Who I Am In Christ Devotionals

On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. John 20:1 CSB Believers love the Lord. And those who love Him seek Him. Even when it seems all hope is lost. Here, we have Mary Magdalene (not Mary, the mother of Jesus). And it is clear that she loves Jesus. She is seeking Him on the worst weekend of her life. As I read John 20 (and please read the full chapter ), I can sense a faint light of hopefulness even as she knows that He is dead. Maybe just being near his crucified body will bring comfort to her grieving soul. Or maybe even in her grief she is beginning to process some of what He said about rising again. She is certainly not expecting to find him risen. Imagine then, what joy to have Him say her name! For me, how many times, I have thought the Lord was done with me. How could He love a man like me? I even acted like He was dead. I certainly did not have the faith of Mary. I w

If only you would hide me in Sheol and conceal me until your anger passes. If only you would appoint a time for me and then remember me. Job 14:13 Believers trust in the Lord, and yet when bad things happen, it is easy to think He has forgotten us. We think God wandered off somewhere and one day, maybe he’ll be back. And when bad things happen to us (especially due to our own sin), we can think that God is done with us. I am not worth His time anymore. I have messed up so badly that I need to dig my way out of this before He’ll ever listen to my cry. And I’ll never be able to do it. Those are half-lies. God is right with his Children at all times. If you seek Him, He will be found (yes He will!).  God is not done with me when I sin. God uses the sin as a tool to chisel me. It’s a painful discipline, but it is ultimately joyful. In the case of Job, he didn’t do anything evil. Job stood up for himself in this. His friends told him to repent and his wife told him to curse God and di

  Instead, I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like a weaned child. Israel, put your hope in the Lord, both now and forever. Lord, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I do not get involved with things too great or too wondrous for me. Psalm 131:1-3 I am a child of God. He has blessed me greatly. And the Holy Spirit empowers me as He does all of His. Yet sometimes, I can forget all about God’s hands-on work in my life. I think that I need to manage this heavy load all by myself. I am learning (sometimes slowly), by His grace, to take my disquieting thoughts to Him, those anxiety surges that squeeze my chest. Instead of the voice in my head that screams this is going to fall apart, I am beginning to hear the Lord is my shepherd… I am learning to take these thoughts and bring them to Jesus because I don’t know how to back them down by myself. But when I set them at His feet, I get a sense of calm. The Psalm says, “Lord, My heart

Out of the depths I call to you, Lord ! Lord, listen to my voice; let your ears be attentive to my cry for help. Lord , if you kept an account of iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that you may be revered. I wait for the Lord ; I wait and put my hope in his word. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning — more than watchmen for the morning. Israel, put your hope in the Lord. For there is faithful love with the Lord, and with him is redemption in abundance. And he will redeem Israel from all its iniquities. Psalm 130:1-8 Adam Hid Adam bit into that fruit and hid. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if he had, upon his sin, immediately turned to the Lord in sorrow and asked for forgiveness.  But he ran. And when the Lord found him hiding, Adam blamed his wife and the Lord for his sin. Lord, you put the test there.  But what if he had turned straight away to the Lord.  That’s who I want to be. I sin. Hey, I can certainly think I’

  See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children — and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him. Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. 1 John 3:1-3 I Am His Child God’s children hope. It’s a good and glorious hope. I am His child. Right now. I don’t have to die and go to heaven first. I am chosen. Chosen to be his child. Chosen to talk to Him. Chosen to be tested and trained by Him. Chosen to be used by Him. Chosen to be blessed by Him (over and over again). And I did nothing to deserve it. I’m like Charlie Bucket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory who found a dollar in the snow and bought a chocolate bar with a golden ticket inside. Only in my case, God did it. It wasn’t random. Plus, it’s infinitely better

  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:1-5 Grace I read that and tried to cut out a verse or two for this devotional; I just couldn't do it. I am justified. Right with God. I have peace with God. I could stop right there. What more is needed? Try and put a value on having peace with God. I can't. Oh, I want to know it dearly. And the passage continues. I have access into this grace. I. Regular old me has access. I have it now. Today. I boast. Humble pride. I boast in

  Blessed is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faithfulness forever... Psalms 146:5‭-‬6 My Hope Is In The Lord I am a blessed believer. Why? Because I have the God of Jacob for my help. My hope is in the Lord. Today. I've learned the hard way. When my hope is in me or some wonderful opportunity, I can sink into some messy depths when things don't turn out "right." God usually doesn't tell us what's behind the door when we trust Him. Joseph, in Genesis, got sold into slavery, and thrown into prison, for years. And God raised him up to be the second most powerful man in Egypt, even in the whole region. My hope must be in the Lord. I don't know what He has in mind. It's His plan, not mine. My own plans are at best a prayerful guess at His plans. Solid Reasons To Hope In Him And there are solid reasons to hope in Him. He made heaven (and every

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 Who I Am In Christ! I am putting the brakes on my eyeballs to take this in. I love the Lord. I am a believer. So this verse says: I am loved by Jesus and God the Father, God gives me eternal comfort He gives me a wonderful hope, He comforts me, He strengthens me, In every good thing I do, In every good thing I say. God Bends Over Backwards to Give Us Hope Who am I in Christ? I am this: dearly loved. Sacrificially so. I matter to Him so much that He's given me eternal comfort. ETERNAL comfort is what the verse says. I can hardly take that in. In recent months, I see over and over this word HOPE in the New Testament. God  bends over backwards  to give us hope! And He wants us to know it  for sure . We don't have to dig hard to find it. Just try to avoid hope

  Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” Isaiah 35:4 Seems Like a Rotten Thing to Say to an Anxious Person I find it fascinating and annoying that the scripture often says, "Fear not." At first, it seems like such a rotten thing to say to someone who is anxious! Just stop that freight train of anxiety. Stop it. But it's a FREIGHT TRAIN. I can't stop it. Still, I believe the Word with all my heart. When I read seemingly impossible commands in scripture, I must be missing something. I'll confess this today: I have consistently downplayed the potential of the power of God in my life. Yet His power abides. He might tell me that I'm not realizing blessings because I'm not forgiving, staying angry, or even holding on to shame when He died for my sin. Even then He works. Here's the thing I've noticed. He's usually simply asking me