Christ in Me

 

 

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

—Galatians 2:16

 

Nothing that I do to be good enough makes God accept me. Nothing I do ever earns God’s love. God already loved me enough to send His own Son to die for me. Only Christ makes me right and justifies my imperfections to God. Only Christ, living in me, makes me unblemished and righteous. When I believe in Christ, He lives in me. 

 

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 

—Galatians 2:20

 

I don’t crucify my sin. I don’t perfect myself. I no longer live. It is Christ living in me who has made me worthy. And the life I live—the things I do—the decisions I make—the thoughts I allow, I don’t control on my own. I live by the faith of Christ which He has given me.

 

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

—Romans 12:3

 

God wants me to take the measure of faith He has given to me seriously. I decide to exercise the faith of Christ I have received. I decide to believe God’s truth over what my flesh dictates. I choose to live by the truth of who Christ is within me.

 

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

—Romans 10:17

 

To build my faith, I am continually renewed by the hearing of the Word.

 

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

—Romans 12:2

 

Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

—Ephesians 4:23-24

 

When I am renewed by the Word, my mind conforms to the spirit of Christ living in me. I choose to put on the new nature that He has given me. I can’t earn what He has already earned. I choose His righteousness and holiness. 

 

I walk by faith and not by sight.

—2 Corinthians 5:7

 

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

—Philippians 1:21

 

Christ lives in me. The flesh is defeated by grace. I have gained Christ, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/03/christ-in-me.html

 

Your Healing

 

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

—1 Peter 2:24 (KJV)

 

 

My son, give attention to my words; 

Incline your ear to my sayings. 

Do not let them depart from your eyes; 

keep them in the midst of your heart; 

For they are life to those who find them,

And health to all their flesh.

—Proverbs 4:20-22 (NKJV)

 

 

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: 

Who forgives all your iniquities, 

Who heals all your diseases, 

Who redeems your life from destruction, 

Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

Who satisfies your mouth with good things, 

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

—Psalm 103:2-5 (NKJV)

 

 

He sent out his word and healed them, snatching them from the door of death.

—Psalm 107:20 (NLT)

 

 

He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble;

I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life I will satisfy him,

And show him My salvation.

—Psalm 91:15-16 (NKJN)

 

 

And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”

 

They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”

 

Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.”

—Matthew 9:29-29 (NKJV)

 

 

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

—1 John 5:14-15 (NKJV)

 

 

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

—Hebrews 10:23 (NKJV)

 

 

I am the Lord who heals you.

—Exodus 15:26, NKJV)

 

 

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)

 

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/03/your-healing_30.html

Behold What Manner of Love

1 John 3:1 (NKJV)

 

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!

 

2 Corinthians 5:17, 21 (AMPC)

 

17.  Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

 

21.  For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become [endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness].

 

 

Ephesians 1:3-8 (NLT)

 

3.  All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.

 

4.  Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 

 

5.  God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

 

6.  So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

 

 

John 8:36 (NKJV)

 

Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

 

He is More

 

 

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

—1 Peter 5:6-7 NLT

 

God’s grace is received in humility. The greatest understanding of His grace is received in humility. When you are teachable, you are open to the revealed truth of the Holy Spirit in the Word. You grow to understand that the things you battle in your mind are defeated in Christ. It is His power within you. Not yours. Selfishness is more easily defeated. Pride’s power to control your emotions and feelings becomes less as God’s truth becomes more. When your life is about Him, what you spiritually see, hear, and understand is not yours to own. Your life is His, and there is nothing more for you to gain. You rest in the peace of His grace. He is enough. There is nothing to prove. There is nothing to declare that God hasn’t already called into existence. 

 

When you cast your cares upon Him, you lay everything down. He takes care of all the questions. He takes care of all the concerns and problems. When you humble yourself under His hand, what others think of you becomes less because He is more. You become an instrument to use as He wills. His power is greatest when revealed in humbleness of heart. 

