Find Hope: Matthew 1-4Muestra

I’m Proud of You

Whenever I tell my son I'm proud of him, he can’t help but smile from ear to ear. To be proud of someone is to be pleased with them, to delight in someone and be thankful for who they are.

What I find so remarkable about Jesus’s baptism is that God the Father publicly declares that he loves Jesus and he’s pleased with him, before he did any ministry. Before he overcame temptation, before he did miracles, preached incredible sermons, gathered a following, or died on the cross, God the Father basically said, "I love you and I'm proud of you."

The incredibly good news of the gospel is that by faith in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we inherit Jesus’s righteousness, and we become sons and daughters of God as well. This means that daily when you wake up, God looks at you with love and pride.

Before you’ve spoken a word today, before you’ve had your morning coffee and become a human, God delights in you. Not because you’re amazing but because Jesus is amazing, and you believe in him and follow him.

This is the wonderful good news of the gospel. When Jesus was affirmed and listened to his Father and understood the love and pleasure he already had, he was then equipped to face the world, equipped to face temptation, suffering, and opposition. And it’s the same for us as well. When the gospel is our foundation, when we know we are in God’s sight, then we are motivated and equipped to love and live like Jesus.

Sin will come our way, we will fall short unlike Jesus, and in those moments, Satan will try to deceive us and tell us that God doesn't love us and isn’t proud of us. But actually, Jesus demonstrates the incredible love of God in that he died for us while we were still enemies. Don’t let Satan deceive you. Instead, like the apostle Paul in Ephesians, ask the Holy Spirit for a deeper understanding of God’s love and favor for you. And in response to that, fight sin, repent, and follow Jesus.

Today, ponder this: God’s love and favor towards you is so radical, gracious, and marvelous that you cannot understand it without the Holy Spirit’s help.