Search This Blog

Friday, February 28, 2020

Allow Him


Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted.
—Psalm 127:1 (NLT)



A righteous life is as natural as breathing when you know your identity in Christ. And who are you? You are the righteousness of God in Jesus. It is the gift of His life for yours. Don’t be as the Pharisees—just acting it out! If you do, then it becomes self-righteous. And self-righteousness fosters guilt and shame instead of the freedom from sin and guilt that Jesus died to give you.

Only Jesus builds the house of your life securely on His foundation. If you build your life on your own goodness, then you labor in vain. Your work is wasted. It is only His righteousness—His goodness—which makes a difference. Unless the Lord builds your life—unless His Grace is your incentive and His power your means, you remain frustrated and do not experience His peace and joy. 

Do you understand that when Jesus took your sin to the cross and died to give you His worthiness, that he approved you? Or are you always struggling to earn His acceptance? If you genuinely believe that you are a new person because of His Grace, then His power sets you free to live His righteousness. There was nothing you had to do to earn His love when He died for you. Why do you think He now grades your performance?

Peace and joy in the Holy Spirit come through believing by faith who you are in Jesus. You are accepted. You are loved. You are His. There is no need to earn His love. As His Grace transforms you, you realize His revealed work in you, and, without hesitation, you allow Him to live in you. 

Don’t labor in vain—trying to attain something that Jesus has already given you. Let Him build your life. Allow the Holy Spirit to teach and transform you.


© 2020 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2020/02/allow-him.html



Thursday, February 27, 2020

Pray in Me


The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
—Romans 8:25-28 NLT


         Thank you, Holy Spirit, for always giving me your strength. You pray from within my heart. You pray my real need—not what my mind perceives that need to be. You, the only one who knows me intimately and completely, pray what is perfect to fulfill your truth. My heart prays without my mind analyzing—without thoughts dictating my feelings. When you pray within me, I receive greater faith to believe your truth, and my shield of faith becomes strong to withstand the lies of the enemy.

         I have two minds—the mind of Christ and the mind of the self. Holy Spirit, you continually speak spiritual truth and encouragement, but so often, my human perception mind wipes out what you say. When I allow what I see and hear in this world to be greater than the spiritual truth you impart, then I walk in defeat. You continuously speak promise. A double-minded man is unstable in everything he does or thinks or attempts. One mind will always take precedence over another. I don’t want to be the one who has trouble hearing and seeing what you reveal. I choose to believe your spiritual truth over anything else that this world tells me is true. I choose for my mind to be yours, Jesus, understanding and accepting your truth more than my feelings.

         No words describe the joy of you praying within my heart, Holy Spirit. No words describe the peace of knowing you own my heart, and that everything I go through in life works for your good. When I choose you over what I see or feel—when I accept your spiritual truth over my human perception—I trust in what the natural world says is impossible. I walk by faith and not by sight. And I believe you. 

© 2020 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2020/02/pray-in-me.html


Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Who You Are


There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
—1 Peter 1:6-7 (NLT)


Even though we live in a world that offers no security, we have the greatest security in Jesus. Heaven is an incredible joy, and it is the promise for those who believe in Him. Life can be very difficult, but when faith in Jesus anchors you, you live in His peace no matter what life throws at you. Your perspective is not based on what you feel. It is based on what you believe. And that belief is filled with His promise. Believing Him fires your faith. Life is full of joy instead of fear. You know to whom you belong, and nothing shakes the joy of His salvation in your life.

Grace changes everything in this life and the next. Where you were once lost, now you are found. Where you once had no hope, now you have His most exceptional promise. You don't take care of yourself. The Lord takes care of you. You can't control circumstances or a virus or the stock market, but you can trust in God to take care of what you can't. You can't believe what you see and hear in this world. The world has no peace to offer you. Only Jesus gives peace.

Life tests you. Trials test you. Your faith is far more precious than gold. And when your faith remains strong through many trials, you experience the assurance of abundant life in Him. You live in His security where life cannot throw you—you rest in His peace when others are falling around you—you rejoice in His promise when it appears you have nothing in which to rejoice.