 

Humble yourself before Him with nothing to prove and nothing but to live who He is. Let the truth of the Word teach you who He is in you. Receive spiritual understanding in the wisdom and knowledge of Him. Experience His Spirit—alive in you—setting you free from all that your natural mind has declared as true. Discover that your greatest purpose is His to direct and His to own. You are ready for His overflowing abundance when you lay down all that has claimed your allegiance—all you believe He has imparted—all your mind has perceived as truth—and just allow Jesus to wash your feet—to teach you.

 

Stripped of all that stands in the way of His Hand upon you, you are unhindered by need or perception or anything at all. He, who became less for you, now has become everything in you. You are His, and you realize that He has brought you to a place of victory that you had never imagined. At His feet, you learn what it means to be crowned with victory because He was willing to humble himself for you. You know His joy that no word can express. 

 

His presence is enough. Jesus, the hope of glory, is yours. He is in you, and you are in Him.

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/03/he-is-more.html

 

 

 

Filled with His Fullness

 

That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

—Ephesians 3:16-19 (NKJV)

 

 

The untouchable God of the Old Testament— the God of holiness—the God of infinite power—the God of forgiveness and healing——became freely and entirely accessible through the love of Jesus Christ. When we choose to receive His unconditional love, we were born again in our spirits (John 3:6). We became new in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). We were forgiven of all our sins—healed of all our diseases—made whole and complete in all the fullness of God (Psalm 103:2-3). When we chose to believe in Christ’s finished work of Grace, we became one with Him in spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17).

 

Our human reasoning cannot discern the fullness of this love. We can only discern God's love, spiritually (Romans 8:6). When we allow the Word to mold us, it conforms us to His image (Romans 12:2) and convinces us of His love. We receive spiritual understanding and believe it in our hearts. His eternal love dwells in our hearts through faith. And when we grasp the revelation of God’s love in our inner man, we are strengthened and rooted in His love and are filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19).

 

Do you believe this in your heart—in your inner man? That God gives you His love at no cost to you? Jesus paid the price for you to receive God’s love. The source for everything with which God loves you is His riches in glory. And that is the widest—the longest—the deepest—the highest source of all! God abundantly strengthens you with all His power! He lavishly forgives you with all the forgiveness His Son purchased for you. God generously heals you with all the healing Christ won on your behalf. He liberally provides from with His riches in glory. The Holy Spirit reveals to you the unending depth and length and height and width of the love of God that Jesus Christ gave His life for you to have.

 

“When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace, he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life” (Titus 3:4-7, NLT).

 

The love of God is made known to us in the gift of His Son. To understand the depth of this unconditional love, we need a divine revelation of it. If we ask for that revelation and seek it, we shall find it. He never withholds the truth of His love! God desires us to have a supernatural understanding of His love because He desires a Spirit-to-spirit relationship with us (Ephesians 1:1-11).

 

God's love is not because of anything we have done. He is passionate about us because of His great mercy. Jesus washed away our sins and gave us new birth and life. The grace of Jesus forgives us and makes us right in God’s sight. It gives confident trust in our relationship with Jesus. Forgiven. Healed. His mercy has purchased new life for us. And God liberally pours His Spirit into our hearts.

 

We have the promise of everlasting life. But the overwhelming love of God is not just for heaven.  We have an eternal relationship with God that is real. The abundant and overwhelming love of God is for us right now (John 10:10). 

 

When we are rooted and grounded in spiritual understanding of God’s love, we believe we have received His love in all its fullness. We don’t doubt it. Human reasoning and feelings are overcome by spiritual truth. We rest and have peace in God’s love for us. Filled with all the fullness of God, we live the joy of His abundant life. We believe that our God shall provide everything we need according to His riches in glory (Philippians 4:19).

 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3, NKJV).

