Righteousness through 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 and holy life. It is impossible to make ourselves righteous by living a holy life. Only Jesus earned our holiness. It is His gift to us. Righteousness is His work in us. 

Only those who have been made righteous by Jesus can live a holy life. We received His righteousness through faith in the finished work of Jesus, and we now live our lives by faith in that finished work. Without faith in the perfect and finished work of Jesus, 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. You were saved when you declared it (Romans 10:10). You accepted its truth by faith. You knew you were forgiven and loved. Do you still know you are forgiven and loved or has 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 to believe (Romans 12:2).

 

When your problems and the enemy’s attacks and lies convince you that God doesn’t love you, you will try to earn back God’s acceptance and love. But God has never left you or stopped loving you. There is nothing you can 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. Righteousness is a state of grace. You didn't earn it then, and you can't earn it now. You have to believe it to live it.

 

Quit struggling to win God’s love. It is tiring trying to win something that is already yours. 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 has the answer to 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 believe God’s promises are ours, we choose to live by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthian 5:7)! And when we believe, no enemy—no lie—nothing has any power to rob us of what is ours in Christ!

 

Do you want to live His life to the fullest? His life in you is lived by faith. When you believe in your heart that you are entirely 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 through faith when we receive Christ’s righteousness as the perfect 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 of Jesus is finished (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 walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). 

 

We don’t receive from God through anything we do. We don’t perform to receive.  We receive from God through faith in what Jesus has done. It is His work—not ours. Jesus has given us right standing with God. He has earned God’s holiness for us through His finished work. He has earned all of the blessings of God to supply our needs (Philippians 4:19). 

 

When we exercise our faith to believe Him, God is pleased (Hebrews 11:6). And we experience His blessings according to what we believe (Mathew 9:29). 

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/01/righteousness-through-faith.html

 

 

 

Freedom from Fear

 

 

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

—1 John 4:18, NKJV

 

 

The person who lives in fear doesn’t live in the freedom of God’s grace. Fear torments them because they don’t understand His love. They are in bondage to fear from which Jesus died to free them. God’s Word says that there is no fear in God’s love—that the perfect love of Christ casts out fear. To live this truth, we must believe it.

 

Are you one of those Christians who live in fear and don’t experience freedom because they don’t understand the redeeming benefits of God’s love for them? When you don't believe in your heart that the righteousness of Jesus is yours, you struggle to pay for the guilt that is no longer yours to pay. You live in defeat instead of knowing you are victorious. It is time to understand and believe what the gift of grace has given you—a new life in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). Your old life died with Him, and you are now resurrected into new life with Him. You have His power to live the new life you have received (Romans 6:4). Learn who you are in Jesus. He has given you His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). He sees you clean and without any sin. It is time for your belief in your identity to be changed by the power of His Resurrection. 

 

Only the Holy Spirit can give you spiritual understanding (Ephesians 4:23). Only His revelation of God’s Word can transform the way you think and the way you perceive truth (Romans 12:2). The new life Jesus gave you when you were saved becomes real in your mind when the Spirit changes your understanding to His understanding. Your mind is where He renews and conforms you to His truth. Your heart is where you come to believe you have been made right with God (Romans 10:10). You have peace in your life when you have peace with God. You can rest in His perfect love for you without fear. You can be still and trust Him when you know He is your God. You choose to have faith instead of fear.

  

You will live who you think and believe you are. If you believe you still need to win God’s love, then you miss the whole point of why Jesus died to save you. You will live without freedom and in bondage to the old person you were. You will become frustrated trying to earn God’s love that Jesus already earned for you. You will strive and fail. You will burn out. But when God transforms your understanding of who you are in Christ, you experience the new life you received at Calvary (2 Corinthians 5:17). There is peace only He gives (Philippians 4:6-7). There is no guilt. You have nothing to prove. You believe who Jesus says you are. 

 

Are you tired of the old roller coaster ride of fear—shame—guilt? In Jesus, you are victorious over all of these! You are free of these in Jesus. He gave you His life to secure your freedom. He hasn’t given you a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). Do you believe that power, love, and a sound mind are yours? You receive what you believe by faith.

 

You cannot understand with your natural mind the things of God. They seem foolish to you. They seem impossible. They seem beyond reach. The things of God have to be spiritually understood (1 Corinthians 2:14). Allow the Holy Spirit to teach you. Allow Him to transform your understanding of the new life Christ has given you. Let Him reveal to you who you are and change the way you perceive it. Plant the seed of the incorruptible Word of God in your heart. Believe who Christ says you are. And by faith take His identity as your own. 

