Seek First – Kingdom Focused Devotionals

“…so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace” (Eph. 2:14).

                Do you have any personal barriers that need to be broken down this year?  Any animosity between you and anyone in your family or workplace, that needs to be resolved?  Maybe this passage will provide hope. 

                Perhaps you are familiar with the wonderful truth contained in Ephesians 2:8-9 about the gift of grace that provides for our redemption.  Verse 10 provides a wonderful affirmation that you should commit to memory.  “For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” 

                This incredible truth is immediately connected to the dividing wall that had existed for generations between Jews and Gentiles.  The Jews saw the Gentiles as “unclean” and therefore had no social contact with them.  Paul tells these Gentile “believers” that they have now been brought into one family, made up of Jew and Gentile alike, by the blood of Christ.  Further, Paul states that Jesus Himself is our peace and that He has broken down the dividing wall.  He did this by reconciling them both to God through the cross. 

                If the barrier is between two believers, we must be reconciled for the sake of the Gospel.  If you are facing a barrier with someone in your family, why not share with them the good news of Ephesians 2:8-9 so that both of you have a common ground from which to be reconciled to one another?

Prayer:  Thank you for breaking down all dividing walls on the cross.  Help me to be a reconciler.  Amen

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17).

                This is one of the verses that you should certainly commit to memory.  The Holy Spirit will continually call it to mind to encourage you in your Christian walk. 

                When you become a Christian you actually share in Christ’s life.  Another parallel verse that should be committed to memory is Galatians 2:20.  “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”  In Christ, you have received a new spiritual “DNA.” 

                Do you ever find yourselves falling back into the old patterns of life before Christ?  Do you ever excuse your behavior based on your natural tendency.  For example, you lose your temper and strike out at a friend.  Feeling guilty, you exclaim, “I have always had a temper.  I was born that way.”  But you were not born again that way!  The old things were buried with Christ in His death and you were raised to new life.  Claim this promise and trust the Holy Spirit to produce Christ’s character in you. 

Prayer:  I affirm that I am a new creature, empower me to live as a new creature.  Amen

“Our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit: for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:5b-6).

                I always encourage you to read the entire passage from which our key verse is taken.  Some in Corinth have been attracted by some preachers who based their message on their visionary experiences.  Paul did not want to make a sorrowful visit to bring correction and thus he had written a strong letter of correction (ch. 2).  At the end of chapter two he speaks of persons who have peddled the Word of God (17).

                Lest they misunderstand his motives, he insists that he is not commending himself (3:1).  He then indicates that the believers in Corinth are his letters of commendation.  Paul may have seemed “inadequate” to some if they based their evaluation on spectacular visions, but Paul insists that his adequacy comes from God, “who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant.” 

                Paul speaks of the law which could only show man his sin and did not impart the power necessary to obey the law.  In contrast the Spirit of God gives life and thus makes us adequate as servants of the new covenant.  If you sometimes feel inadequate, memorize and trust this promise. 

Prayer:  Thank you for making me adequate to be a servant of the new covenant.  Amen.

“Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened.  For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed” (2 Cor. 5:7).

                The title of this devotional may not created a sense of excitement.   Who wants to be a “new lump?”  Once you see the context and understand the significance, I think you may want to daily pray, “Father, make me a new lump today.”

                In chapter 5 Paul has been discussing the issue of immorality which has impacted the community of Corinth.  Tragically, some have actually become arrogant about the immorality thinking that it proves their advanced spirituality.  Paul warns them both about immorality and arrogant boasting by reminding them that a little leaven can actually leaven the whole lump.  If you have done any baking, you will certainly understand the illustration.  A small amount of leaven can impact a large lump of dough. 

                Paul’s quotation about the leaven would have reminded many of his readers about the Jewish custom of clearing out the old leaven from the house before Passover.  This practice allowed them to have a completely fresh start with the new year’s grain (cf. Ex. 12:15).  The first batch of dough from which new bread is made is completely unleavened—a new lump. 

                What old leaven needs to be cleaned out at the beginning of this New Year?  Are you willing to allow the Spirit to point out and cleanse the old leaven so you can be a new lump?

Prayer:  Forgive and remove the old leaven so that I can be a new lump today.  Amen

“Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).

                The burial of Jesus was the proof of the reality of His death.  The burial of our “old man” is evidenced by our baptism into Christ.  In the early church this moment of baptism was a solemn declaration accompanied by the confession, “Jesus is Lord.”  It was a decisive moment since it often signaled the onslaught of persecution. 

                Why did these early believers undergo baptism with such joy?  They understood that identification with His death also meant identification with His life to the glory of the Father.  Our identity with His death is our own death to sin.  But death to sin is not the end of the story.  It is only the beginning.  God’s desire is that we walk in newness of life.  This is not some ethereal goal it is a certainty based on the truth of God’s resurrection of His Son.

                You were saved to walk in newness of life.  Newness of life is a calling for the believer.  It means that His mission and cause have become ours.  It means that His Spirit now indwells us to give life to our physical bodies.  It means that we can present the members of our body to Him as instruments of righteousness (6:13).  Are you walking today in the newness of life? 

Prayer:  Father, may I walk every day in the joy of resurrection life.  Amen

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (Jn. 13:34).

                We are still at the Passover meal with Jesus and His disciples.  Jesus has just told them about His betrayal and impending death.  He speaks of His death in terms of “glorification.”  “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him” (13:31).  It is at this point that He explains that He will have to leave them momentarily and they will be unable to accompany Him.  The following context makes it clear that they do not understand the full importance of what He has just told them. 

