YOU REST, KNOWING THAT HE IS WATCHING OUT FOR YOU TO PROTECT YOU AND INSULATE YOU FROM HARM.

GOSPEL CORNER

JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
TODAY’S WORD

Today’s Scripture
I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
1 Corinthians 15:31, NKJV

OFF THE THRONE
The apostle Paul wrote nearly half the books in the New Testament. His missionary journeys and pioneering work for the gospel were amazing. He’s one of the heroes of faith. You would think that he was such a mature believer that he wouldn’t have to deal with issues of the flesh and say that with his mind he served the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Yet he said, “I die daily. Every day I take my flesh off the throne and put down carnal desires.”

As with Paul, we all have areas where we’re letting the flesh dictate. If we would start dying daily, start walking by the Spirit, being willing to be uncomfortable, keeping our mouth closed, waiting with a good attitude, then many of the things that frustrate us now can be opportunities to grow. Don’t respond the same way you’ve been responding to your spouse for the last twenty years, being impatient, frustrated, argumentative. When you die daily, God can trust you with more influence, more favor, more resources. Are you winning the war within?

A PRAYER FOR TODAY
“Father, thank You for always calling me higher and to die daily to everything that keeps me from being my best. Help me to confront the areas where I struggle with the flesh wanting to rule. I believe that with Your help, I can overcome and be victorious. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

SECTION TWO
It is the Father’s love for you that gives you the power to overcome every mistake, failure, and sin in your life. The Bible puts it this way: “Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace” (Rom. 6:14 NLT).

Isn’t that beautiful? Today you are living under the freedom of God’s amazing grace—His unmerited, undeserved, and unearned favor in your life. Grace gives you freedom. Freedom from lack, from fear, from addictions, from the torment of guilt, and from every curse and every sin! The more you experience the love and grace of your heavenly Father, the more you fall in love with Him and out of love with sin.

Did you know that the enemy has no hold over people who know their Father loves them? If Adam and Eve had believed in God’s love for them, the devil would not have been successful in tempting them. Unfortunately, they chose to believe the lie that the serpent had planted by portraying God as stingy and selfish, as if He was withholding something good from them.

That’s why I want you to be anchored in the Father’s love. You will be unshakable. You will have no desire to touch certain things, go to certain places, or be associated with certain people. You will keep away from negative influences because you trust your Father’s heart for you and believe that He only wants what’s best for you. You rest, knowing that He is watching out for you to protect you and insulate you from harm.

I’ve seen that children who are secure in their father’s love are able to say no to all kinds of temptations. This is because that vacuum in their lives is already filled. They don’t have to do things to win the approval of their friends when they can find absolute security, identity, and approval in their parents’ love for them and, most of all, in their heavenly Father’s love for them.

In the same way, when we trust in our Father’s love for us, we will have the power to say no to temptations. When you have an abiding revelation of just how valuable, precious, and righteous you are in Christ, it becomes increasingly easy to say no to sin.

The more righteousness-conscious you are and the more conscious of how valuable and precious you are in Christ, the more you will know that your righteous identity in Christ and sin don’t go together—and the more you will experience the power to say no to temptation.