 

To be free in your relationship with God and not to live in that freedom only torments you.  Don’t hold on to fear, guilt, and shame. Quit fighting the battles that have already been won in Christ. You have the power of the Holy Spirit to defeat the lies and the fears that have claimed your mind. Believe in the perfect love of Jesus for you, and live in the freedom of His grace.

 

Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17) His Spirit is in you. You are free.

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/freedom-from-fear.html

 

 

 

Rewarding Faith

 

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

—Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV)

 

 

Your faith is what pleases God. He rewards those who diligently seek Him with all their heart. And persistent seeking of His truth rewards you. The truth of His Word takes root and comes alive within you. You believe without seeing with your natural eyes because you believe in who He says you are in Christ. You know His promises are true.

 

The power of the Word is real within you when you act upon it and choose to live its truth—even when what you experience is not seen, heard, or felt with your natural senses. When you take God’s truth and make it your own, it becomes the foundation for what you believe. Your attitude about your life changes. You see beyond what you experience. 

 

You cannot understand God’s Word with your natural mind. It seems foolish to you. His truth can only be understood spiritually by the Holy Spirit revealing it to you (1 Corinthians 2:14). God’s truth is real for you when it becomes yours. When the Holy Spirit reveals something in God’s Word to you, you have to choose to take possession of it and make it your own. It must renew your mind again and again (Romans 12:2). God’s truth then becomes what you believe. Now it is your truth. It is real and powerful in your life. 

 

When you believe in God's truth, you see with faith what has not been seen or experienced. Believing His truth by faith pleases God, and He rewards you according to what you believe (Hebrews 11:6). If you believe His Word and envision His promise, you receive its benefit. If you don’t believe, then you don’t live the abundant life Jesus died to give you.

 

To be carnal or naturally minded is death to your faith. To be spiritually minded is life and peace (Romans 8:6). Draw a line in the sand, and choose to believe. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God—not with just your mind but with your heart (Romans 10:17). Walk by faith and not by what you see (2 Corinthians 5:7). If you doubt, you won’t receive God’s promises (James 1:6-7). But when you believe, nothing is impossible with God (Mark 9:23). 

 

“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13, NKJV).

 

Do you believe that God rewards you when you seek Him? To receive the benefits of God’s truth, you have to believe it. Reach out without doubting. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). Seek God’s truth with all your heart. You will find it (Matthew 7:8). Believe the truth you find. Make it yours by faith. You can do it. You believed by faith when you were saved. You believe His truth the same way. 

 

“According to your faith, let it be done to you,” Jesus said to the two blind men, and they received healing (Matthew 9:29).

 

The faith of Jesus is faith that believes. Believe Him. He rewards those who seek Him and believe His truth. Faith is not found in anything we do. It is only found in Jesus. Faith alone in Jesus is what is needed to believe.

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/01/rewarding-faith.html

 

Exercise Faith

 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1

People who know who they are in Christ are people of faith. They don’t ever forget the unconditional of love Jesus that has set them free. Their identity is not based on the opinions of others or on circumstances that keep changing. Their identity is based on the redeeming and unchanging work of Christ.

 

People of faith know how God sees them—chosen by Him to be His—thoroughly redeemed and forgiven—blameless and right with God—loved and accepted—lavishly blessed—victorious in life—sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. They know that the Grace of Jesus has given them a wonderful inheritance of every spiritual blessing. They are confident that their lives will work out according to God’s plan and purpose (Jeremiah 29:11-13, Ephesians 1:1-14). They know that these truths are who they are in Christ and that His identity is theirs.

 

People who know who they are in Christ are not just satisfied with the status quo. They are hungry to understand all Jesus has given His life for them to have. They know that what God has for them is abundantly more than what they ask. It is greater than what they can envision. They choose to believe and walk by faith as if that vision is already accomplished in their lives (Ephesians 3:20).

 

People who know who they are in Christ praise God for His love for them. They know He never leaves or forsakes them (Hebrews 13:15). They don’t live by their emotions. They praise Him for what they can’t see but believe. The peace of God holds them steady through the ups and downs of life (Philippians 4:6-7). Confidence in the faithfulness of God gives them the power to stand strong. Their love of God abounds in their lives because they believe God loved them before they ever chose to receive His love (1 John 4:19). They receive God’s unconditional love without any hesitation, and they freely give as they have received (Matthew 10:8).

