18/10/23
JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
Today’s Word
Today’s Scripture
“Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him.”
Luke 10:34, NLT
Lift the Fallen
Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan who saw a man on the side of the road beaten and left for dead. He put him on his donkey and took him to a place where he could recover. You’re never more like God than when you help hurting people. One of our assignments in life is to help wipe away the tears. Are you sensitive to others’ needs? Many times, behind the smile is a person who’s hurting, alone, and in turmoil. When someone is struggling, reach out. Be a healer. Be a restorer.
Your job is not to judge, or to figure out if someone deserves something, or to decide who is right or wrong. Your job is to lift the fallen, to restore the broken, and to heal the hurting. There is healing in your hands and voice. You are a container filled with God. Right now, you are full of encouragement, mercy, restoration, and healing. Everywhere you go you should dispense the goodness of God. The most important thing: You can become someone’s miracle.
A PRAYER FOR TODAY
“Father, thank You for calling me to lift the fallen, to restore the broken, and to help the hurting. Help me to see others through Your eyes and to become a dispenser of Your goodness. Show me how to connect with others and to be a healer. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”
SECTION TWO
When I was a teenager, I used to belong to a Christian fellowship group. We would sing this song which you may be familiar with. It went like this: “Is He satisfied, is He satisfied, is He satisfied with me? Have I done my best? Have I stood the test? Is He satisfied with me?”
Let me just say that 10 out of 10 times when we sang this song, I would always believe that God was not satisfied with me. When we look to ourselves, all there is to see is the inadequacy and futility of our ability and performance. In and of ourselves, we will never meet God’s standard for Him to be satisfied with us. We will always fall short!
You can imagine how condemned we felt each time we sang this song. After all, we had never been taught that God was satisfied with His Son’s sacrifice at the cross, and we did not understand what the new covenant of grace was all about. We were young and zealous for God, but defeated by our lack of knowledge.
With all due respect to the songwriter, whom I believe had the best intentions when he wrote the song, this song is not based on the new covenant of God’s unmerited favor. It negates the cross and places the emphasis back on you—what you must do, what you must perform, and what you must achieve for God to be satisfied with you.
But the question to ask today is not if God is satisfied with you. The question that we need to ask is this: Is God satisfied with the cross of Jesus? And the answer is this: He is completely satisfied!
At the cross, our acceptance is found. There, Jesus cried out with His last breath, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). The work is complete. The full punishment for all our sins was exacted on Jesus at the cross. God will not punish the believer again, not because He has gone soft on sin, but because all our sins have already been punished in the body of Jesus.
God’s holiness and His justice are now on your side! Today, God is not assessing you based on what you have or have not done. He is assessing you based on what Jesus has done. Is God satisfied with Jesus today? Yes, of course He is! Then, to the same extent that God is satisfied with Jesus, He is satisfied with you.
God’s own Son had to be crushed at Calvary for this blessing to become a reality in your life. The gift of His unmerited favor and His righteousness is only a free gift for you today because the full payment for this gift was exacted upon Jesus’ body. The cross made all the difference!
Don’t let anyone hoodwink you into thinking that you need to pay for your own sins. Don’t let anyone deceive you with the lie that your eternal salvation in Christ is uncertain and shakable!
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