 

When we are rooted and grounded in spiritual understanding of God’s love, we comprehend the width and length and depth and height of that love. We know the love of Christ which passes human knowledge and that we are filled with all the fullness of God.

 

“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)!

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/03/filled-with-his-fullness.html

 

Abba Father

 

—Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.

—Ephesians 1:4-6 (NLT)

 

Before God made the world, we were chosen to know Him and to have fellowship with Him. But the powerful God who made us was pure and holy, and sin separated us from His presence. God loved us so much that He made a way for us to have an intimate and loving relationship with Him. He sent His dear Son to us—not to condemn us but to save us. (John 3:16-17). When we accept Christ into our hearts, God adopts us as His own. 

 

—And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

—Galatians 4:6-7 (NKJV)

 

The Holy Spirit within us cries out to God saying, “Abba.” “Abba” is a term of endearment that indicates a deeply loving and intimate relationship with God. The presence of the Holy Spirit within us proves that we are the children of God. God is our Abba Father—our loving “Daddy.” It is a spirit of sonship, and it makes us aware of God’s acceptance and love. Knowing God loves and accepts us is the opposite of feeling we are slaves. The thought of being a slave to God’s judgment creates a sense that we need to earn the privilege to be in His presence. And there is no way to be at peace in the presence of God if we believe His love depends on us being good enough. He loves and accepts and approves of us only because of Jesus. 

 

—For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

—Romans 8:15 (NKJV)

 

We are no longer under bondage to the law but are now under Grace (Romans 6:14). The law made God our judge but the Grace of Jesus made God our Father. We are no longer slaves to the law which judged us. Christ paid the price for our sins, and now we are the children of God. God desires for us to know Him not as the God who judges but as our Father who loves us. As His adopted children, we don’t need to fear His judgment. He doesn’t want us to live in bondage again to fear and to have a fearful and painful relationship with Him. God longs for us to know that we have the freedom to boldly come to Him in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

 

God chose us to be His sons and daughters. We have a privileged status of “sonship” because of Christ. The sonship that Christ has given us is found in three ways, and we were created to need these three things—a secure identity, acceptance, and approval. Without these things, we cannot live peaceful lives. But no person can give us a sense of worth. Only in Christ do we find our true worth in God.

 

When you believe you are not worthy enough, you don’t walk in the Grace of Christ. You try to find your identity, acceptance, and approval in people and circumstances instead of the Beloved Son of God who makes you worthy. The law makes us insecure, but the Grace of Jesus gives us unshakeable security. And Christ is within you crying out that you are no longer slaves to the law, but a child of His Grace. 

 

—To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

—Colossians 1:27 (NKJV)

 

The love of God has been made known to us in Christ. Christ lives within us, the hope of glory. We receive our identity, our acceptance, and approval from being His and being in Him. As Jesus is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). When God sees us, He sees the identity of His Son. Just as much as God loves and accepts and approves of His Son, so He loves, accepts, and approves of us. He is our Abba Father.

 

Who we believe we are in Christ—our identity in Him—our sense of worthiness in Him—makes all the difference between living a defeated or victorious life.

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/03/abba-father.html

 

 

Confidence

 

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

—Hebrews 4:16 (NKJV)

 

The only way we can come to God is in humility. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). Humility before God doesn’t demand anything based on what you do or your accomplishments or your worth. Humility is also not begging and groveling for God to answer your prayer. Humility before God is coming to Him in confidence knowing that He gives mercy and grace in your time of need. It is knowing the worth Christ has placed on your life.

 

When you come boldly to the throne of grace, it doesn’t mean you come instructing God. That is not the surrender that expresses humility. That is pride. When you come boldly to God, you come knowing who you are in Christ. You come knowing your right-standing with God. When you know and believe in your heart the truth of what Jesus has purchased for you, you have confidence in your relationship with Him.

 

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15, NKJV).