 

People who know who they are in Christ know that God wants to reveal himself to them—that He has given them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him (Ephesians 1:17). They believe that the Holy Spirit guides them into all truth. They know the Holy Spirit doesn’t speak on His own authority. Whatever He hears, He speaks (John 16:13).

 

Faith calls for our response (James 2:26). Our response of faith to what Christ has done for us pleases Him. And God rewards those who diligently seek to know who they are in Him (Hebrews 11:6). People who know their identity in Christ know how important it is for them to live by faith.

 

When you are a person of faith, you know and believe God’s love for you is unconditionally yours. God doesn't judge you on how you perform. He judges your heart, and when Jesus is in your heart, that is who God judges. God judges Jesus as righteous. Jesus has given you His righteousness. So when God sees you, He sees the righteousness of His Son in you. When you are a person of faith, you know you don’t have to earn the righteousness Christ has earned for you. You believe everything the Word says you are. Knowing who you are in Christ—believing the position He has given you, sets you free to believe anything is possible. 

 

When you appreciate what Jesus has given you, it keeps on appreciating and flourishing in your life. You know the value of what He has done for you. 

When you start learning who you are in Christ, then you begin to understand the Resurrection power of the new life Christ has given you. What Christ accomplished on the cross is already yours. You see that His work is finished. There is nothing more to do. You know that all has been won. And you walk not as the world defines you, but you walk by faith in who He says you are.

 

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for always teaching us who we are in Christ. 

My friend, learn and believe who you are in Christ. Exercise the faith Christ has given you. It is powerful for those who believe Him. You will have no doubt of His love for you.

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/01/have-faith.html

Mirror His Glory

 

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

—2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV)

 

 

When you have an unveiled face before the Lord, you live unhindered by anything in His presence. You know who you are in Christ. The Holy Spirit lives in you, and where He is there is freedom (2 Corinthians 2:17). You live without shame and condemnation. You are at peace in your relationship with your Father.

 

When we know who we are in Christ, we reflect His Glory. We mirror the gift of His righteousness He has given us. We see the new creation we are in Him. We are changed—from Glory to Glory—into His likeness. We are transformed from the fading glory of the Law into the eternal Glory of New Covenant Grace. We live by faith in Jesus Christ and not by any work trying to prove we are righteous. We know that a man is not justified by anything he does but only by His belief in the finished work of Jesus. No one is made right with God by anything he does (Galatians 2:15-16).

 

“Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned Moses. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God. Moses knew he was a sinful man (Exodus 3:5-6). 

 

In the Glory of the Law, no one could see the Lord and live. The wrath of God for man’s failure to live righteously was weighty. Sin separated man from God. Because of sin, a holy God could not remain in man’s presence. When a man failed, God left him. Moses veiled the reflection of God’s glory on his face from the Israelites so they could not look upon the glory of the Law that was passing way to make way for the glory of New Covenant grace which was to come (2 Corinthians 3:13). 

 

New Covenant Grace was fulfilled in Christ! Jesus changed everything! The unveiled Glory of the New Covenant is where the Holy Spirit reveals to us who we are in Christ. God sees us as the righteousness of His Son. When we know Christ, we are no longer under the fading Glory of the Law. It has faded away. We are now forever under the Glory of God’s Grace. God no longer leaves us when we sin. It is the goodness of God that brings us to repentance (Romans 2:4). He draws us with love to Him. When we sin, we are the ones who pull away from Him. Falling from grace is not falling back into sin. It is trying to prove our right standing with God by how well we follow the Law (Galatians 5:4).

 

Believing that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21) transforms your mind until your actions and reactions are born of the new nature Christ has given you. When you see yourself through the righteousness Christ has given you, you do not have to hide your face from God. The more you see Him, the more alive you are. In the Glory of New Covenant Grace, you have His unconditional love and acceptance. In this New Covenant Glory, God never leaves you. He is always with you. The Glory of the New Covenant is your freedom from sin’s separation from God. You are free to run to your loving Abba Father.

 

Absolutely nothing separates you from God. You are new and born of New Covenant Grace. You have been transformed from your perishable self-righteousness into the unveiled and imperishable Glory of His righteousness. You no longer need to strive to win God’s approval. Jesus approved you at the Cross. You live in the freedom of His Grace (2 Corinthians 3:17)..

 

“Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace” (Romans 6:14, NLT).

 

“For when I tried to keep the law,” Paul wrote, “it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:19, NLT).

