On benefits?

Today, I was just enjoying the beauty of my parent's garden.  We are staying with them for a season, and I really love looking out and enjoying the beauty of the flowers, the pond and the plants that they have cultivated over many years.

It made me think: I get to benefit from the work of someone else's labour!  Felt like there must be a sermon in there somewhere.

We, as Christians are set apart from any religion, because our success is not based on our efforts and labour.   We get to enjoy the fruit of someone else's labour; that of Christ Jesus!

While the lockdown continues, one of the biggest temptations is to focus on ourselves, to consider how we can survive; how we can make it through; how we can work out our finances, but as believers in the finished work of Christ we enter into the rewards for his work and get to enjoy them without striving. 

This doesn't of course mean we sit on our butts and eat chocolate all day, but it does mean that at the start of each day, we can take in the beauty and wonder of Christ's finished work and rest in his presence and promises for the day, week and months ahead, whatever they look like.

Jesus promises us freedom in him, peace, acceptance, provision, love, joy and a life with him.  When we recognize all that his work accomplished, we can enjoy these benefits even in exile or lockdown!  David said in Psalm 103 that we should not forget all these benefits: Forgiveness, healing, rescue from destruction, lovingkindness from God, our needs met, and our energy renewed.

We are saved through grace by faith, not works, so nobody in God's Kingdom can boast any advantage, we are all simply people on benefits; enjoying the fruit of someone else's sacrifice.  This is a humbling and amazing truth.

In this time, I've noticed how my mind can get off into thinking about all sorts of things, but we need to discipline ourselves to bring our thoughts back onto the finished work of Jesus, and his wonderful grace and love towards us.  It is hard to feel discouraged when we remember this and think about the benefits of surrendering our lives to the Living God; they far outweigh the challenges we face.

Happy Saturday.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teabags and Popcorn!

Image
So, I was eating popcorn yesterday and drinking a fruit tea and I started wondering what makes a popcorn pop! (As you do). With a little help from Google, I found out that inside the kernel, the hard shell, there is a little bit of moisture and when it heats up inside, it turns to steam and as you keep heating it up, the pressure from the steam builds and builds until it cracks open the hard exterior and makes a yummy snack. And then I thought about my teabag (I do promise there will be a spiritual application to this, not just information on my food and drink habits).  The label had come off the teabag, so I didn't know exactly what flavour it was, until I poured on the boiling water and tasted it! As promised... the spiritual bit!  We are like teabags and popcorn!  This is a deep spiritual truth!  Really it is!  Read on and I'll explain why! Firstly we are like popcorn because when heated up, whatever we stir up inside us will burst out.  We're also like teabags too.  We
Read more

Looking back

Image
This week I was listening to a message and I was reading the verse in Luke 17:32 which simply says " Remember Lot's wife ."   This is a really interesting statement. When Jesus tells us to consider something or remember something we should pay attention. So what do we know about Lot's wife?  Not a lot really.  But what we do know is that an angel of the Lord took her by the hand to lead her out of the city before God destroyed it.  She was told to run for her life and not look back.  According to Genesis 19, she ran but she turned and look back and as a result, turned to a pillar of salt.  This short verse really spoke to me for a number of reasons.    The Apostle Paul tells us " I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead. "  (Phil 3:13 TPT) Since 2020, it's like we have a new category in history BC now stands for BEFORE COVID! People a
Read more

See for yourself!

Image
The New Year is often a point in time where we consider new beginnings. We make new year's resolutions and wipe the slate clean and start over, and while goal-setting and change isn't bad, in spiritual terms, will-power alone isn't enough to effect change.   Real and lasting change begins on the inside of us. It begins with seeing on the inside with the eyes of faith before we ever see something with our natural eyes on the outside.  What do I mean by that?  Well, think about Joseph.   Joseph had a dream that he would one day see his family bowing before him.  He had to walk through rejection from his family, slavery, false accusations and prison before he saw that with his physical eyes!  He had a dream and I believe he held on to that dream every single day. If Joseph had seen himself to be helpless, forsaken and lost he would have had the opportunity to fall into despair and do nothing.  The chances are, that would have kept him a slave or a prisoner until he died.  What
Read more