Category:

bold, confident and unafraid

Into the New Year

by Esther Griggs December 29, 2023

Over the last couple of months, much time and energy were spent focused on Christmas. In a flash it is over, and a New Year faces us. Since we reflected on the women in the genealogy of Jesus, we now have new insights to aid us as we step into the year ahead. God keeps His word, He knows our needs, and He will deliver us.

God Keeps His Word

Before the sun set on the day of Adam and Eve’s temptation, God spoke forth His plan. Then, as He journeyed with Abraham and the children of Israel, He continued to speak forth promises. The ultimate fulfilment of the promises spoken came through the Christ of Christmas. He was the word in the beginning; He was with God and was God.

God Knows Our Needs

Tamar needed a child to carry on Judah’s line. Rahab needed deliverance for her family. Ruth needed food for her and Naomi. Bathsheba needed forgiveness. God knows our deepest needs. We often think superficially, how will we pay this bill, where will our next meal come from, or how will we manage this circumstance? Jesus taught that life was more than food and the body was more than raiment. Our profound need is much deeper. God knew our deepest need was restoration to Himself. He could then take care of all our other needs.

He Will Deliver Us

These truths are explained in Isaiah 59. “Behold the LORD’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy that it cannot hear.”

“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor; Therefore, His own arm brought salvation for Him; and His own righteousness, it sustained Him.”

“The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob.”

As we face the year ahead, we forge on with the courage of Rahab and the determination of Ruth, knowing we have a Redeemer who loves us and promises to meet every need. God keeps His word, He knows our needs, and He will deliver us.

December 29, 2023 1 comment

Our Inheritance

by Esther Griggs September 15, 2023

written by Esther Griggs

One day when Jesus observed the anxiety on the face of His disciples, He made them a promise. “I am going to prepare a place for you. Then I am coming back to get you so we can be together.” The cross and the resurrection still lay ahead of them. Their finite minds grappled with His words. Here, beyond the cross, the resurrection of Jesus, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Peter writes a letter in which he describes what awaits those who believe in Jesus. He writes of an inheritance, where it is, and who will receive it.

The Inheritance

God has not only begotten us to a living hope but also to an inheritance. Unlike the things of this world, it cannot be corrupted or resisted. Neither can it fade away. It brings to mind the words of Jesus when He says to lay up our treasures where you have no worries about thieves, rust or moths.

Where It Is

Peter writes that it is being reserved for us in heaven. In Mark’s gospel we read that Jesus was received up into heaven where He sat down at the Father’s right hand. In John 6:38 Jesus told His listeners that He came down from heaven. When Jesus spoke, it was of the things He knew about heaven. The writer of Hebrews tells us Jesus hasn’t entered a holy place made by men but rather the true heaven where God resides. Our inheritance is with God the Father and Jesus.

Who Will Receive It

Peter writes it is for those who “are kept by the power of God.” It is through faith for salvation and it is ready to be revealed in the last time. As followers of Jesus, we are born again and begin a process of working our our salvation with fear and trembling until the day when all of the enemies of God, the last one being death, lie beneath His feet. We who search for that city whose builder and maker is God, will receive an unshakeable kingdom. Hear the words of Jude, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. To God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty dominion and power, both now and forever.”

September 15, 2023 0 comment

bold, confident and unafraid Christ's Return

Bold, Confident and Unafraid

by Esther Griggs July 21, 2023

written by Esther Griggs

As we learn about God, we learn He is a just God. We gain an understanding of His wrath, but we also learn how Jesus gave His life to satisfy God’s wrath. In 1 John 4:17-19 he tells his readers that the perfection of love presents us as bold, confident and unafraid when he returns.

Bold

The Bible describes a day of judgement yet to come. However, we are like Jesus in the world. His love has been perfected in us. Because of this we have boldness. It is the sign of love’s perfection in us. This relationship we have with Him was His idea. “We love Him because He first loved us.”

Confident

We will stand not only bold but also confident. Although not mentioned here, In 1 John 2:28, John writes of having confidence when Jesus returns. He promised when he left the earth, that He would return. John writes further regarding this where Jesus says He is going to prepare a place for us and will come back to get us. We face His return with confidence and without shame. It is the fruit of abiding in Him.

Unafraid

“There is no fear in love,” he writes. God’s complete love sends fear away. In fear there is torment, a fear of punishment, a fear of God’s wrath. The person who has been made perfect in love, rests in the work of Jesus.

What blessing the Spirit brings to our heart as we contemplate the day of Jesus return, or the day of judgement. We know that in Him we won’t be ashamed, nor cowardly, nor full of fear. Because of the love of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us, we will stand, bold, confident and unafraid when He returns.

July 21, 2023 0 comment