 

Quit striving to win the approval and acceptance of God that Jesus has already won for you. You are a new person in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Your old self and the condemnation your inability to live holy brings have been crucified with Christ. Keeping the Law can never justify you before God. Only the Grace of Jesus does. You are fully forgiven, known, and accepted. It is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives within you. With an unveiled face, you reflect the glory that is His. You are changed from the fading Glory of the Old Covenant into the revealed glory of His New Covenant.. 

 

When you know you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus—and believe it in your heart—you no longer separate yourself from Him. Nothing hinders you. No inability frustrates you. You live in His grace. Unveiled and unhindered you come boldly into His presence (Hebrews 4:16). The Holy Spirit transforms you from the fading Glory of the Law into the unveiled Glory of the Grace of Jesus. Where He is, you are free (2 Corinthians 3:17). Jesus has given you His righteousness, and you mirror His glory.

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/01/mirror-his-glory.html

 

 

 

 

Frustrating God's Grace

 

 

“God SO loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16, NKJV).

 

God had SO much love in His heart that He had to do something with it. God came to us with the greatest love. His compassion gave us the gift of His Son. He didn’t have to do anything for us, but He did. God always moves toward us—never away from us. 

 

God doesn’t stand back with His arms crossed, shaking his head and saying, “Now you do better. I'll love you when you do good enough to please me." 

 

The enemy tells us that the love of God has to be earned and then kept by still earning God's acceptance. Religion says that if we don’t do certain things, we won’t receive God's blessings. But God says that He loved us so much while we were still sinners, He came to save us. He didn't ask us to earn anything. He offered His life for ours. He gave us His righteousness and the gift of everlasting life.

 

Have you ever looked at everlasting life as being yours now?  

 

You received the promise of eternal life when you were saved. You became joined to God in spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17), and your soul became one with His. Christ came to live in you, the hope of God’s glory. God has made known the riches of His glory to you through His Son (Colossians 1:27). Jesus gave His life so you could experience the Kingdom of Heaven. 

 

“Your Kingdom come,” Jesus prayed to His Father, “and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

 

Jesus always prayed His Father’s will. He wouldn’t have prayed that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven if it wasn’t God’s will. What is God’s will in heaven? 

 

The peace and joy and healing of heaven are found in God’s gift of abundant life now—that abundant life the enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). All the fullness of God lives inside of us (Colossians 2:9-10, and we have the power to rebuke the enemy’s lies that tell us we will never have God’s abundant life now. We have the power to walk by faith in God’s promises.

 

We walk by faith in Jesus. We can’t prove our righteousness and our love for Him by anything we do. We can’t hold on to His gift of righteousness by our holiness. It is His holiness living in us—not us trying to prove we are holy. When we try to prove the holiness that Christ has given us (2 Corinthians 5:21), it frustrates us. We not only frustrate His grace. We hinder its ability to work in our lives. We make His love for us worth nothing (Galatians 2:21). We remain double-minded and unstable and unable to receive from God (James 1:7-8).

 

God loves us, and we love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). While we were still sinners, He loved us enough to give His life for us (Romans 5:8). Jesus came to reveal the love of God to us. It was His love on the Cross that destroyed sin and death and the separation between God and us. Jesus didn’t save us to have the abundance of His love stolen and destroyed by the lies of the enemy. We have overcoming victory in the love of God in Jesus Christ. 

 

To comprehend the width and length and depth and height of God's love (Ephesians 3:18), we need to know what His love is—what it looks like—how to receive it—and how to walk in it. A revelation of God’s love unlocks the Word of God. The Bible is His love letter filled with His promises.

 

Do you realize that He loves you so much that the promises in the Word are yours personally? 

 

Perhaps, you are a "someday" person. Someday, I'm going to have that peace the Bible promises.  Someday, I'm going to experience healing. Someday, I'll have no more fear and no more pain. And your list of “somedays” goes on. God’s promises are real for you now. The fullness of God’s love breathes within you now. You have a thriving everlasting relationship with Jesus now. 

 

The Bible is not a “someday” Word. If it is, then you have to work for peace and joy and healing. But you can’t manufacture those in your life. They are products of the righteousness that is yours in Christ.

 

 If the Bible is a “someday” book, then “someday” Jesus will save you, and “someday” victory will be yours. But when you have a revelation of God’s love and grace for you, you realize that your someday is now.

 

When the love of Jesus tells you that you have received abundant life, trying to earn what you already have is torturous. But when you have a spiritual revelation of how much God loves you, you receive understanding of the peace, joy, and healing that are yours in Christ. The truth is there is nothing you can do to earn God's love. That frustrates you, and it frustrates His grace working in you. There is nothing you can do to earn His peace and joy and healing. You can never be good enough to receive. These are produced in your life by His grace at work in you.

