SCRIPTURE: Matthew 3
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of heaven is near. (Matthew 3:2) Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God (Matthew 3:8). This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy (Matthew 3:17). What I get from this reading is that what God really wants, more than anything else (and what gives Him great joy) is genuine humility and surrender to Him. Deep, sincere, authentic openness to God…
This can’t be faked. My life will eventually show whether I am emptied of self or full of myself. Genuine repentance is proved by the way we live. By the way we relate to God and others, by the way we deal with sin in our life. Those who genuinely repent will hate sin and run away from it. They will hate how it hurts God, how it hurts others, and how it hurts themselves.
God knows our hearts. Just because we’re baptized, just because we go to church, just because people say nice things about us… this doesn’t impress God. God sees the ugliness of pride, selfishness, greed, lust, deception, cruelty. These things prevent Him from moving in. They hinder the relationship, and block the flow of the Spirit within.
The Holy Spirit is the revitalizing and energizing presence of God in us. It is the Spirit that produces genuine repentance, and it is the Spirit that energizes new life and new living. The emptiness and lack of energy we experience is a spiritual condition, a spiritual void. The Spirit softens the heart to lead us to repent, then He moves in takes over, and produces a new vitality, a dynamic reality.
If you want to experience this dynamic life and energy within, it can only happen if we genuinely open ourselves (sin and all) to God, and allow the Spirit to baptize (fill) us from within, so that we can overflow with Him! There is no other way. This is the way that we experience the deep love of God, and bring great joy to His heart.
PRAYER:
Lord, I need to surrender, again. I am lukewarm, I am lacking Your dynamic spiritual presence and power within me. I need You.
vs. 2 LORD, the message then is still the message today. I know that I am a sinner. LORD, Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me- a sinner. Thank You LORD for Your amazing Grace that saved a wretch like me!
vs.3 Father God, fill me with Your Holy Spirit. Help me, like John the Baptist be a voice for Jesus in this world today, to be a living testimony of His redeeming love in and through my life each and every day.
vs.8 Thank You LORD for Your unending forgiveness. (PSALM 139:23-24) “Search me, O God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends You and lead me along the paths of everlasting life.” LORD, please, help me to live each day in the power of Your Holy Spirit so that others will meet You/ be drawn to You. LORD help me to do my best to live for Truth, let me live my life for You!
vs. 11 LORD, grant me the deisre and endurance needed each day to be continually refined by Your refining fire (MAL. 3:3) Change my heart O God, make it ever pure, may I be like You!
LORD, I surrender all! I give You my heart as I hunger and thirst for Yours. Jesus take my life and lead me on. LORD prepare me for all that You are calling me to be / do in this life so that You may be glorified.
John was preparing the way for Christ. As His forerunner, John told the people to do this and live. The fruit of our daily lives gives evidence what is in our hearts. Our knowing becomes our doing and that must also include our loving. These three belong together. As John saw through the fakery of the Pharisees and Sadducees, so too Christ Jesus sees through us. As the water John used, cleans the outside, the Spirit of the Lord cleanses from within. It is the Spirit which works in us and through us so that I can be a Jesus follower, doing His will for my life today. as John proclaimed the way in which to walk, so I must walk in the Way as proclaimed in His Word – the most excellent Way. And they will see that we are Christians by our love – foot-washing disciples walking in the Way.
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
They will know we are Christians by our love
We will work with each other, we will work side by side
We will work with each other, we will work side by side
And we’ll guard each one’s dignity and save each one’s pride
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
They will know we are Christians by our love
By our love, by our love
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
They will know we are Christians by our love
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand
And together we’ll spread the news that God is in our land
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
They will know we are Christians by our love
By our love, by our love
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
They will know we are Christians by our love
Love is patient, love is kind
Never boasts, not full of pride
Always hopes, always trusts
The evidence of Christ in us