100 Days Of Favor (43 page)

L
OOK AT THE
above passage. It tells us that by God’s unmerited favor, we are seated together with Christ at the Father’s right hand. What does it mean to be seated together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus? It means that today, we are in a position of rest in Jesus’ finished work. To be
seated
in Christ is to
rest,
to trust in Him, and to receive everything our beautiful Savior has accomplished on our behalf. My friend, God wants us to take the position of relying on Jesus for good success in every area of our lives, instead of relying on our good works and human efforts to achieve success. What a blessing it is to be in this position of dependence on our Savior!

To be seated in Christ is to rest, to trust in Him, and to receive everything our beautiful Savior has accomplished on our behalf.

But instead of looking at Jesus, believers are misled by the devil into
looking at themselves.
For thousands of years, the devil’s strategy has not changed. He is a master at accusing you, pointing out all your flaws, weaknesses, mistakes and blemishes. He will keep on reminding you of your past failures and use condemnation to perpetuate the cycle of defeat in your life.

When the apostle Paul found himself sinking into self-occupation, he became depressed and cried out, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me…?” (Romans 7:24). In the very next verse, he sees God’s solution and says, “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Likewise, beloved, it’s time for you to step out from being self-conscious and self-occupied, and begin to be Christ-occupied instead.

Today, you should no longer be asking yourself, “Am I accepted before God?” This question puts the focus back on you and this places you under the law. I know that there are people who will encourage you to ask yourself this question, but it is an error to ask yourself if you are accepted before God. The correct question to ask is, “Is Christ accepted before God?” because as Christ is, so are you in this world (1 John 4:17). Don’t ask, “Am I pleasing to God?” Instead, ask, “Is Christ pleasing to God?” Can you see the difference in emphasis? The old covenant of law is all about
you,
but the new covenant of grace is all about
Jesus!
The law places the demand on you to perform and makes you self-conscious, whereas grace places the demand on Jesus and makes you Jesus-conscious.

Can you imagine a young child growing up and always wondering in his heart, “Am I pleasing to Daddy? Am I pleasing to Mummy? Do Daddy and Mummy accept me?” This child will grow up emotionally warped if he does not have the security and assurance of his parents’ love and acceptance. That is why your loving heavenly Father wants you rooted, established and anchored in His unwavering love for you. He demonstrated His love for you when He sent Jesus to become your sin on the cross so that you can become His righteousness. Our part today is to turn away from ourselves and to look at Jesus!

Today’s Prayer

Father, it gladdens my heart to know that You see me in Christ and not in my flesh. Despite all my faults, as Christ is accepted before You today, so am I accepted and loved by You today. As Christ is pleasing to You, so am I pleasing to You. As He is before You, so am I in this world because You have placed me in Him. I rest in Christ and all that He has accomplished for me. Father, help me keep my eyes on Jesus, my victory and my true and unchanging identity.

Today’s Thought

Resting in Christ is relying on Jesus, instead of my self-efforts, for good success in every area of my life.

Today’s Reflection On Favor

DAY 99

Meditate On God’s Word

Today’s Scripture

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. —Joshua 1:8

L
OOK AT THE
instructions that God gave Joshua when he was appointed as Moses’ successor: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way
prosperous,
and then you will have
good success.
” God told Joshua that to have good success, he had to meditate on the law day and night. Joshua lived under the old covenant, so how should we, who live under the new covenant, benefit from this scripture?

The secret to good success is found in meditating on God’s Word in the light of the new covenant of grace.

We need to read this portion of scripture in view of Jesus’ finished work. That is why it is essential for you to be firmly established on the rock-solid foundation of the new covenant of grace. Now that you know that we are no longer under the law, what is the new covenant way to be blessed and to experience good success? Joshua only had the law to meditate upon because the New Testament had not been written yet. For us, the secret to good success is found in meditating on God’s Word in the light of the
new covenant of grace.

Before we can go into what it means to meditate on God’s Word, what exactly does it mean to “meditate”?

When the Bible talks about meditation, it’s not referring to a mental exercise. The Hebrew word for meditation in the Old Testament is the word
hagah,
which means to utter or mutter.
¹
So to
hagah
is to speak under your breath. Notice that the Lord told Joshua, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your
mouth…
” He did not say that it “shall not depart from your mind.” The key to meditating on God’s Word is not mental contemplation. It is in speaking God’s promises with your mouth!

“
Pastor Prince, does this mean that I should keep repeating God’s Word? For instance, should I keep saying ‘by His stripes I am healed’ when I need healing?”

Meditating on God’s Word does not mean making vain repetitions of scriptures. It is much more and is something that first occurs deep in your heart. The psalmist David captured the essence of meditation most aptly when he said, “My heart was hot within me; while I was musing, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue” (Psalm 39:3). As you are meditating on God’s Word, ask the Holy Spirit to give you a fresh revelation of Jesus. Let that scripture burn with revelation in your heart. And as you speak out of that burning revelation, God anoints the words that you speak. When you declare, “By His stripes I am healed,” and that declaration is uttered with a sense of revelation and faith in Jesus, there will be power in your declaration!

Today’s Prayer

Father, I thank You that Your will is to prosper me and give me good success that will not destroy me. Give me a heart that desires to meditate on Your Word and I ask that You speak to me words of life whenever I meditate on Your Word. Give me fresh revelations of Your Son Jesus—the loveliness of His person and the perfection of His finished work.

Today’s Thought

Meditation brings revelation that delivers power to my declarations.

Today’s Reflection On Favor

DAY 100

Right Living Is A Result Of Right Believing ?

Today’s Scripture

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he… —Proverbs 23:7

I
N PREACHING GRACE
over the years, some people have asked me this: “Don’t you think that our performance is important?” I tell them that our performance is important, absolutely. But I also tell them that our performance as husbands, wives, parents, students, employees and children of God is a
result
of believing that we are righteous by faith. I say this over and over again, and I will never grow tired of saying it: Right living is a result of right believing. There are a lot of people preaching and focusing on right living. For them, right living is always about becoming more holy, fearing God more, doing more, praying more, reading the Bible more, serving in church more or giving more money to help the needy. But my friend, when you focus on external behavior alone, you are only dealing with superficial elements.

Believe right and you will live right. The opposite is also true: Believe wrong and you will live wrong.

While strong preaching on holiness may have a temporal effect on people’s behavior, it will not bring about lasting and permanent change. Let me give you an analogy. If you cut off the weeds in your garden but fail to remove their roots, in no time at all, the weeds will grow again in your garden. That is what preaching about right living does in the church. Temporarily, the problem may appear to be resolved, but as long as the roots are still alive, the same wrong behavior, the same evil habits and the same addictions will appear again, just like stubborn weeds.

For decades, the church has preached about right living, with no results of long-lasting or permanent change in people’s behavior. It is time for us to go after the root, and the root is not in preaching right living, but in preaching
right believing.
Believe right and you will live right. The opposite is also true: Believe wrong and you will live wrong. Christianity is not about behavior modification. It is about inward heart transformation. Start addressing the root instead and get hold of good teachings that are full of Jesus and righteousness by faith in Him. When you are anchored on these unshakable foundations, your outward behavior will come in line with His Word and you will begin to be transformed into His image from glory to glory! You will produce the fruits of righteousness!