 

Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has given us everlasting life now. He has given us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). "My love for you is manifested through my Son," He declares (1 John 4:9). When you spiritually understand the love of God that was manifested for you, you live the victory of His abundant life. You live His revealed peace and joy and healing through the finished work of the Cross.

 

Would God give you all His love on the Cross and then hold back His abundant life from you?  That isn’t love. And He doesn’t hold back. He freely gives us all things (Romans 8:32). He paid the price. Not you. He earned it. Not you. That is His love for you now and not just “someday” in the future. 

 

Nothing you do buys you anything from God. When you realize how much God loves you right now—how deep His love for you is—you are free to receive what He died for you to have. You know that He can do exceedingly and abundantly more than you ask or think, through His power working in you (Ephesians 2:20).

 

 

 © 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/01/frustrating-gods-grace.html

Your Offering of Grace

 

Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: “I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.”

—Luke 9:13a (NLT)

 

Jesus had just been asked by the Pharisees why he was eating with tax collectors and sinners. He told them that it was because “healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.”  And then Jesus told them to learn the meaning of this Scripture: “I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.” 

 

The same is true for us—we are to show mercy and not offer sacrifices. We also need to learn the meaning of this Scripture that initially came from Hosea 6:6. Hosea demonstrated love and mercy toward his wife Gomer, a prostitute. God demonstrates His love for us that while we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us. The love of God is what He is recounting to the Pharisees, "I have not come to call the righteous, but I have come for those who are sinners. The healthy don't need mercy. The sick do."

 

Dying for us was not a sacrifice to Jesus. To Him, it was mercy—forgiveness—compassion—unconditional love. He never gave Himself for recognition. He gave us unearned and undeserving grace. When someone regards what they do for someone else as a sacrifice, they have revealed that their concern is about themselves. When we seek to show others that we have sacrificed, we seek recognition. And that is pride. Jesus’ gift of His life was never about Him. It was all about us. 

 

Do we have the same attitude as Christ? Do we love and shower grace on believers and unbelievers alike, or do we withhold mercy? Mercy says, "I forgive and care for you because Jesus loves you, unconditionally." Sacrifice says, "I forgive and care for you because it is required." Loving should always be a gift—never a requirement. If keeping the law makes us righteous, then Jesus’ gift of His life was in vain (Galatians 2:21). It is a sacrifice to do something for someone when it is required. It is mercy when it flows from faith.

 

“If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,” Paul writes, “but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (I Corinthians 13:3-7, NLT).

 

This kind of love is God’s love for us. It is pure grace. It is kind and patient. There is no envy, and it is not self-seeking. Just like Jesus, this love keeps no record of wrongs. His grace-filled love always rejoices with the truth. It always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres.

 

“In your relationships with one another,” Paul writes, “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:5-8, (NLT)!

 

“Show mercy,” Jesus said. “Don’t offer sacrifice.” 

 

Loving others becomes a sacrifice instead of an offering when we look at it as a requirement. When we seek recognition for our sacrifice, it places the focus on us. And that is prideful.

Mercy is full of humility. It places our focus on Jesus. Humility doesn’t focus on the self and what it achieves. Humility surrenders to Christ’s grace on Calvary. It places the well-being of others ahead of its own. When we understand that humility doesn’t exalt itself and doesn’t have to earn what has already been earned in Christ, we receive more grace to empower our lives. 

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

God gives more grace to you when you choose to have an attitude toward others like Christ had toward you. His love in you will just flow. You will be a good steward of His grace. Your offering will not be a sacrifice. It will be full of His Redeeming Love. Your offering will be His gift of grace. 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/01/your-offering-of-grace.html

 

 

Experiencing the Goodness of God

 

 

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;

Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!

—Psalms 34:8 (NKJV)

 

 

 

God is good (Mark 10:18). You don’t have to hear about someone else experiencing His goodness. You can experience it for yourself. The Lord is good to everyone. He causes the sun to shine and rain to fall on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45). His goodness is always before us. You just need to be still long enough to know that He is God and that He is good (Psalms 46:10).

 

“I call to remembrance my song in the night; I meditate within my heart, and my spirit makes diligent search” (Psalms 77:6, NKJV). 

