New Hope Diamond Head Staff Daily Devotions & Journal Blog: JUSTIFIED BY GOD. By Renee Takahashi

Doing Devotions Together

We want you to take a look at what God is speaking to our church staff! This blog will help you to be encouraged by what others journal about. Also, it will assist you as you improve the way you journal. We use the SOAP system (Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer). To learn more about how the SOAP System works when doing daily devotions and journaling, click here!

Feel free to post some comments! We would love to interact with you and help you to learn how to be mentored directly by the Holy Spirit!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

JUSTIFIED BY GOD. By Renee Takahashi

Scripture:
For we hold that a man is justified and made upright by faith independent of and distinctly apart from good deeds. Romans 3: 28

Observation:
We must know without a doubt that faith justifies us and makes us right with God. There is nothing we can do (works) that will justify us as is confirmed in Ephesians 2: 8 and 9. When we have faith in God, good work will come naturally out of an overflow of that faith. The things we do are an expression of our love for God, not a bargaining tool to gain acceptance from Jesus. It should never feel as a burden because it is out of an overflow.

Application:
It can be easy to get caught up in the doing. This scripture reminds me how to keep it straight. If I find myself doing to please my flesh in hopes of trying to “earn” a right standing with God or with man, then all I need to do is to pull back and remember that I cannot be justified any other way than by the simple grace of Jesus Christ. There is nothing I can offer to make myself right before God. It is He who makes me right. How I delight in this scripture today as I face another week of being at home, recovering from my surgery. How I delight in the joy of not being able to do a single thing to make me right before God. How freeing to know that I can just sit at His feet and spend the next week receiving His gentle mercy.

How will I be different today because of what I have just read?
I will look for opportunities, especially in volunteers to confirm this truth.

Prayer:
Dear Lord, meet me where I am this week. I want to take this time of being “grounded” as a rich time of solitude. You have called me to be still. I am excited to spend time basking in your love and in your truth. Open my eyes to more of you dear Lord. I want to know you more… deep inside my soul I want to know you, Lord I want to know you… to feel your heart and know your mind… to be one with you…. The more I know you, I can’t help but love you more and more! In your precious and powerful name I pray… amen