Focus

Once rebellious thoughts have been tuned out, after we have backed away from deceptive rhetoric, and have carefully examined what it true, we gain power from God to do his will.

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Read

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Reflect

The worst thing we can do as a Christian is to begin as we are with the last sentence of the scripture reading above and then try to move backwards through it to find the grace of God. Yet, that is often what we find ourselves doing. We get frustrated at the world which refuses to budge as it seems ever more powerful than our abilities. Putting the scripture into proper order, the grace of God appeared first for us, and by that grace we can work boldly on to our salvation by changing first our own lives. We are to let the Spirit be our trainer, teaching us to renounce the worldly within us. By living Godly lives we find self control granted to remain upright against the impiety and passionate forces of the world. Through God’s gift in Christ we are empowered to do more than stand, for in Christ we can declare our salvation and exhort the Word of God, which reproves all other authority. We discover that no one can look on us in shame. It begins with God’s grace and ends in God’s love, manifested in our own words and actions as we follow Jesus.

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Pray

Gracious God, through your Son we have salvation brought down to us. We thank you for our lives, that we may train to become your redeemed. In leaving our iniquities behind, may we be purified by the trials we face, that our zeal to do your goodness on Earth may know no end. Amen.

Go with God!