As Each Day Passes By

As each day passes by, I become increasingly aware of how sinful I am and how I am deeply loved by my Savior. Every day is an opportunity to attest to how broken I am. There are things that I ought to do that I do not do. There are things that I do that I ought to not do. Every day I fail my Savior so every day I gaze upon what He did on behalf of me on the tree. He suffered and died for my sins to free me from it’s penalty. He lived for me to cloth me with the righteousness that I desperately need. I receive this wonderful gift of salvation by turning away from sin and trusting in Christ. By grace, I turn away from my sins and continually trust in Him also every day because I need to be desperately reminded of who Christ is and what He has done.

As each day passes by, I become increasingly aware of how I need Him. Apart from Him, I am a hopeless sinner headed to eternal damnation. Because of what He did, I am rescued from my misery and I am now ushered to joy through His presence in me. I stood condemned but through Him, I stand righteous. Because of Him alone and not in anything owing to me.

As each day passes by, I become increasingly aware that I could never be sufficient. I will always be dependent of grace. Thoughts that make me want to rely on myself and makes me want to be confident in myself should be put to death because God alone is my source of strength and confidence. He supplies every grace that I need. I should be happy knowing that I have a dependable Father and He will leave always take care of me.

As each day passes by, I become increasingly aware of how sin so easily creeps into my heart; that sin is so deceitful that is why I should be vigilant. I am at war every day. I am a soldier and God has blessed me with armors and a weapon to stand still and resist the enemy. There is no time to be lax because the enemy is like a lion always seeking someone to devour.

As each day passes by, I become increasingly aware that God is the giver of every good thing and that I should live in gratitude to Him. I will always be a receiver of His wonderful gifts. I have nothing to boast about because I receive the things that I have because He is merciful, loving, and gracious.

As each day passes by, I become smaller and smaller and God becomes bigger and bigger. And that is how the ways things should be because every thing revolves around God’s glory and not on me. He alone should receive the spotlight and I should happily point people to Him because in Him is true life that lasts for eternity.

Our Hearts are Yours

Our hearts are naturally prone to wander and run after broken cisterns that could hold no water than rest our soul’s thirst in the Fountain of living Water. Apart from the saving grace of God, our hearts are captives of sin. Sin rules and governs our lives. But through His regenerating power, our hearts are transformed and made new. We now have the divine enablement to allow the Holy Spirit to rule and govern our lives because it has now been his dwelling place.

Our sinful flesh and the Holy Spirit are in a constant battle of tug-of-war. Praise God that we are given the opportunity to participate in our sanctification. We could either give our hearts to sin or the Holy Spirit; give our wills to the rule of sin or the rule of the Holy Spirit; give our bodies to unrighteousness or holiness.

At times of wandering, let us remember Christ who bought us with a cost; He set us free by His precious blood. Let us remember the One who is alone worthy of hearts; the One who shown His undeserved love towards us by dying for our sins on the cross. And as we remember the love of Christ and what He did to have his bride, let us altogether say, “Our hearts are yours.”

Remind Yourself Daily of Grace

Grace is a word we often forget because it is not natural to us. What’s natural for us working something to earn it; to receive something because we deserve it. That is why grace is a life-changing concept because it says we have received something that we do not deserve. When we come to think of it, isn’t that life all about? We are always on the receiving end and we are forever undeserving of the things we receive.

We should be reminded daily that all of life is owing to grace. This is crucial because true power is accepting the we are weak and utterly dependent on the grace of God. Through humble dependence in God, He works his strength in our weakness.

“What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor. 4:7-8) We are always on the receiving end. God is always the Giver. We are always the receivers. God bestows upon us unearned free grace. We have nothing to boast because everything is from God. Everything is grace.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (Jas. 1:17) Every gift is from God. All is grace, dear brethren. It should humble us and relinquish self-reliance in ourselves. We are always at the mercy of God. Let us beg for His mercy and grace knowing that our breath, our life, our being, and our motion all come from Him.

