100 Days Of Favor (21 page)

Based on the new covenant of grace, what does God want you to believe? He wants you to believe with all your heart that He meant every word when He said, “…I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12). You see, in the new covenant, there is nothing for us to do but to believe! Your part in the new covenant of God’s unmerited favor is to believe that you are completely forgiven of all your sins, and that Jesus’ blood cleanses you from all your unrighteousness and lawlessness.

In God’s eyes today, you are made perfectly righteous by Jesus’ finished work. The new covenant’s emphasis is to believe that you are forgiven of every sin and that God has erased them from His memory. If you don’t believe this, it will be impossible for you to depend on and expect God to protect, provide for and prosper you. If you don’t believe this, it will rob you of the ability to receive His goodness, blessings, unmerited favor and success in your life. So believe. Only believe!

Today’s Prayer

Father, I thank You that all my sins—past, present and future—have been wiped out by the blood of Jesus. You will by no means remember them. Today, I expect to see Your provision and protection. I receive Your goodness, Your blessings, Your unmerited favor and Your good success for every area of my life.

Today’s Thought

Only believe!

Today’s Reflection On Favor

DAY 48

Test Everything You Hear With God’s Word

Today’s Scripture

Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. —1 Thessalonians 5:20–21

I
ENCOURAGE YOU
to test everything you hear with God’s Word. I always tell my church to read the Bible for themselves instead of simply swallowing all that any preacher, including myself, says. Be wise and don’t just swallow everything—hook, line, sinker, fisherman and even his boots! Be discerning when you hear something that does not sit well in your spirit, such as when a preacher tells you that “God gives you sicknesses to teach you a lesson.” Ask yourself, “Is this in line with the new covenant of God’s unmerited favor? Are there new covenant scriptures to back up this teaching?”

To understand the Bible, we need to read everything in its context.

The answer is obvious once you align it with Jesus and what He has done on the cross for you! Why would God give you sicknesses when Jesus has taken every sickness and disease upon His own body at the cross? With full assurance in your heart that sickness is not from God, you can have faith to be healed! But what assurance can you have if you believe the lie that the condition is from God? Now, instead of thinking that God is against you, you realize that He is on your side! Your confidence is restored, faith is renewed and His healing can flow unabated through every cell, tissue and organ in your body!

Let me just share with you the words of Miles Coverdale, who said, “It shall greatly help thee to understand scripture, if thou mark not only what is spoken or written, but of whom, and unto whom, with what words, at what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstance, considering what goeth before, and what followeth after.”
¹

Essentially, he was saying that to understand the Bible, we need to read everything in its context. What powerful advice from the man who translated and produced the first English Bible in the 16th century.

My friend, rightly divide the covenants whenever you read the Bible and you will never be ashamed. Now that you have received Jesus into your life, you are under the new covenant and it is your new covenant right to enjoy Jesus’ unmerited favor to succeed in life!

Today’s Prayer

Father, give me a discerning heart so that when I read my Bible or listen to a sermon, I will know what is of the old covenant and what is of the new covenant. I don’t want to be gullible or naive, Father, but I want to be able to recognize what is on Your heart for me today, and what is merely man’s opinion or tradition, so that I may enjoy with confidence Your unmerited favor that is based on the truth of Your Word.

Today’s Thought

It is my new covenant right to enjoy Jesus’ unmerited favor to succeed in life.

Today’s Reflection On Favor

DAY 49

Put The Spotlight On Jesus’ Finished Work

Today’s Scripture

I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. —Romans 7:9–10

I
N
1942, C S Lewis wrote a brilliant book entitled
The Screwtape Letters.
It tells the story of a senior demon teaching a junior demon how to exploit man’s weaknesses and frailties. Along the same lines, I would imagine that Romans 7:9 is probably the most studied and memorized verse in hell. All junior demons would be taught this verse and the lecture would be titled, “How to bring about a revival of sin”! According to Paul, when you introduce the law, there will be a REVIVAL OF SIN! And that’s not all. Apart from reviving sin, the law also kills and brings death! Isn’t it amazing, then, that there are well-meaning ministers who preach strongly on the Ten Commandments, thinking that imposing the law would cause sin to be removed?

The only way out of the vicious circle of defeat is to put the spotlight on the finished work of Jesus.

According to Romans 3:20, “
by the law is the knowledge of sin.
” In other words, without the law, there would be no knowledge of sin. For instance, you can drive at any speed that you like on a road that doesn’t have a speed limit and nobody can accuse you of speeding. But once the authorities put a speed limit on the same road, you now have the knowledge that if you drive beyond say, 70 miles an hour on this road, you would be breaking the law.

In the same way, Paul said, “For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet’” (Romans 7:7). That is why the enemy always pours accusations on you using the voice of a legalist. He uses the law and the commandments to show up your failures, to put a spotlight on how your behavior has disqualified you from fellowship with God, and to constantly point out how you are undeserving of His acceptance, love and blessings! The enemy uses the law to heap condemnation upon you and give you a sense of guilt and distance from God. He knows that the more condemnation and guilt you experience, the more likely you are to feel alienated from God and to continue in that sin. The only way out of this vicious circle of defeat is to put the spotlight on the finished work of Jesus, who by His death at the cross took your condemnation and qualified you to receive God’s acceptance, love and blessings forevermore.

Today’s Prayer

Father, I thank You that there is no condemnation for me because I am in Christ. I thank You that my sins are forgiven and You see me righteous in Christ. Help me to always remember these eternal truths, especially when the enemy tries to use the law to condemn me. I thank You that today and every day, I have Your constant presence, love and acceptance.

Today’s Thought

The enemy’s favorite weapon to keep me defeated is the law. So I’ll put the spotlight on Jesus’ finished work and not my self-effort.

Today’s Reflection On Favor

DAY 50

God’s Robust Peace

Today’s Scripture

…the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. —Philippians 4:7

I
WANT TO
talk to you today about experiencing God’s kind of peace in the midst of fearful circumstances. My friend, peace is not the absence of trouble in your life. It is not the absence of turmoil, challenges or things that are not harmonious in your physical environment. It is possible to be in the midst of the biggest crisis in your life and still experience peace. That’s the true kind of peace that you can experience with Jesus—peace that surpasses understanding. Naturally speaking, it does not make sense for you to feel completely at rest and at peace when you are in dire straits, but supernaturally, you can be filled with peace!