 

Do you have this confidence?  When you believe who you are in Christ, you are at peace in your relationship with God. You walk in the freedom His grace has given you. When you have a need, you come freely to God without fear of reproach or judgment or retribution. You come knowing what the love of Christ has given you. You come knowing your Father loves you and you will receive His mercy and grace to help you. You come with a heart of praise because you believe.

 

True humility does not promote self. Neither does it degrade self. It only glorifies the Father. When you have confidence in your relationship with God, you don’t need to beg for mercy and grace. You don’t need to beg God to give you anything that He has already provided in the gift of salvation. You don’t need to beg for forgiveness, or healing or your needs to be supplied. Jesus paid the price for all these things long before you were born or wrestled with sin or illness or need. 

 

“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (James 4:6, NKJV).

 

You have received the grace of Christ. God pours more grace into the lives of those who have confidence in their relationship with God and walk in true humility (James 4:6). Present your needs to God with confidence knowing Christ has made you worthy to receive the petitions that you have asked of Him.

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/03/confidence.html

 

 

Grace to the Humble

 

 

Our lives in this world are performance-driven. The hunger for acceptance and recognition drives many people. They compete to get ahead and try to earn approval. The need to prove yourself stems from pride. God's Kingdom is the very opposite. 

 

“God opposes the proud,” James wrote, “but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

 

God’s grace is unearned and not based on performance at all. The least is the greatest in His Kingdom. You don’t have to prove yourself to win God’s acceptance and love. You received that the moment when you believed by faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Do you believe that living a holy life gives you a better standing with God? You don't need to prove yourself to God. He accepts you based on Christ’s merit and not yours. Righteousness is a gift from Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). You can earn nothing. The only sin that Jesus rebuked on earth was that of self-righteousness. He never rebuked sinners—only the Scribes and Pharisees. The problem was not that they were doing bad things. They were doing good things but for the wrong reason. They trusted in their own goodness.

 

Living a holy life is not the same as living a grace-filled life. Look at the Pharisees. You can live a holy life for the wrong reason—to be recognized by man and to try to prove to God that you are good. Holiness does not render grace. Only Jesus gives grace. It is His goodness that proves you are good. You don’t do good things to win God’s approval. You do good things because you know Christ has made you worthy.

 

No one is good. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God. We can’t expect God to answer our prayers based on our own goodness and how well we have served Him. If we ask God for something because of what we have done, we ask Him to reward our religious performance. And that insults His grace. Doing things to earn God’s grace is promoting ourselves and trying to relate to God based on our best instead of what Jesus has done for us. If we do this, we operate in pride. And pride will never raise anyone up. 

 

“Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:6, NKJV). 

 

The only way up in God’s kingdom is down. God exalts. We don’t.

 

“Humility is not thinking less of ourselves,” C.S. Lewis said. “Humility is thinking of ourselves less.”

 

Humility is our response to the grace of Jesus. It is not demeaning ourselves. Humility is laying “self” down and recognizing the omnipotent power of God. Humbling yourself is not a one-time thing. You have to deal with “self” for the rest of your life. Everything good you have in your life comes from God. If “self” is on your throne, your goodness becomes your own.

 

“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Proverbs 16:9, NKJV).

 

When you experience God’s unconditional grace and inherent goodness, it humbles your heart. You know you are unable to direct your own life. You quit struggling to prove your worth. You trust in God’s goodness. You rest in His grace because you have nothing to prove—no acceptance or recognition you need to find. When you seek God’s truth for your life with your whole heart, you believe your worth is found in Christ and that His plan is better for you than anything you could ever imagine (Jeremiah 29:11-13).

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/03/grace-to-the-humble.html

 

 

 

God Chose You to Love

 

Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

—Romans 8:33-34 (NKJV).

 

 

Even before you knew Him, God chose you to love (1 John 4:19). You responded to His gift of love on Calvary, and He delivered you from the power of darkness and moved you into the Kingdom of His beloved Son (Colossians 1:13-14). God is your Father. You are no orphan. You belong to Him (Romans 8:15). 

