Jesus is God’s Gift of Kindness To Us
OPENING PRAYER:
Lord, I praise you for the gift of kindness in your son, Jesus Christ. Amen
READ:
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.”
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—”
Ephesians 2:1-8 (NIV)
REFLECT:
In my journey through the Bible this year I am in the Old Testament. As I read through the history of the people of God, I am always amazed at God’s patience. Time after time the Israelites do what is described in Deuteronomy 32:15-16a “But Israel soon became fat and unruly; the people grew heavy, plump, and stuffed! Then they abandoned God who had made them; they made light of the Rock of their salvation. They stirred up his jealousy by worshipping foreign Gods;” (NLT) The Israelites finally realized they had gotten themselves into a mess and needed God’s help to save them and they cried out to God. God saved them from their predicament, but they fell back into their old pattern.
We still see people in our hedonistic society worshipping things - “foreign Gods”- today, but God, in his kindness and compassion, sent us the gift of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. On our own we cannot break the cycle mentioned above. It is only through Christ’s shed blood that we can be made Holy before God. Ephesians 2:8 points out it is through the gift of God and our faith in Jesus that we are saved and can be seated with them in the heavenly realms.
APPLY:
Pray for those weary souls who have never met the Savior. How do they ever make it through the day? Ask that their burden of discouragement would be lifted by the realization that Jesus' death on the cross paid the complete price for their sins.
CLOSING PRAYER:
Loving father,
Thank you for calling us to a spirit of kindness and gentleness.
In a world where the loudest and the angriest take up all the air,
you've commanded us to lead out with a gentle spirit of love.
This does not mean we are to sit back and remain complacent,
rather it means it calls us to servant leadership that will speak for itself.
Teach us to be humble, full of warmth and Christlike tenderness as we walk through life.
Through your spirit, lead us to move in compassion.
Amen.