There are thousands of ways to be thankful for God because everything we have comes from Him. May He be glorified in everything we have knowing that He is the source and end of all things. (Rom. 11:36) Let us remind ourselves daily of the grace that easily slips from our minds lest we become prideful and self-sufficient. Let us always strive for that sincere awareness that we are always insufficient and that God alone makes us sufficient through the grace He richly supplies us. (2. Cor. 3:4-6)

When Cynicism Sets In

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, cynical means to be “contemptuously distrustful of human nature and motives”. I struggle a lot with cynicism. I am distrustful of people. I tried reflecting on what caused it and I could not pinpoint a single reason that contributed to my cynicism. Various reasons have worked together for me to be a cynical person.

One reason is I get disappointed when people have failed me. I tend to be cynical when my expectations are unmet. I think this is partly my fault because I should not put expectations on people who are bound to fail. Another reason is that there are so many stories of betrayal in this broken world, I could not help to think that it could happen to me as well. We are sinners so our natural tendency is to betray the trust of others rather than to gain their trust. I for once have also experienced betrayal so there are times that I think that cynicism is the way to keep from being betrayed because I already expect the worst from people. Another reason is that I struggle with pessimism. I tend to think the worst of the situation almost always. I think that pessimism also contributed to my cynicism because I think both are interrelated.

I believe that I am not just the one who is struggling with cynicism because it could be a natural response to this broken world that is filled with broken people who are bound to disappoint us. What do we do now when cynicism sets in?

This is a daily struggle for me so it helps when I remind myself daily that my heavenly Father does not commit any mistakes when He allows to enter people in my life. What my God requires of me is to love people and not to resort to cynicism. And “love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor. 13:7) Love believes all things means that we are to be believers rather than cynics especially when there is no sufficient grounds to warrant distrust after thoughtful and careful consideration of a person. This is a daily dosage of truth that we should remind ourselves of.

Another helpful reminder is to remind ourselves with Psalm 27 particularly verses 13 and 14 which says: “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” The Lord is always good despite sinful people including me and you. Hence, we ought to be strong and have courageous hearts because our true hope is fixed in the Lord and not in others. Despite the evil in this world that warrants our cynicism, the Lord has still shown us His goodness. The sun, rain, food, shelter, clothing, oxygen, family, friends, and the like speak that God has not forsaken us. He is still not complete in his work in us. He is in the process of making things new until all things are fully made new in the new heavens and the new earth.

Meditating upon the providence of the Lord helps as well. Always remember that all events including all the hurtful acts of people made against us will be used by God for our good. (Rom. 8:28) What comfort it is that our God is in control over every choice and all kinds of people? What comfort it is that no one can thwart His purposes? The God who owns the universe is also our Father who governs and directs all things for His glory and our good. Cynicism is not a proper response to the God who is bigger than all problems. Let us ask the Lord to increase our faith in Him regardless of the bad circumstances that befall on us.

Let us remember as well that we are also sinners who are bound to disappoint others and break their trust. We are not worthy of trust as well because we are broken people. We are a work in progress just like everybody else. We are in need of constant transforming grace. That is why, we should “be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”(Luke 6:36) Let us also “do to others what you would have them do to you” (Matt. 7:12) Cynicism to others breeds more distrust in our relationships. When others feel that they are not trusted, they might not trust us well. In some sense, it is somehow true that cynicism is like a mirror. But Jesus exhorts us that if we want others to trust us then we should trust them as well. Let us be reminded of the wonderful example of Jesus towards Judas. Jesus loved Judas until the very end even though Judas betrayed him.

When Circumstances Overwhelm You

There are times in my life that circumstances overwhelm. In these overwhelming moments, I panic, become anxious, and overthink. Deadlines at work, problems at home, pressures due from unmet goals, sickness, suffering, pain, broken relationships, and loss of a loved one might overwhelm us. Unwanted circumstances might burden us to despair, fear, sadness, and anxiety.

So, what do we do when circumstances overwhelm us?

The apostle Paul also found himself in an overwhelming circumstance. He was put in prison while he wrote Philippians. But amazingly, he still encouraged the readers of his letter to “rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” When we focus on overwhelming circumstances, we lose our joy. But when we focus on the Lord who is in complete control over our overwhelming circumstances, our hearts will be at peace. The object of Paul’s joy does not depend on the volatility and unpredictability of circumstances but his joy depends on the stability and trustworthiness of His Savior.