“So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord,” the writer to the Hebrews declares. “Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. And my righteous ones will live by faith” (Hebrews 10:35-38a, NLT).

Have confident trust!  Remember your reward! Patience endurance is needed! Continue to do God’s will! You will receive ALL that He has promised. He is coming for you one day. Until then, His righteous one will live by faith.

When you believe Jesus has made you righteous by the gift of His life for yours, then your whole perspective changes. You experience your new identity in Him. And when you know who you are in Jesus—that He has made you righteous, you can live by faith.

If you want a stronger faith and peace to anchor you, discover your identity in Jesus. Know how His strength has made your weakness strong. Ask Him. Seek Him. Believe Him. Abundant life is never about what you have. It is about who you are.

© 2020 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2020/02/who-you-are.html

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Trust God


Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.
—John 14:1 (NLT)


If you don’t need to be troubled about your future in heaven, why do you worry about life now?  Don’t you know that your heavenly Father already knows your needs? Worry dominates the thoughts of those who do not believe in Jesus. Do you believe in Him? So why should it dominate your thoughts, too? 

If you genuinely believe, you trust. If you have fears that keep you from trusting, then those fears are more relevant to you than the peace Jesus offers. Trust begins as a decision. If you trusted God for your salvation in heaven, why can’t you trust Him for your salvation on earth? He will never leave you or forsake you. That is His Truth you can stand on and trust.

Trust is "acceptance of the truth of a statement without evidence or investigation” (www.lexico.com). Accepting God’s Word as Truth without needing proof, changes your perception of life from one of insecurity to trust. You don’t need to see to believe. Trust is the “firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something” (www.lexico.com). When you believe—firmly and without a doubt in God's reliability, His Truth, and His ability—you trust Him.

Don’t worry about today or tomorrow. Why not trust in God who sent His Son to save you? When you believe in the Truth of the new life Jesus has given you, there is no reason not to trust in God. Jesus has given you His Father as your very own. He has given you abundant life now.

Trust comes from believing without a doubt that your Father will never let you go. There is no need to fear circumstances or anything in this world. Trust begins as a decision to accept what God promises as Truth, and the Holy Spirit empowers you to believe by faith.

So don’t let your heart be troubled. Trust in God. Trust in Jesus. Trust the Holy Spirit. 

© 2020 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2020/02/trust-god_25.html

Monday, February 24, 2020

No Fear in Perfect Love


Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.
—1 John 1:18 NLT


         The perfect love of Jesus drives out all fear—not just some of your fear but ALL of it. You have no room for the love of Jesus when fear claims your mind. When fear controls you, you have no peace. His perfect love takes second place.

         This verse clearly states that if we are afraid, we are fearful of punishment. Believers inundated with fear struggle with thoughts that they deserve punishment. “I can never be good enough—I can never do enough to make up for what I have done—I'm so ashamed that I failed.” You can’t make up for anything you’ve done. Only Jesus can pay that price, and He already has. Where once you deserved punishment, now you are free because Jesus took your punishment for you. 

         Because of Jesus' love for you on Calvary, you don't need to entertain feelings of guilt and shame. Jesus saw you in your sin, and He died so you would not only be free of it but also the emotions that accompany it. He declared you whole and healed. Jesus died to set you free from the reminders of the enemy that you are in debt to God—that there is something you must do to be in right-standing with Him. You can never be good enough on your own merit, and striving to prove you are is self-defeating! You belong to Jesus! You are in right-standing with God! You can be free from all fear. It is His promise to you. When you choose to believe His truth, His love perfects how you think. You are His passion. His love, which defeats all fear, becomes as natural as breathing.

You received all of Jesus the day you believed in Him by faith. You received His perfect love. For you to grasp this, you have to allow Him to change your perception of who you are. He doesn’t see the failure that plagues you with guilt. He sees you pure and forgiven and righteous. He sees you through the eyes of grace. Until you believe the truth of His grace, you will forever fight the fears which accompany feelings of punishment—of not being good enough.

