Good Morning,
The devotional today is entitled, "REFORMING." The author is Jan Andersen. The theme of the writing is how we try to reform ourselves and the church, and how God does it perfectly. Jan wrote, "No matter how hard we try, we can never perfectly reform ourselves. It takes letting go... and letting God totally reform us through his Holy Spirit..."
Have a blessed Sunday.
God bless
Corinne and Jan
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Sunday Devotional
"REFORMING"
by
Jan Andersen
The meaning of reforming something is to change it for the better, to improve it, or to get rid of what is wrong or corrupt. We often want to reform something about ourselves. It might be something as simple as altering how we look. We might want to change how we dress or how we fix our hair. Sometimes it is something that takes more time than that, like changing our weight or our health. Or perhaps we want more of a total transformation of ourselves, getting rid of what we feel are character flaws or defects and replacing them with more virtuous traits.
No matter how hard we try, we can never perfectly reform ourselves. It takes the opposite of trying hard, actually. It takes letting go... and letting God totally reform us through his Holy Spirit who gives us the gift of faith in Jesus Christ. Only then will God see us through his Son as perfect and holy. It is by his grace that we are saved. It has nothing to do with what we do on our own, no matter how hard we try to please him. Our good works cannot earn us salvation. That is a free gift from God. But he did create us to do good works - not as a way of earning salvation, but as a thank-offering for what Jesus did for us on the cross, and as a witness to others of his forgiveness and love for all. Jesus gave his life in our place so that we could be totally reformed into his redeemed children.
Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV) For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
The above verse is one upon which much of the Protestant Reformation is based. This is the weekend our church body celebrates that Reformation, when Martin Luther and other early church reformers wanted to bring about a renewal in the church and a discussion about the practices that did not line up with the Bible. Instead of creating a restoration, it created a schism in the Roman Catholic church. Our humanness has spawned multiple church denominations since then. However, in God's sight there is one true universal church, made up of all who have faith in Jesus Christ. The seed of faith was planted in our hearts by the Holy Spirit at our baptism, the birth of our personal reformation. At the Lord's second coming he will bring all the faithful together to be with him in heaven, the culmination of the perfect church reformation.
Dear Father in heaven, thank you for your free gift of grace and forgiveness. Help me to always trust in you and to remain faithful. Reform me to do the good works you have prepared in advance for me to do, so that others may see your loving mercy and experience your unfathomable forgiveness as I have. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Hillsong United Performs
"From the Inside Out"
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Prayers are lifted up daily for
you by the Devotional Writers
and the Monthly Writing Staff
of Women's Focus Ministries.
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