What Did God Do?

Love you all, praying for you,
 
I just love God’s Word.   It is truth and life.  It tells you what the devil doesn’t want you to know.  It tells you how to be free!  Have you ever struggled with sin, that old nature that’s trying again to control you?  God doesn’t want you struggling with your sin nature.  He wants you to leave it behind, like grave clothes, like a snake sheds its skin, like a butterfly discarding the cocoon that once held it.  And He gives you power to do it!  If you belong to Jesus, the old has passed away, the new has come.  And you can live in it!  The ability to do that - is all by God’s power, you just choose it.  Some say – God will do it, just focus on Jesus.  Yes – the more you know of him, and love him, the more you know what He did for you, and gives you power to do, the more you choose His way, the more your old life fades away.  But each day you make a choice – look to him, or look to the sin.  2 Peter 1:3 – His divine power has given us everything we need for godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his glory and goodness.  So anything you now have the power to do, it’s really His doing, just your choosing.  By Grace, through faith (also what He gave you).  Why did Jesus die?  God tells us  II Cor 5:14-15 – For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, (that’s Jesus) and therefore all died.  (Our old nature died with him).  Verse 15 – And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, (in the old nature) but (live) for him who died for them and was raised again.  Jesus died, so that you could live for Him.  In the new way, not by the old way.  God said the same power that raised Christ from the dead will give power to your mortal bodies.  That’s the power that helps you choose life not death, so the old life that you died to – stays dead, and the new life that you live by - lives by His strength and His power so He can take you from glory to glory.  So he can bring fruit in your life and present you blameless by His blood before God.  He’s even interceding for you right now!  When you put your faith in Jesus – to cover your sins, and give you new life - you died with Christ.  Your old life died with him – the life controlled by the law of sin, and you were raised to new life.  Your life is now controlled by the law of Righteousness.  Much more powerful than the old law that used to control you.   It’s what God did, that’s the power that you can choose to live the new life He has for you.  Free from sin, alive to God.  Let’s remember for a minute What God Did.  #1 He created you - He formed you, He fashioned you, He literally put you together in your mother’s womb.  You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:16).  You’re hand-made, not production line, you are unique with every perfect gift and ability custom designed for the wonderful plans He has for you.  Things He ordained for you to walk in since the beginning of time!  Just let that sink in for minute.  #2 – He knew you and chose you.  Jeremiah 1:5 – Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you…  Ephesians 1:4 – For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of his glorious grace (that’s that power to live right) which he has freely given us in the One he loves. (In Jesus).  God did it, so you can do it.  #3 He loves you – So much that He died for you. John 3:16. I John 3:1 – See how very much our Father loves us, I John 4:19 – We love Him because He first loved us.  Jeremiah 31:3 – I have loved you with an everlasting love! His love for you never ends, it endures forever!  #4 He Drew You – John 6:44 - Jesus said, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.  Jer 31:3 - I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.  God did it, you didn’t draw Him, He drew you!  #5 He saved you.  Romans 5:8 – But God demonstrates his own love for us in this; while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Titus 3:3 – At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved (by sin) by all kinds of passions and pleasures.  We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.  But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.  He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.  You didn’t save you, or justify you – He did it.  #6 – He empowered you.  I John 1:12 – Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the power to become the sons of God.  Acts 1:8 – But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.  Ephesians 1:18-19 – I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.   That power is how you walk in victory!  How you overcome the old life, and walk in newness of life. #7 – He leads you.  John 16:13 – When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will lead you in all truth.  He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  #8 – He trains you and equips you.  Isaiah 48:17 – This is what the LORD says, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.  I Tim 3:16-17 – All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God (that’s you!) may be complete, fully equipped for every good work. #9 – He keeps you and protects you - Jude 1:24 – To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy… 2 Thessalonians 3:3 – But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.  Ezekiel 36:27 – And I will put my Spirit in you and cause you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.  Philippians 2:13 – For it is God who works in you both to will and to act according to His good purpose.  (He even gives you the ‘want to!’) Psalms 138:8 – The LORD will fulfill His purpose for me.  Your love O Lord, endures forever…  2 Timothy 1:9 – He saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our own accomplishments, but according to his own purpose and the grace that was given to us in the Messiah Jesus before time began.  His power does it, you just choose it.   #10 He conforms you – Romans 8:29 – For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.  Romans 12:2 – Do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what is that good and acceptable and complete will of God.  #11 – He welcomes you and rewards you.  John 14:2-3 – My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you,  I will come back and take you to be with me that where I am you may be also.  2 Corinthians 5:1 – Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.  Genesis 15:1 – Fear not, Abram: I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.  Isa 40:10 – See the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him.  See, his reward is with him and his recompense accompanies him.  Hebrews 6:10 – God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.  Revelation 22:12 – And, behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give to every man according to what he has done. So What did God do?  He created you, He knew you and chose you, He loves you, He drew you, He saves you, He empowers you, He leads you and guides you, He trains you and equips you, He preserves you and protects you, He transforms you and conforms you, and He welcomes you and rewards you.  So what do you do?  He does it all, you just choose.  You just walk in the Spirit, Read His Word, obey His voice.  He did all the rest.  Even the power to choose Him and His way, is the power He gave you His Grace, His Faith given to you, just choose Him.  He does it all, you just believe and choose Him over sin.  And He even gives you the power to do that!  And God will do everything He promised.  You have been seated with Him in heavenly places with all you need to believe and receive everything He has for you!  He plans for you are good, He gives you the power to walk in him, the power to choose His Grace.  He did it all, He does the rest. 
 
Love you all,
dad