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 not to 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 its penalty. He lived for me to clothe 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 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 on grace. Thoughts that make me want to rely on myself and make 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 armor 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.

Even At My Worst

When life has its ups and downs, where do we turn to for comfort and acceptance? In light of our sinfulness, weakness, and frailty, to whom do we seek the love that we desperately need? The verses below show how incredible God’s love is for us, and, since because it’s so amazing, it ought to be our refuge even when discouragements, trials, and sufferings befall our way.

“⁶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8)

What a comfort it is to know that Someone has loved us in all weakness and ungodliness. Christ has loved me even at my worst. Christ saw all my flaws, failures, sins, and backslidings yet He still chose to die for me. This astounding reality provides comfort in times of discouragement, provides rest in times of weariness, and provides peace in times of distress. Knowing that the greatest Being in the universe is my Father and that He sent His beloved Son to die for me in spite of me is truly comforting. There are times in my life that I get so easily discouraged because of the bad circumstances that are happening in my life but I should never forget that the God who controls all my circumstances has loved me with an everlasting love in spite all my weakness, flaws, sinfulness, and frailties. There are times that I seek for love in the wrong places – locations, situations, and relationships – forgetting that the love that I truly need has always been there for me.

Christ has loved me at my worst. He completely knows every filth I did yet He still loves me. He died for me to save me from my sins’ penalty so that I could be forever His and He could be forever mine. What amazing love that is! It is so worthy of our meditation. Even at my worst, He demonstrated His perfect love by dying in behalf of me on the cross so that He could continually bestow upon me the immeasurable riches of His grace.

So when we are at our worst, let us remember that the Person who alone truly matters in this world has loved us and died for us because we are His infinitely valuable bride. At times of despondence and rejection, let us remember the precious death of Christ which is the mountain peak display of His love for us. Discouragements and despondence ought to be blurry in light of the crystal clear loving devotion of Christ towards us. Let us firmly set our hearts on Christ’s love for us because He holds fast and He will never let us go.

The Problem and the Solution

Have you ever wondered why it’s just so natural for us to binge watch movies? living our lives with no regard for rules as long as we are happy and pleased of what we are doing at the expense of obeying what God commands of us? being preoccupied with hobbies, adventures, and leisures at the expense of more important things? doing our best at work to secure promotions for future stability? drunkenness? premarital sex? pornography? cheating? cussing? and so on…

It’s just so natural for us to do these things because sin dwells within us. (Rom. 7:20) When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, death entered the world through their sin. Their pristine nature was corrupted by sin and their sinful nature was now passed down to us just as there are hereditary complications that could be inherited. We are now sinners by nature and by choice. The choices that flow out of our sinful nature are tainted by sin. Just as the dogs bark because it’s in their nature to bark and fruit-bearing tree bears fruit in accordance to their nature, so we also sin because we are sinners. Sin is present in every inch of our being – mind, heart, soul, and, bodies. Our heart which is the core of our being is infected by sin.

The prophet Jeremiah knew this full well and said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9)

Our God, Lord, and Savior Jesus who fully knows the existence of our sinful nature also said, “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” (Matt. 15:18-20) According to Jesus, our heart is our control center. From it flows everything – thoughts, emotions, and actions.

There’s really something wrong inside of us. The culture has deceived us into thinking that the problem is outside of us and the solution is inside of us. This is further from the truth. It is very clear that the problem is inside. So, there is nothing within us, in our being, and in our capacity that would enable us to solve our sinful problem. The solution should be outside. We need a heart Surgeon who will give us a new heart to replace our wicked hearts. That’s why the promise in Eze. 36:26-27 is a heart transplant. It says that, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Only Jesus can give us this new heart when we turn away from our sins and put our trust in Him as our Lord and Savior. Only the gospel of Jesus of Christ can remove our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh – a heart that now desires God as supreme satisfaction and treasure, a heart that loves Him above all, and a heart that sees God’s true majestic beauty and immeasurable worth.

Unless God changes our hearts through the gospel of Christ, we are hard-wired for sin and are prone to all self-centered, self-seeking, and self-exalting tendencies. It is only through His gospel alone that we are our hearts are rewired to be God-centered, God-seeking, and God-exalting. That is why the Apostle Paul took great heights and exerted his best effort to preach the gospel to everyone because he truly believes that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who believes. (Rom. 1:16)

The gospel is the good news about the person and work of Jesus Christ. He died the death to pay for man’s penalty because of their sin. He lived a life for man’s righteousness so that they would have right standing with God through His perfect record. And, His resurrection proves that His work has been accomplished and accepted by God. Jesus all did this in behalf of those who would trust in Him. He is our substitute. It should be us who should be penalizes but He took the penalty on our behalf. It should be us who should live lives in accordance to God’s standard but He lived it in behalf of us because our good works are filthy rags and our righteousness could never suffice His requirements.

What a great news it is that salvation is freely offered to anyone who repents from sin an trusts in Christ.