 

Christ has destroyed the works of the enemy (Hebrews 2:14). The enemy has no power over you (Luke 10:19). No one has any authority to condemn you—not satan or the opinions of men. God is the one who validates and justifies you (Romans 8:33).

 

Not only is your sin crucified and buried with Christ, everything about you is delivered from the power of darkness. You are reborn and raised with Him in new life (Romans 6:1-4). You are whole and new in His Grace. Your spirit has been reborn with the Spirit of the living God (John 3:6). You are a new person with God’s lineage (2 Corinthians 5:17). When you believed in Christ, you received all the fullness of His grace and truth. You received all the fullness of God. You are complete in Him (John 1:16-17, Colossians 2:9-10). His power is yours to exercise.

 

The enemy will try to tell you that you are the same—that you will never receive the promises of God, but the love of God says differently. God is the author of life (John 14:6), and the enemy is the author of death (John 10:10). You are delivered from the enemy’s clutches. You are saved, forgiven, healed, delivered, and complete in God.

 

Jesus Christ, who was dead and then raised to life, now sits at the right hand of God interceding for you (John 17:20). Jesus doesn’t beg God for His blood to be enough for you. Jesus knows what the gift of His life accomplished—that it was enough. He pleads His own blood for you. He presents you clean to the Father and reminds Him that the work of the salvation is finished—that His blood was enough.

 

Jesus doesn’t intercede for you out of weakness. He intercedes with God with the power of Resurrection Life. Neither do you need to beg God out of your weakness, because in your weakness, Jesus is strong (2 Corinthians 12:9). Jesus has given you authority over anything or any lie that comes against the redemption He gave His life for you to have (Luke 9:1, 10:19). 

 

Your prayers remind God that Jesus has made you clean and whole with the gift of His blood for you. When you believe God's love for you, you praise Him for the forgiveness of sins, healing, and the abundant life His Son bought. You don’t need to beg God for His love and provision when He has already given His life for you to be made new and complete in Him. Praise God for all He has done (Hebrews 13:15)! You have victory because Jesus was victorious. 

 

“Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else” (Romans 8:32, NKJV)?

 

It is so important to understand that God’s true nature is love (1 John 4:8). You are loved. God loves you so much that He did not even spare the life of His Son. And if He let His Son die for you, would God hold back His love and cause evil in your life to get your attention? Would the same God who gives abundant life try to kill, steal and destroy you (John 10:10)? No. The enemy is the author of evil and destruction and death. Jesus Christ is the author of Resurrection life. God would never give you the life of His Son, and then hold back the gift of wholeness that Jesus died for you to have.  Why would He hold back what you need to live? He feeds and takes care of the birds of the air (Matthew 6:26), and He clothes the lilies of the field (Matthew 6:28-29). Are not you more important than these? Why would God hold back your forgiveness, your deliverance, your provision, or healing?

 

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:35,37, NKJV).

 

Nothing separates you from the love of God. You fight the power of darkness with the power of God's Resurrection love. You fight sin. You fight sickness. You fight fear. You fight hardship and persecution. When you know how much God loves you, you fight every lie that comes against you with the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12). In all these lies, you are more than a conqueror. Every sin, symptom, sickness, emotion, feeling, and attack of the enemy is defeated. You more than conquer the enemy with a revelation of God’s love. Your salvation is complete—thorough—enough. You are forgiven of sin and healed through and through with His miraculous grace.

 

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39, NKJV).

 

Are you persuaded—are you convinced—that nothing that comes against you—no circumstance—no power of darkness—no lie—nothing in all creation can separate you from the love of God you have received in Jesus Christ? Nothing can separate you from the power of God's love. When you believe this Truth—that you are secure in Christ’s finished work of grace—you are convinced of God's love. You live the confidence that His love gives you. You persevere and believe in what you are promised.