The love of God was perfected by Jesus on Calvary, when He died for you. You can't develop it within yourself. You allow the Holy Spirit to change what you can't. You face your fears with a decision that He will conquer them for you. You decide that God is not waiting to beat you up because of sin or failure. He loves you with His perfect love.

Keep choosing to believe. The Holy Spirit brings Resurrection power to fulfill it. You will stand against the lies of the enemy. You won't believe negative feelings that rise to condemn you. When you continually grow in the revelation of His grace, perseverance will finish its work so that you will be mature and complete, and not lacking in anything. Each day you will choose faith over fear. His peace and joy will anchor you. His perfect love will flow like a river of living water—refreshing and empowering you. Fear will have no claim on your life.


© 2020 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2020/02/no-fear-in-perfect-love.html

Friday, February 21, 2020

The Mind of Christ



Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
—Philippians 2:3-5 (NKJV)


Though Jesus was sinless, He gave His life for you and me. Thinking less of himself, He chose us. We, too, are to have the same mind—the same unselfish attitude. His new life is a completed work in our born-again spirit, which became ours when we believed by faith in Him. But for his new life to make a difference in our attitudes and actions, it has to be real in our perception of who we are in Him. We have to allow the Holy Spirit to change that perception and the way we think.
  
When we are born again, we receive Jesus' finished work of Grace. We receive His righteousness and His mind. Within us resides the life-changing power of the Cross. But to perceive this life-change, we yield to His process of spiritual growth. By continually surrendering our lives to His Grace, we are transformed by His power until we understand what Grace accomplished. We are free but never realized it. We are loved but never like this. We live in peace instead of turmoil. Our needs change. Life is not about us. 

As we choose to love without expectation, to share without recognition, to give without return, He reveals more of what He has unselfishly given—His righteousness and love, which have no limit. Unburdened by our needs, we are free to love unconditionally. We have no plan or need to be recognized. The self becomes less, so He, who lives in us, can be more. 

         Is it hard for you to love with His unconditional love?  If you are new in Jesus, you have a spirit now filled with His new life and promise. But perhaps your new life is still about your old selfish life. Selfishness always brings turmoil and fear to your mind. When life is about you, there is no spiritual peace. 

If you desire His spiritual peace more than your rights, you are ready to change your attitude. Choose to surrender to the Holy Spirit’s process of renewing your mind. Living the unselfish loving attitude of Christ then becomes His work and nothing to which you claim any right. By faith continually act upon what you determine is real, and His Grace will make it your reality.

His Grace sets you free to love unconditionally—to forgive easily—to share freely. You are unburdened by what a selfish mind says you need. You are at peace. You have received all you need, and that is Jesus. And just as freely as you received Him, you unconditionally, without thinking or analyzing, give His love so that others may receive Him, too.
  
©2020 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2020/02/the-mind-of-christ.html

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Trust God


One who is wise can go up against the city of the mighty, and pull down the stronghold in which they trust. 
—Proverbs 21:22 (NIV)

Have you ever faced a stronghold in your life that just won’t come down? Each time you think you have found a break-through, that stronghold reinforces itself. You are exhausted and are about to give up, but then you admit you haven't really believed God would bring it down. You have trusted in that stronghold more than Him. The Holy Spirit has wisdom and power to address that stronghold in the authority Jesus has given you. He knows how to destroy it. With God's wisdom and His power, you can leave that stronghold in ruins.

Do you have a stronghold that binds you? Perhaps, there is something in which you have unwisely and maybe even unwittingly placed your trust. It is also possible that you can't quite name that stronghold. You need the Holy Spirit’s wisdom to identify and conquer what you can only address in His power. Most assuredly, you need faith to trust that God will bring it down.

"If any of you lacks wisdom," James writes, "you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you" (James 1:5, NIV). When you ask God for His wisdom, He bestows it abundantly without restraint. In His understanding, you can identify and conquer that very thing where you have placed your trust—the very thing that has held you in bondage. With His power, you can pull down any stronghold which has claimed your mind more than God has claimed your trust. 