Brethren, this should be the case for us as well. Our God keeps us and holds us in the palm of His hand. No overwhelming circumstance can snatch us away from Him and that alone matters. He makes no mistake in allowing overwhelming circumstances to happen to us. As a matter of fact, He uses these things as tools to refine us to be more like Jesus Christ. He uses all things for our good. (Rom. 8:28) How comforting that truth is.

Let us surrender our burdens to God because we are not designed to bear the crushing weight of our burdens. Only God can do that. And He will bear our burdens and cares because He deeply cares for us. (1 Pet. 5:7) Let us cry out our pain and sorrows to God knowing He is near to the brokenhearted and crushed in spirit. (Psa. 34:18-19) Let us seek the peace that surpasses the understanding that God gives to those who cast all things before His throne of grace in prayer and supplication. (Phil. 4:6-7)

God does not promise a storm-free life. Rough and overwhelming storms that want to make us sink are to be expected from this sin-stained and broken world with broken people in it. Nevertheless, He promises a storm-free heart through the peace that He will give us because He is our sovereign God in complete control of whatever storms might befall us. By His almighty power, He can calm the storms. How much more are our hearts?

When Satan Accuses You

“Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” (Romans 8:33)

Satan is the accuser of the brethren. (Rev. 12:10-12) Satan uses our failures, sins, flaws, and weaknesses to tempt us to wallow in self-pity, shame, embarrassment, guilt, despair, hopelessness, and uselessness to disable and immobilize us from the work of the ministry. People who are part of the kingdom of darkness could also be used by the king of darkness in his evil schemes. We receive insults from others. We get hurt by the words and actions of others.

But you know what? The world around us and satan might accuse us but it will never change the standing that we have before God. That is why the apostle Paul asked the rhetorical question in Rom. 8:33, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” No one. Not even satan. He is already a defeated foe. All the accusations, insults, and schemes to tempt us to despair are useless. All the charges that could be brought against us are useless even though the charges are true. Why? Because God has already cancelled the record of debt that stood against us when Christ nailed our debt to the cross. (Col. 2:14) The charges that make us guilty before God were owned by Christ on our behalf. He paid our fine to set us free from sin’s penalty.

God is fully aware of all the charges that could be raised against us. However, the good news is, that the righteous Judge who alone has the right to condemn us as guilty has justified us. What an amazing reality that is! That we are declared righteous in the sight of God because we are covered by the perfect, spotless righteousness of Christ. Christ’s righteousness is a gift from God that becomes ours through faith alone in Him. He suffered and paid for the consequences of our charges so that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:1) There is no room for wrath because Christ satisfied the wrath of God on the cross. All there is for us is love.

Brethren, when satan accuses you, let us be reminded of the words of the hymn writer:

excerpt from Before the Throne of God Above

When Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within.
Upward I look and see Him there,
Who made an end to all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the Just is satisfied,
To look on Him and pardon me.
To look on Him and pardon me.

Brethren, when satan tempts us to despair with all the charges because of our guilt, remember that Christ died for that charge to free us from it. No more guilt. No more shame. Because Christ took it all. The shame and the guilt ended on the cross of Calvary. Let us not look down in despair because there is a wonderful reason to look up and see that our Loving Savior is there.

Debtors of Grace Forever

We are debtors of grace forever even at times that we are unconscious that the grace of God is operating in our lives; enabling us, transforming us, sustaining us, forgiving us, and strengthening us.

It is the common grace of God that makes the sun shines, rain falls, and oxygen flows to the believer and the nonbeliever alike. (Matt. 5:45-47) Apart from the sustaining grace of God, every thing in the world will fall apart. The planets, moons, stars, and the sun will move out of their proper places and then collide with each other resulting to chaos, disaster, and calamity.

Apart from the grace of God, we can never move one inch of our bodies. We could never exercise our mental faculties and physical capabilities because “in him we live and move and have our being”. (Acts 17:28)

By His grace, there’s life.

By His grace, there’s motion.

By His grace, there’s existence.

Salvation is all by the grace of God. (Eph. 2:8-9) Grace has worked all the way from the time of repentance from our sins and trust in Christ as our Lord and Savior to our moment-by-moment effort to pursue sanctification to the second-by-second preservation until the moment we die. It is all by grace.

