Your daily goal:
Philippians 3:14 “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
(Monday-Friday, from my daily study time, I will write a short thought for that day which I pray God will use to motivate you to ‘GO’ for that day. Your objective is simple…to GO…to GO OUT and share the love of Christ with someone in that day….to GO and bear fruit …to be light to the world.)
Today’s Daily Light
Con’t…taken from… The Search For Significance, by R. McGee
Continuing with …..Justification is God’s solution to the false idea of “I must meet certain standards to feel good about myself and find significance.”
Reasons For Obedience (Six Reasons To Obey…today, reason #3)
The love of God and His acceptance of us are based on grace, His unmerited favor. They are not based on our ability to impress God through our good deeds. But if we are accepted on the basis of His grace and not our deeds, why should we obey God? Here are six compelling reasons to obey Him:
Reason #3: The Father’s Discipline
Our loving Father has given us the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin. Conviction is a form of God’s discipline and serves as proof that we have become children of God (Hebrews 12:5-11). It warns us against making choices without regard to either God’s truth or sin’s consequences. If we choose to be unresponsive to the Holy Spirit, our heavenly Father will discipline us in love. Many people do not understand the difference between discipline and punishment. The following chart shows their profound contrasts:
Punishment Discipline
Source: God’s wrath God’s Love
Purpose: To Avenge a wrong To correct a wrong
Relational result: Alienation Reconciliation
Personal result: Guilt A righteous lifestyle
Directed toward: Nonbelievers His children
On the cross, Jesus bore all the punishment we deserve; therefore, we no longer need to fear punishment from God for our sins. We should seek to do what is right so that our Father will not have to correct us through discipline, but when we are disciplined, we should remember that God is correcting us in love. This discipline leads us to righteous performance, a reflection of Christ’s righteousness in us.