What you believe determines your outcome. Don't trust in your stronghold more than you believe in your God! Trust God. Ask for His wisdom. Believe that He gives you the power to speak to that stronghold. You will discover the weakness in its structure. When you address that stronghold with His wisdom and in His authority, it will come down and stay down. That stronghold no longer has greater strength than your God who empowers you. 

When your stronghold comes down, you understand His freedom in a way you never thought possible! You can breathe His Spirit! There is nothing between you and God! You know nothing separates you from His love. You have a peace that nothing else can give you. You have a joy that makes you even stronger. You have experienced the power of His grace and stand without shame unveiled in His presence. When you trust Jesus, no power on earth or in hell can rebuild that stronghold. 

© 2020 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2020/02/trust-God.html


Wednesday, February 19, 2020

His Righteousness Never Fails



Everything he does reveals his glory and majesty. His righteousness never fails.
—Psalm 111:3 (NLT)

Christ paid the ultimate price for my redemption. I cannot fathom His pain and His agony or His loneliness and separation from His father. He gave all of Himself so that I might be free from sin and death. I have been bought with the greatest price—His life. I belong to Him. I am His to love. I am so thankful that His grace consistently teaches and changes me. When I perceive the difference He makes—that I am free from condemnation, guilt, and shame—I realize His love was enough to make me clean. I was shattered, but now I am whole in His righteousness.

Through many years I have been taught that to keep His love, I must serve and obey Him. There is nothing I must do to earn or keep His love. Jesus freely gave His love. What I may fail to realize is that with His gift of salvation, I became His responsibility. It is His responsibility to supply my need and empower my life. When I live with the fear that I may lose His love at any moment for the least mistake, then fear is my focus instead of the grace and love of my Savior. When I don’t realize my debt is gone, I have no freedom to serve Him.

However, when I understand that I owe nothing because of Jesus’ love, His grace sets me free to love. I serve because He first loved me. I don’t walk in fear of failure. Instead, I walk in His power because of His grace. I have a responsibility. It is to let Him continually change me and love through me; it is His responsibility to do it. Everything He did on the Cross reveals His glory and love. “It is done,” He said with His last breath. His righteousness never fails. 

© 2020 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2020/02/his-righteousness-never-fails.html

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

His Power in Me



And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
—2 Corinthians 12:9 (NKJV) 


The promises of God are not dependent upon my ability, but only upon who He is. When I believe in His unlimited ability more than what I perceive as my weakness, I receive assurance that I can do whatever He asks of me. 

When Jesus chose Peter, He saw Peter's potential. He recognized someone, who after denial and failure, would rise to walk in His power and strength. In choosing Peter, Jesus revealed that His power never limits those who feel desperate and frail. What I perceive as my weakness, God doesn’t see. He sees the righteousness of His Son in me—not the powerless sinner that I was. Jesus has made me strong by giving me His blameless life. I have His power to achieve the potential He sees in me.

When I believe who I am in Jesus, I need never cry for help from weakness or desperation. I believe He has made me worthy and that I have His new resurrected life. I pray, knowing that only in Jesus is my strength. It does not matter if I am weak; I know He is strong. If I believe His grace is sufficient for anything in my life, I have no fear. His strength is made perfect in my weakness. 

When I believe His perfect strength is mine, I boast in my weakness. The greater my weakness, the stronger He is within me. Even though I, like Peter, may fail, God’s promise still prevails. Remember His promise does not rest upon my ability. It always rests upon who He is. When Jesus told Peter to “feed His sheep,” He meant for His strength to empower Peter's weakness. Jesus wanted Peter not to focus on his failure but on Him.

Do you believe that where you are weak, He is strong?  If you do, that belief impacts every area of your life. You have love because He is love. You have peace because He is peace. You don't struggle with who He is. You believe that your weakness never limits His power.

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, ACCORDING TO THE POWER THAT WORKS IN US” (Ephesians 3:20, NKJV).

