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?

18/10/24

GOSPEL CORNER

JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
TODAY’S WORD

Today’s Scripture
“But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the LORD.’”
Jonah 2:9, NIV

SHOUTS OF PRAISE
Today’s Scripture was spoken by the prophet Jonah while he was inside the huge fish that God sent to spare his life after he had disobeyed God’s command. You can imagine how it reeked almost unbearably inside the fish’s digestive system. For eight verses, Jonah had talked about how bad his life was, how he was in the depths of despair, how he didn’t see a way out. All that was true, but it didn’t change his situation. Then in the midst of the stink and difficulties, he suddenly offered up a sacrifice of praise and surrender. That’s what caused God to go to work and have the fish put Jonah back on dry ground to fulfill his destiny.

You may be in a stinky situation today. You could describe what you’ve done wrong, how you aren’t treated right, or how you’re not getting well. But that creates an atmosphere of doubt, defeat, and negativity that keeps you where you are. Be a Jonah and send up a shout of praise. Send up faith. Send up hope. You’re about to see that negative situation turn around.

A Prayer for Today
“Father, thank You that when I make a mistake and bring trouble upon myself as Jonah did, You cover me with mercy and give me second chances. Today I will offer up a shout of grateful praise to You and declare You as my Lord. I believe You will get me to where I’m supposed to be. 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!