever seen before. This new calm is unlike any other calm you’ve ever experienced, because Christ is a new peace on Earth to all people that ultimately brings us peace with God. As Jesus once rebuked a storm when He and His disciples were out at sea by saying, “Peace, be still!” Scripture then tells us that the winds ceased and there was a great calm. A life once filled with chaos can come to a complete halt by Jesus’ resounding call of, “Peace, be still.” That’s what His birth was. His very birth commands a peace over our lives that results in a great calm for our souls to experience daily. A life once full of darkness is now bursting with Christ’s light and therefore, we experience new life. Where there is Light, there is life. “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Without light, there is no life” John 1:4, 5 The birth of our Savior ushered in a marvelous light this world so desperately needs.

Heavenly Peace. All of this is a result of a Holy Infant, the Christ child, coming for us. Therefore, we can sleep in a new found peace, a heavenly peace.

Are you experiencing a silent night, a holy night, in Christ? Have you experienced this great calm over your heart and soul? Is there new light shining in your life this day? If not, you can experience these things by looking to the Christ Child, by looking to the Savior of the world, and for the very first time, experience a Heavenly peace here on Earth.

Christian

Stop Praying For Victory

Highlighting Hope

We love words like ‘triumphant’ and ‘victory’. There is a sense of accomplishment surrounding these words, and they result in a particular outcome that we are pleased with (and naturally so). As we embark on a new year, new goals will be set that we hope to accomplish in the months to come. Goals are good and they give us something to aim for, something to strive for, and sometimes we set a goal with the end result in mind without even considering the work that will be required to get us to the finish line.

Likewise in our Christian walk, we love to experience victory and we want to share testimonies of how God is working in our lives. We long for success, but we often forget what the true root of victory and success is, and that is obedience. Jerry Bridges says in his book, The Pursuit of Holiness, “We pray for victory when we know we should be acting in obedience… we do not understand the proper distinction between God’s provision and our own responsibility for holiness” Hebrews 12:14 implores us to make EVERY effort to be holy and therefore, effort means we have a responsibility, and that responsibility is obedience.

We oftentimes prefer words like ’triumph’ or ‘victory’ over a word like ‘obedience’, but at the heart of those things is obedience. If we examine the lives of God’s people throughout scripture, you can see some clear patterns.  When did they experience victory? They experienced victory when they were obedient and therefore their victory was a RESULT. When did God’s people experience defeat? They experienced defeat as a RESULT of disobedience.

Friends, nothing has changed! For us to experience true victory today, we must have hearts fully devoted to God and strive for obedience. How different would this upcoming year be if we set our hearts on obedience? How different would this year be if we started working to say “no” to what separates us from God started saying “yes” in our pursuit of being holy? Let’s stop praying for victory when it’s really an act of obedience that is required. May God set our focus on the right things and the right outcome is sure to follow.

May God bless you in 2024!

Christian

Stop Praying For Victory

Highlighting Hope

We love words like ‘triumphant’ and ‘victory’. There is a sense of accomplishment surrounding these words, and they result in a particular outcome that we are pleased with (and naturally so). As we embark on a new year, new goals will be set that we hope to accomplish in the months to come. Goals are good and they give us something to aim for, something to strive for, and sometimes we set a goal with the end result in mind without even considering the work that will be required to get us to the finish line.

Likewise in our Christian walk, we love to experience victory and we want to share testimonies of how God is working in our lives. We long for success, but we often forget what the true root of victory and success is, and that is obedience. Jerry Bridges says in his book, The Pursuit of Holiness, “We pray for victory when we know we should be acting in obedience… we do not understand the proper distinction between God’s provision and our own responsibility for holiness” Hebrews 12:14 implores us to make EVERY effort to be holy and therefore, effort means we have a responsibility, and that responsibility is obedience.

We oftentimes prefer words like ’triumph’ or ‘victory’ over a word like ‘obedience’, but at the heart of those things is obedience. If we examine the lives of God’s people throughout scripture, you can see some clear patterns.  When did they experience victory? They experienced victory when they were obedient and therefore their victory was a RESULT. When did God’s people experience defeat? They experienced defeat as a RESULT of disobedience.

Friends, nothing has changed! For us to experience true victory today, we must have hearts fully devoted to God and strive for obedience. How different would this upcoming year be if we set our hearts on obedience? How different would this year be if we started working to say “no” to what separates us from God started saying “yes” in our pursuit of being holy? Let’s stop praying for victory when it’s really an act of obedience that is required. May God set our focus on the right things and the right outcome is sure to follow.

May God bless you in 2024!