 

Remember the good things God has done in your life. Never forget them (Psalm 103:2). Meditate on them in your heart. Don’t dwell on the enemy’s lies. Focus on the Lord and meditate on Him (Isaiah 26:3). Diligently search His Word and allow the Holy Spirit to renew your mind (Romans 12:2) and sanctify you with His truth (John 17:17).  Believe He is good. When you believe God has only good for you, you can be still and rest in His love (Psalms 46:10, Mark 10:18).

 

You have been given the same measure of faith as everyone else who believes in Christ (Romans 12:3). It is your choice to believe God’s truth and exercise your faith. Exercising your faith makes it easier to believe in God’s promises. But exercising your faith means being stretched and challenged and stepping out of your perceived security into the truth of His security. You have to let go of what your natural mind declares is real and step into what God says is true. Stepping out in faith is trusting God. And blessed is the man who trusts in Him (Psalm 34:8). He knows and believes who He is in Christ.

 

God doesn’t bestow more goodness on someone else than He does on you. His goodness is always before you. You step out in faith to receive. Experiencing God’s goodness comes from knowing who you are in Christ and believing all that He has done for you and in you. Exercise the measure of faith that He has given you (Romans 12:3). Step out from where you have settled, and taste His goodness! 

 

“He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness” (Psalm 107:9, NKJV).

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/01/experiencing-the-goodness-of-god.html

The Healing Power of the Good News

 

 

The Gospel is God’s good news for man. It is the power of God to save everyone (Romans 1:16), and that salvation is more than just a passage to heaven. The Gospel delivers and heals the whole man. 

 

You can’t separate healing from the Gospel. Jesus was healing personified. He healed all who came to Him with great compassion. Jesus never denied anyone healing or asked what they had done or what might have caused their sickness. He just loved and healed them.

 

“By His stripes, you are healed,” Isaiah prophesied about Jesus (Isaiah 53:5). Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy. He healed and delivered all who were oppressed (Matthew 8:17, Acts 10:38). “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we may cease from sinning and live for righteousness. By his wounds you were healed" (1 Peter 2:24, NET).

 

Jesus accomplished healing for the whole man. 

 

The Gospel is all-powerful, and it stirs faith in those who hear it (Romans 10:17). When you hear the Gospel, it draws you into a relationship with Jesus. It draws you into the goodness of the love of God. It encourages you and sets you free from the lies of the enemy. It breaks through the bondage of sin, sickness, fear, torment, oppression, and shame. Evil dies in its truth, and your needs are met in its power. The Gospel sets you free.

 

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). The word here for salvation is the Greek word “soteria.”  Its meaning includes salvation, health, and deliverance. Whenever Jesus preached the Word, miracles of healing and deliverance followed. It is the same today. When the Gospel is preached, salvation in all its fullness is received. 

 

Forgiveness, healing, and deliverance are signs that follow the Word of God being spoken (Mark 16:17-18). These are all part of the goodness of God. When you hear the pure, unmodified Gospel of God’s grace, you know it. Its power changes you. Forgiven, healed, delivered, and lacking nothing—you are made new and whole in the love of God (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 

When you received salvation, you didn’t understand everything about it. You hadn’t read the whole Bible before you prayed to receive Christ. You heard that God forgave your sins and loved you. He wanted to be a part of your life. Accepting Christ into your heart, you received the Gospel with child-like faith. You receive healing in the same way that you responded to the Gospel when you were born again. You accept it without having to understand everything about it. 

 

Do you want to receive the wholeness the Gospel has for you?  Respond in the same way you asked Jesus into your heart—by faith. Healing begins by hearing the Word and allowing it to convince you of the depth, height, width, and length of God’s love for you (Ephesians 3:18).  The Word and faith work together to build confident hope. You receive by believing the Word.

 

“Daughter, your faith has made you well,” Jesus told the woman who touched the hem of His garment (Mark 5:4).

 

“Your faith has made you well,” Jesus told the blind man, “and immediately he received his sight” (Mark 10:52).

 

Today the Scripture is fulfilled (Luke 4:21, 1 Peter 2:24), and you have heard it. The Good News is yours in all its fullness and resurrection power.

  

“All things are possible to him who believes,” Jesus told the father of a tormented boy and healed him (Mark 9:23).  He tells you, too, that all things are possible to him who believes.

 

Jesus loved you without question all the way to the cross. He loved you unconditionally with every drop of His blood. He has delivered you from sin and all its destruction of pain and sickness. He is your Healer, your Deliverer, your Provider—your whole Healer of spirit, soul, and body.

 

Jesus heals all of you. All things are possible to him who believes.

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/01/the-healing-power-of-good-news.html