It is by grace that God chose us before the foundation of the world. (Eph. 1:4) It is by grace that we are loved beforehand by God. It is by grace that we are predestined to be Christlike. It is by grace that we are effectually called unto salvation and justified through faith in Christ until our glorification. (Rom. 8:29-30)

Everything is undeserved. Everything is unmerited.

We can do the things that we do for God because of the strength that God supplies so that in everything we do, God alone would be glorified. (1 Pet. 4:11) The effort that we expend to be transformed in the image of Christ is empowered by the gracious God who is “at work in us, both to will and to work, for His good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:13) We willed and worked because He graciously willed and worked through us. Apart from the grace of God that wills and works in us, we can never accomplish anything.

We will be debtors of grace forever. From childbirth to death, grace has worked in us in wonderful and amazing ways. Our debt towards grace increases every second of our lives until eternity. We will forever be indebted to God. That is why we will be forever grateful for the grace that sustains us, saves us, sanctifies us, empowers us, preserves us, and that will glorify us. Grace should crush our pride, humble us, and cause us to praise the glory of His grace. Indeed, “for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”

All praises belong to our gracious God that we are debtors of grace forever.

The Limit of Time Makes Us Wiser

We all have limits. One of the limits we can feel in our lives is the limit set by time. There are 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 12 months a year. There are so many things that we want to do in life but we have so little time. The infinite possibilities of stretching ourselves in doing so many things have been limited, constrained, and filtered by time. That is why the limit set by time makes us wiser because it allows us to prioritize doing the things that are of utmost importance rather than wasting our time on trivialities.

That is why the apostle Paul exhorted us to “look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. ” (Eph. 5:15-16) We should be careful how we go about our lives. We should do this with wisdom by making most of the time that we have because the days are evil. The horrific evil that we experience every day should propel us to manage our time well. Apart from the grace of God, sinners become worse and worse every day. Apart from the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, sinners would never be changed inwardly. Hence, we should make the most of our time by always making sure that encounters with other people would shed light into their miserable condition and horrific destiny through our lips and our lives.

The more we meditate upon our short-lived lives, the more we are compelled by grace to do radical things for God’s kingdom. The limit of time makes us wiser to make the most of the only one life that we have knowing that the only things that would matter and would last in the end are the things that are done in the name of Christ for His glory and the good of others.

When Pride Sets In

Could we ever be a graduate of the sin of pride? Since, we are still in the flesh, battling against pride would be a lifelong battle. We should not be lax about this battle everyday because everyday pride could just subtly creep into hearts. The moment that we think that have overcome pride is also the moment that pride has overcome us through that prideful thought. Pride is that deceitful because we could just take pride over everything even seemingly good things like ministry, spiritual disciplines, and other God-related activities.

There are times that we could be prideful because we are consistent in our spiritual disciplines. We try to credit ourselves and be puffed up with the good things we do for the Lord instead of always reminding ourselves that we could never have accomplished those things apart from the grace of God. There are times that we could be prideful because of the successes of the ministry that we are in. We try again to credit the success to ourselves instead of crying out with the psalmist, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!” (Psalm 115:1) There are times that we are thankful for the gifts rather than the Giver of the gifts. We now try to put our identity on how well we’ve used our gifts rather than on who we are in Christ.

Comparison breeds pride. Pride does not just want us to be smart. It makes us want to be smarter than the next person. Pride does not just want us to be rich. It makes us want to be richer than the next person. If we are better than others then we take pride in it. We take pride in our intellect, wealth, and the like. Pride is never satisfied. It makes us want to be more and more and more so that at the end of the day, our little selves would be magnified. This is just so tiring because there will always be people who will be better than us. Bitterness might creep into our hearts because we can’t face the reality that someone is ahead of us. Discontentment with what we have will soon follow because we haven’t appreciated the things that God has graciously bestowed upon us. Pride produces lots of bad virtues along the way. Therefore, we have to kill pride every day through the power of the Holy Spirit.