© 2020 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2020/02/his-power-in-me.html



Monday, February 17, 2020

Stone to Dust



“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The Law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”
—John 8:4-8 NLT

The Old Covenant, the Law of Moses, called for stoning to death for this woman caught in adultery. But Jesus didn’t look on that woman who sinned through the eyes of the law. He looked upon her with love that was ready to give His life for her. The Pharisees surrounding this woman demanded that the Law of Moses be satisfied by stoning her to death. He knew these men were there to ambush Him. They hadn’t even brought the man caught in the act with her. But the soul of this woman was precious to Jesus. He looked beyond her sin and saw her need. The law would only be satisfied with the gift of His life. Only His grace could set her free.

The Pharisees did not understand Jesus had come to not only set the woman free but to set their hearts free from judgment and hatred that consumed them. Jesus listened to their accusations and stooped down to write something in the dust with his finger. No one knows what He wrote. Last night Chris Russell suggested that Jesus might have written their secret sins for each Pharisee to see. Their hatred and their demand for retribution were not going to be satisfied according to the law. Chris also pointed out they might have had the right according to the law to stone this woman, but Jesus was there to take away their ability to do it. 

In one moment, Jesus directed their hatred and retribution away from the woman caught in sin. He asked them to look at the state of their own hearts. If they had no sin, then they could stone her. In that one question, Jesus spoke the reason He had been born—not to condemn but to save the world from sin. The law would only be satisfied by His love written on the human heart. The Pharisees knew no one was perfect. Perhaps, Jesus had reminded them by writing their sins in the dust.

With the state of their hearts revealed, the woman's accusers are suddenly gone. Jesus looks at the woman and asks her where her accusers are. No one is there demanding and calling for her death. “Go and sin no more,” He whispers. The end she expected had been replaced by life. The statement to "go and sin no more" was also for her accusers who, after exposure and shame, could not remain in Jesus’ presence. When we understand the gift He has given us, His grace replaces our need to judge others. Throwing stones kill grace. Only the unconditional love of Jesus gives life to grace.

“Do not judge,” Jesus said in Matthew 7: 1-2, “and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others.”  Never throw stones. The judgment that consumes our hearts returns to stone us. Jesus writes—not in the dust—but upon our hearts, setting us free from the need to judge and accuse and be right. Jesus revealed the imperfections of the Pharisees, and if we allow, He sets us free to not judge and be right about everything. When we continually expose someone else, we expose ourselves. 

“I will give you a new heart,” Jesus writes in the dust, “and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart” (Ezekiel 36:26, NLT). You can't throw a stony heart of stone that Jesus has turned to dust. You no longer need to do it. You just don't have the ability.

© 2020 Lynn Lacher                                                
www.lynnlacher.com/2020/02/stone-to-dust.html

Friday, February 14, 2020

Call to Him


What draws you away from intimacy with your Father? Your busy schedule? Feelings of unworthiness? Things you think you need to do? Fear because you can’t control life? So many issues and problems and thoughts can keep you from reaching out to Him. He waits patiently for you to pull away from stuff that vies for your attention and call to Him—to draw close. In your hustle and bustle of emotions and feelings, He longs to spend time with you and to share His peaceful heart. 

Your Father is the omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient God. He is the creator of the universe. Yet, this all-powerful God is your loving Father and is intimately concerned about your welfare. He knows you better than you will ever know yourself and loves you completely and without hesitation. He gives himself to you because you are precious to Him. You come to your Father, who is everywhere at the same time, and yet He is there for you.

When you draw close to God, you realize how close He really is. He never tires of your delay but waits patiently for you to realize your problems are not solved in controlling the fears of your day. Peace is found when you let go and allow Him to take care of what you can’t. God longs for you to understand His truth. He continually shares His heart, but when you are too busy worrying or fixing, you are too consumed with your control issues than hearing from Him. 


Your Father answers you with great things you do not know—great truths that have the power to heal your life. You receive powerfully and completely from His bountiful grace. Some truths will take your breath away. Others you may not understand just yet, but you believe by faith, and you trust by faith. You trust because you know How much He loves you. Because you trust your Father, you have peace in what He shows you. You rest in Him because you believe Him. You never struggle with anything He reveals to you. He only has the best for you. You have inner peace and joy.