 

Hold on to God’s Truth, and claim the promises of your new life in Christ. He is the Lord who completely restores—your healer of sin and sickness and fear and grief and the pains of life. God’s will for you is living life in the fullness of His love and grace. Persevere and believe by faith. God supplies all that you need according to His riches in glory (Philippians 4:19). God lacks nothing. You receive from the bounty of His overwhelming love for you.

 

God chose you as His own to love. God chose you to receive His Resurrection glory (John 17:22). Few are called because they choose not to believe and respond to His grace and truth (Matthew 22:14). 

 

Believe and respond to God's truth.

 

“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us” (2 Corinthians 1:20, NKJV).

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/03/god-chose-you-to-love.html

 

Only By Faith

 

 

This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

—Romans 1:17 (NLT)

 

 

The Good News of the Gospel tells us that we are made right with God through faith in Christ. Faith in His finished work of salvation is the only way to live a righteous life. We can’t earn it. It has already been earned. Without faith in the finished work of Christ, we have no hope. 

 

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” Paul wrote (Romans 10:17, NKJ). 

 

Faith comes from hearing the Word. You were made right with God when you believed the Gospel in your heart, and you were saved when you declared it (Romans 10:10). You accepted its truth by faith and knew you were forgiven. Do you still know you are loved or have problems in life shaken your assurance? “Having heard” the Word in the past doesn’t build your faith now. You have to “hear” the Word again and again to renew your mind (Romans 12:2).

 

When your problems and the enemy’s attacks and lies convince you that God doesn’t love you, you will strive to win God’s love back. But He has never left you or stopped loving you. There is nothing you have to do to earn God’s love. He has loved you from the beginning of time and will until the end of time. He accepted you as His own when you believed in Jesus. The righteousness of Christ lives in you, and you live in Him. Forgiveness is a state of grace. You didn't earn it then, and you can't earn it now. 

 

Quit struggling to win God’s love. It is tiring trying to win something that is already won. Believing who you are in Christ is the only way to be convinced of His love for you.

 

Paul knew how to rejoice when he ran into problems because He knew who He was in Christ. 

 

“We can rejoice, too,” Paul wrote, “when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love” (Romans 5:3-5, NLT).

 

When we believe that God already has the answer for our problems, we praise Him. Those problems develop strength of character instead of defeating us. We have hope and great confidence in God. We know that He first loved us (I John 4:19). And that His work of salvation in us doesn’t lack a thing. It is complete, thorough, and finished. Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see (Hebrews 11:1). The hope God has given us never leads to disappointment! When we know and believe that what we need is already ours, we live by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthian 5:7)! And when we believe, no enemy—no lie—nothing has any power to come against us.

 

Do you want to live life to the fullest? His life in you is lived by faith. When you believe in your heart that you are completely new and lack nothing in Christ, what you see and feel doesn’t determine who you are. The righteousness Christ has given you determines who you are.

 

When Christ died for mankind, He died for the whole world. His finished work is a state of grace that is true for eternity. We enter into that state of grace when by faith we accept Christ’s perfect and complete payment for our sins. And we are sealed in that state of grace by the promise of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13). 

 

The Holy Spirit reveals who you are in the Word. Renew your mind with God’s truth (Romans 12:2). Believe in the finished work of Jesus in your life! Know who you are in Christ. Faith will fuel you. Your mind will be flooded with the love of the Holy Spirit, and you will know that the love of God fully dwells in you. 

 

“I have glorified You on the earth,” Jesus said to His Father. “I have finished the work which You have given Me to do (John 17:4, NKJV).

 

When you believe you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21)—when you believe that the work is already done (John 17:4), you stand strong in God’s power through each problem in life knowing He has already taken care of it. You see God’s finished outcome. And you choose to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). 

 

When we exercise faith to believe God, He is pleased (Hebrews 11:6), and we experience results according to what we believe (Matthew 9:29).

 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/03/only-by-faith.html