So what do we do when pride sets in? The opposite of pride is humility and the best way to kill pride is to cultivate humility. There’s no humbler person than Christ so meditating on the virtue of humility in the person of Christ will help us in this struggle because we have our Lord Jesus as our example to follow. My go-to passage is always Philippians 2:3-11. It says: “ Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ⁴ Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Let us meditate on this verse daily until the Holy Spirit writes it in our hearts. Let us also seek to apply this in our lives. Let us not do things out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Let us ask God to purify our self-centered desires every day and ask Him to change them to God-centered, God-glorifying desires. Let us cultivate the mind of Christ in our lives because we truly have it because we are united in Christ by faith. Let us behold the glory of Christ in His humility that even though He is equal with God, He rid himself of all His special rights to become a slave to obey all that God has in store for Him to do even the humiliating and excruciating death on the cross.

Another way to kill pride and cultivate humility is to be grateful knowing that all good things come from God. Let us thank God for all the good things that we have because all is grace and it all belongs to Him. All that we have and all that we are are to be used for His glory and not ours; for His kingdom not ours; for His purposes not ours. Let us thank God for our time, talent, and treasures. Let us thank God for the daily grace and blessings; crediting Him as the rightful source of these things and not attributing it to us.

We should also cultivate God-dependence and try to rid ourselves of self-reliance. Self-reliance is being disillusioned with weak, flawed, and contingent selves. We are ever-dependent creatures who are in constant need of the provision, sustenance, and enablement of our Creator. Let us constantly remind ourselves that we do the things we do because “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). We are merely branches in need of the constant nourishment of Christ our Vine. Indeed, apart from Him we can do nothing. Let us beg every day for His help because we desperately need it. We are always beggars in need of grace.

Let us also be consciously aware that we are not at the center of the universe. God is at the center. He holds all things together for His glory. He directs all happenings so that He alone would be glorified. At the center of pride is a heart that wants to grab the glory that is due to God. God is a God-centered God. Let us rid our minds of all our man-centered ideologies and attitudes lest He opposes us and humbles us down.

“For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.” (Isa. 48:11) Pride results to self-glory and self-glory corrupts the soul because our souls are made to delight in the glory of Someone greater.

When Embarrassment Sets In

Are there times in your life that makes you embarrass every time you remember it? I also have that too. A lot. There are times that remembering embarrassing moments make me just want to stay inside my room and not go out because I think that I do not have a face to show anymore to others because of my embarrassing moments.

What do I do when embarrassment sets in? I acknowledge first that those happenings were really embarrassing. Acknowledging embarrassment, and feeling it, reminds me that I am a flawed sinner. But praise God that I have hope amid embarrassment. I have Jesus who meets me even in the middle of my embarrassment. Jesus does not just wait for me to come to Him but as my loving Shepherd, He leaves the ninety-nine and finds me his embarrassed sheep time and time again. He carries me on His shoulders and always brings me back to His fold. He reminds me that my heavenly Father has eternally accepted me because I am judged not based on my embarrassing moments but on the perfect, spotless performance of Christ. This is my hope. This is where I stand.

We forget that we are not judged by our performance but by the perfect performance of Another. No amount of embarrassing moments in our lives could separate us from the love of God in Christ. Let us always remember and gaze upon Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, every time we recall those embarrassing moments. Knowing that we could come out of hiding from embarrassment because Christ has lived, died, and resurrected so that we could be free from shame that is caused by embarrassment.

One of the means of grace that Christ has purchased for us with his precious blood is the grace to be a part of the family of God. Surrounding ourselves with brothers and sisters who overlook our embarrassing moments and shower us with the same kind of love that they have received from Christ has also helped me in this struggle. Believers in the faith accept us despite of us because they have also been accepted by God despite of them. The love that we have received from God alters our lives dramatically because it frees us from seeking validation from people since we are already infinitely valued by the One who truly matters. It also causes us to share this amazing love with others who desperately need it for them to get an imperfect glimpse of God’s love for them through us.

The daily dose of grace that we constantly need is to be soaked in the word of God and in prayer. This is also a proven help in battling embarrassing thoughts. Through God’s word, we are reminded of the God who is so much bigger than our embarrassing moments; the God who is in complete control over our cringe-worthy experiences. Through prayer, we can lay all our burdens, anxieties, and struggles in the hands of our loving Father who alone has the answer for all of it. He will sustain us, strengthen us, and supply every grace we need.