Is this your relationship with Him?  When you surrender your worries—your pre-conceived notions—your control—your feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness, you realize just how precious you are to Him. You hear His heart, and you know His answer is the only one. Everything in you believes that you are His.

Call to Him. Draw close to Him. In His presence lies the peace of this day—and the next and the next…

© 2020 Lynn Lacher

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Not To Do List



Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
—Romans 13:8-10 (NIV)


We only owe one thing, and that is to love as Jesus has loved us. Jesus wiped away the overwhelming debt of our sin on the Cross. The gift of His life paid the debt we could never pay. He gave the only thing He could give to fulfill the law of Moses—His life’s blood. The grace of Jesus—His unconditional love—is the perfect fulfillment of the law.

The commandments of the law are summoned up in the one final instruction that Jesus gave His disciples the night before His crucifixion—to love with His love. The list of "to-dos" to have right-standing with God were fulfilled in one second as Jesus drew His last breath. We are free to love others as ourselves. We are free to not murder—to not steal. We are free not to sin. Sin is no longer our master because we are not under the law. We live under the protection of the love of Jesus. Yes, His grace changed everything.

Don't become consumed with the "to-dos." Be consumed with the love of Jesus. Love others with His love that changed everything for you. When you allow His grace to love through you—you love without judgment—you forgive without compensation—you cherish without explanation. When your love is not based on the actions or the "to-dos" of someone else, you experience freedom from your own need to do something to have God's approval. You know you are forgiven. The only one "to-do," which had to be accomplished, is finished. There is nothing more for Jesus or you to do. 

When you keep your mind on Jesus—on the fact that He loved you not for who you were but because of who He was—you experience His unconditional love. You breathe in His righteousness without shame.  The "to-dos” fade away in comparison to His undeserved grace. You are free to love as you are loved.

© 2020 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2020/02/not-to-do-list.html

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

His Prized Possession


His Prized Possession

Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.
—James 1:18-19 (NLT)

Out of all creation, we are God’s prized possession. He fashioned us in His image and created us to know Him. The Word existed with God, and in Jesus, it became flesh just like Him. God chose to birth His life in us through the gift of His Son’s life for our sins. When we believe by faith in Jesus, the righteousness of Jesus is gifted to us. God claims us as His children. We are prized and loved by Him—heirs to all of His promises.

Our Father never changes. He is the same as He was yesterday, and He will be the same in the future. God is not the author of evil. Whatever is good and perfect in our lives is His gift to us. Jesus came into the world to save it—not to condemn it. There is no condemnation in Him. God is redeeming love.

Have you experienced the redeeming love of Jesus, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth? Do you really believe? If so, wouldn't you walk in His freedom unhindered by fear? Wouldn’t you be free in His grace to experience forgiveness without retribution—to receive peace without questioning—to know joy without a doubt? Perhaps you haven’t been renewed in your mind to believe the life-changing truths of what you have received.

If you believe something, you unconsciously act upon that belief. That belief defines how you experience life. Are you positive or negative? Do you forgive? Do you go freely to God and rest in His presence? God sent His Word and healed you. His Word sets you free to believe that your sinful nature was taken to the Cross, and you have risen with Him to walk in the righteousness of God. 

Just as your Father is three-in-one, so are you. You are spirit, mind, and body. His righteousness lives in your spirit because that is where you were born again. When you are renewed in your mind by the righteousness you received at salvation, you are transformed in what you believe by the gift of His life for yours. Your flesh lives what your mind believes. When you truly believe that the grace of Jesus accomplished your freedom, you experience His presence without analyzing the peace and joy of His love. You need no explanation. You just bask in His glory. You live His unchanging truth. You know there is no variance in Him.

Out of all creation, you are God’s prized possession. Jesus said on the Cross that His work for you was finished. There was nothing more to be done. God sent His Word and healed you in spirit, mind, and body. His Word was flesh in Jesus, and that Word died and rose again so you might have its new life.

