Do You Desire God to Complete what is Unfinished?
Good Morning Friends,
Today’s devotional is about God’s desire to complete in us a work which He has started. The beauty is that what God fixes is better than the original. The ongoing work is, of course, God bringing us love in and through relationships for a unity of purpose. This is the gift of Christmas. This is the gift of the Cross. This is the gift of the Resurrection. This is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Do You Desire God to Complete what is Unfinished?
Scripture: On that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old;
Amos 9:11, 14 (NRSV)
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion—to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
Isaiah 61:1-4 (NRSV)
But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
Romans 8:9-17 (NRSV)
Message: When the Holy Spirit takes up residence in your life this relationship will do for you what God did in and through Jesus. When God breathes and lives in you, you too are born to the love given a child in a manger, and suffer also through the hard times too, through death to glorious life. In joyful anticipation of the birth and rebirth in and for us we await Jesus. And just as a mother labors before the birth we wait in joyful expectancy. Perhaps you have struggled with the thought that you could not possibly be a child of God when you keep on failing in your fight against sin. Well today’s scripture and its encouragement may be just what you need to experience the victory of crossing the finish line with Jesus. Paul explains the basis for the Christian Faith. He answers the question to the dilemma we find ourselves in when we try to overcome sin on our own. Today we learn the solution to life is on God’s terms- not our increased spirituality or attaining a certain level of godliness. No, here we learn that our fight with the flesh, our fight against death is won in the security of God, in the power of the Holy Spirit, when God dwells in us. We start by listening, then practicing staying in step with God, then our thinking changes and our mind is renewed, and finally we begin living in the power of the Holy Spirit. And if we believe in Jesus Christ, if we belong to Him, if He lives in us, then we will be delivered from death, from sin, and born to a new creation where, as His children, as heirs to an unbelievable inheritance… we can, in His presence, experience and understand what it is to be at last completed by love.
Pray we are restored. Pray we be completed in Christ. Pray we realize that we might well have been anointed by God to repair the brokenness in another’s life. Pray we look for an opportunity to bring Christ’s closure to an incomplete life. Pray we realize that love is the gift.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 