Sacred Holidays: A Devotional Leading Up To Lent and Easterနမူနာ

DAY FOUR:

Yesterday we learned that sin leads to death but Jesus leads to life. But our online world tells us a different story—that if we are always laughing, have a perfectly staged Bible study time, have amazing friends, wild adventures, the cutest outfits, and so on,  we have found true life. We hold our realities next to posed, filtered, and perfectly crafted images of other people’s highlights, and we feel like we are missing out on something. This is what the enemy would love for you to believe.

Read John 10:10-11 and note what the thief does and what Jesus does. 

The thief, who is Satan, slithers up next to you, just as he did with Eve in the garden, and whispers the very lie he knows will trip you up. He doesn’t need you to fall hard, he just needs to distract you from what is true. Do you notice this in your life—you want to do good, you want to live free, but your attention keeps getting caught up in the things of this world? You don’t want to be so caught up in it, but you are. Know that this is very much the way the thief, Satan, our enemy, works. He wants to steal the life God has planned for you. He wants to kill your trust in Christ and the plans God has to use you for His glory. And you better believe he is going to be as sneaky as a thief in the night as he does it. 

But God. 

God sent His Son as a shepherd to guide all of His sheep—that’s all of us as believers. And He said, I have a better way—I don’t just want you to have life, but I want you to have abundant life. 

Doesn’t that sound amazing?! Following Jesus isn’t choosing the boring or safe way. Following Jesus is choosing abundance in life—plentiful, lavish, bountiful, huge, and overflowing. If you feel stuck or in a slump or like something is missing, maybe it’s because something is missing. Maybe you’ve allowed the thief to convince you that your way is better than God’s, and he has been slowly and surely stealing, killing and destroying your life. 

There’s a better way—Christ’s way—and it’s one that is always available to you, whether you’ve never chosen to follow God or you’ve been walking with Him for years. 

Read John 14:6 and note the three things Jesus calls Himself. 

Jesus alone is the way. You cleaning up your life isn’t the way. You going to church on Sundays or holidays isn’t the way. You doing whatever it is that you think you need to do to find life again, that’s not the way. Jesus alone is the way. Following Him and the life He lived, that is the way. 

Jesus alone is the truth. There are many religious paths that claim that they are also true, but all those “truths” don’t lead to the same place in the end. We can’t, in our deep desire to love everyone, also accept all religious ideologies. Jesus said He is the only truth, and if we are going to follow Him and call ourselves Christians, we must believe this too. But we can also trust this. He really is truth. In a world where you can’t trust anything or anyone all the way, you can trust Him. His Word is the same today as it was thousands of years ago. He has never once changed, because He is truth. 

Jesus alone is the life. Though we try to find fun and momentary versions of life elsewhere, Jesus is the only one who has both created life, sustains life, and gives eternal life. He fills our days with life beyond what we could ever imagine. 

No one else and nothing else can lead you to the Father but Jesus. He is the way, and He sacrificed for you to have this way. He is the truth, and He sacrificed for you to have this truth. He is the life, and He sacrificed for you to have this life.

Read Romans 5:8 and note what Jesus did so you could have abundant life. 

Even though God knew all the ways you would choose death, He chose you. Having full knowledge of our sin before you’d even breathed a breath, He sent His son to die for you. 

 Wrap up today thanking God for this gift of life and begging for Him to help you live abundantly in Him.