“May God himself,” Paul wrote, “the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23, NIV).

© 2020 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2020/02/his-prized-possession.html

Monday, February 10, 2020

You Are His


If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.
—Mark 8:35 (NLT)


Giving up your life for Jesus’ sake is giving up your limited human frailty to receive all the fullness of His unlimited spiritual life! It is discovering who He has created you to be. You can’t hang on to who you were before He saved you from your sinful life. If you do, you will falter in feelings of guilt and shame. If you allow the sin of who you were to define who you are now, you will believe you owe something to make things right. Jesus alone makes things right in you. When you believe in the gift of His life for yours, you receive His righteousness. He gave everything He had for you. He held nothing back. You were worth it all to Him. And now He calls you worthy because He has made you righteous. 

What is your identity? Who are you? Do you belong to your past, or do you belong to Jesus? Do you belong to what you believe in your natural mind instead of what He wishes to reveal through His Spirit? If you hang on to who you were, you will never know who you are now. If you keep trying to pay a debt you don’t owe, you will forever be indebted. When you give up the power of your old sinful nature to determine who you are and what you believe, you will know the power of faith in Jesus Christ. You will walk in His new life by faith and not by sight. 

His Good News is too good to be true to the natural mind! Who would ever die for someone else? Only Jesus—the righteous Son of God—would give His life with nothing owed in return. Don't try to hang on to who you were. It will defeat His power to change your perception to one of acceptance instead of one of needing to win His approval.  If you give up the selfishness of your failures and desires and allow His righteousness to transform your mind, you will be changed by the Holy Spirit to believe you are free in His grace.  

You were bought with the most precious blood—given for you without hesitation. Give your life for His sake—for His Good News—and discover who Jesus says you are. You are chosen in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. You are forgiven—showered in His love with all wisdom and understanding. 

When you first believed in Jesus, He identified you as His own. So who are? YOU ARE HIS. 

© 2020 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2020/02/you-are-his.html

Even Greater Works


 I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father.
—John 14:12-13 (NLT)

In these verses, Jesus speaks to His disciples the night before His crucifixion. He also speaks to us, those who will later follow Him.  To the disciples and us, Jesus states this truth. Anyone who believes in Him will not only do the same works He has done, but even greater works. The reason? He goes to His Father so that we may go, too. The gift of His life makes this real. We can ask anything in His name, and He will do it so that His Father receives the glory. 

Yes, Jesus died for us—not only freeing us from sin and shame but ultimately bringing glory to His Father. In His death, our sinful life is no more. In His resurrection, our new one has come!  He is not only our Savior but by the gift of His life, our adopted brother. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead now lives in us. The Holy Spirit has come to empower what we ask in His name. We pray in faith. We fast ourselves in His presence. When we ask anything in His name, believing, He does it so that our Father receives the glory.

When we don’t believe in who Jesus says we are, we don’t live up to our potential in Christ. Believing who we are in Jesus ignites the fire of grace. When we believe, the Holy Spirit accomplishes the impossible through us.

Do you remember when Jesus came down from the mountain where He was transfigured before Peter, James, and John?  He returned to the other disciples to learn they had not been able to cast a demon from a child. The father of the child asked Jesus to have mercy on His son. 

“Jesus rebuked the demon,” Matthew writes, “and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’  So Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you’” (Matthew 17:18-20, NKJV).

Our faith might be small as a mustard seed, but it is immeasurably powerful in Jesus when we believe. Unbelief keeps us from living the promises of God. Unbelief keeps up from the miraculous work the Holy Spirit wishes to pour into us and through us.

“Believe,” He whispers. “Believe you have received all of me—not just a little part of me. Believe it, and I will fulfill what you ask because it glorifies my name. You don't ask from the selfish glory Simon desired. You ask because you were once lost, and now you are found. I have set your heart free.”

© 2020 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2020/02/even-greater-works.html

Christ My Hope of Glory

  .   And now, Lord, for what do I expectantly wait? My hope [my confident expectation] is in You. —Psalms 39:7 (AMP)   I wait [patiently] f...