                In this rarified setting, Jesus gives them a new commandment.  This new commandment sounds simple on the surface but is profound and challenging.  Not only are they called to love one another, but they are called to love each other “even as I have loved you.”  Think about that for just a moment.  What first comes to mind?  Can you imagine a love that would prompt you to lay down your life for another? 

                John writes in greater detail about this new commandment to love in his letter First John.  Take a moment and read 2:7-14 and 4:7-14.  In several different ways John communicates the truth that one cannot claim to love God if he/she does not love his/her brother.  Further, he indicates that such love must be modeled after the self-giving love of God. 

                Why is this commandment “to love” so critical that Jesus places it at the very heart of His final instructions to His earthly disciples.  Because—“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (13:35).  Sacrificial, self-giving, costly love is the essence of discipleship.  It expresses the character of God expressed in His children. 

Prayer:  Father, let me learn to love others with the love You have loved me.  Amen

“For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:28). 

                It was time for the celebration of the Passover.  Jesus had gathered His disciples in the upper room to celebrate this event one last time before the crucifixion.  The elements of the Passover provided the perfect opportunity to speak of the new covenant which would soon be available through His sacrificial death.  Jesus first describes the bread of the Passover as His body.  This no doubt points to His violent death on the cross.  The words uttered over the cup have an unmistakable connection to Old Testament sacrificial language.  The reference to the blood and the phrase “for many” identifies the “pouring out” with the image of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53:12. 

                The imagery of the entire evening points to the vicarious suffering required for the redemption of God’s people.  The use of the phrase “the many” (cf. Matt. 20:28) does not suggest that God’s redemption was in any way lacking.  At Qumran and in some rabbinic writings “the many” is a term for the covenant community.  Thus Jesus’ mission to save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21) is now shown to be accomplished by His death on the cross.  Thus “the many” refers to all who avail themselves to the forgiveness made possible through the death of the sinless Son of God. 

                Thus these words, rich in Old Testament imagery, indicate that Jesus has inaugurated the new relationship between God and His people to which the prophets looked forward.  This new community will consist of those who appropriate His sacrificial death, seen in the taking of the bread and the cup of the new covenant.  Have you claimed Christ for the remission of your sins? 

Prayer:  Father, thank you for the new covenant made possible by the death and resurrection of Your Son.  Amen.

“Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved” (Matt. 9:17).

                The exuberance of Jesus’ ministry regularly offended many of the legalists of Jesus’ day.  The scribes and Pharisees were regular critics of Jesus’ ministry and now they are joined by “disciples of John” (9:14) who want to know why Jesus’ disciples did not fast.  John’s disciples apparently had followed the model of John’s asceticism by adding a routine of weekly fasts to those taught by the Old Testament.   The not so subtle suggestion is that Jesus and His disciples are not very devout.

                Jesus’ reference to a wedding (15) is used to argue that a wedding celebration is a time of joy and celebration not a time for practicing asceticism.  The reference to a wedding feast may also reflect the idea of the Messianic banquet with Jesus as the bridegroom and thus the center and cause of the disciples’ joy.  Further, the reference to the taking away of the bridegroom is likely an indication of the violent end to the earthly life and ministry of Jesus. 

                But the imagery of the new wine and new wineskins speaks of the radical “newness” of the kingdom reality which is now present in and through Jesus.  The old rituals and traditions cannot contain it.  The explosive exuberance of the new era will rupture old traditions in the same way that new wine will rupture old skins which have no elasticity. 

                Why don’t you ask God to do something radically new in your life this year?  Something so new and refreshing that you can’t put it in any old container. 

Prayer:  Burst all my old religious containers and give me new wine this year.  Amen.

“And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them.  And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19). 

                Ezekiel wrote during the time of Israel’s captivity in Babylon.  These were days of deep discouragement and soul searching.  How could God’s people be held captive by a people whose God was no god.  Ezekiel points to Israel’s failure to obey God’s word and the resulting punishment.  Yet Ezekiel holds out hope of restoration.  A part of the imagery he employs to speak of restoration is the gift of a new heart. 

                Reading this passage today might cause us to think of open heart surgery.  God promises that He will remove the “heart of stone” and give them a heart of flesh.  When I read the phrase “heart of stone” I think about the consequences of “hardening of the arteries,” which constricts the flow of blood to the heart and creates numerous health problems.  Is there anything in your life which is restricting the flow of God’s word to your heart?  Has your heart become so hardened that you are no longer responsive to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit?

                If so, why not ask God to do open heart surgery and give you a new heart.  You will know when the surgery has been accomplished when you have a renewed desire to study and obey God’s word.  You will then be restored in the intimacy of your relationship with God (20). 

Prayer: Father, I ask You to give me a new heart that is responsive to your Word.  Restore the intimacy of my relationship with You.  Amen

“The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22-23). 

                Have you ever read the book of Lamentations?  The title itself may seem a bit depressing, but truth is we all go through days and circumstances which cause us great pain and suffering.  It is during such times that we need to know that God’s compassions are new every morning.

                Israel’s sorrows had been caused by her own disobedience.  The depth of Israel’s sorrow was such that God seemed like an enemy to His own people (2:5).  Have you ever struggled with despair and discouragement?  If you read the first part of chapter 3, you may be able to identify with Jeremiah the prophet.  He speaks of his bitterness and fear.  So great is his sorrow that he feels as if his soul has been rejected from peace, he has forgotten happiness; his strength has perished (2:17-18). 

                The mood of the prophet begins to change when he turns to the Lord in prayer and remembers the good things of the Lord.  He focuses on God’s “lovingkindness” which refers to His faithfulness to His covenant.  He declares that they never cease and His compassion for His people never fail.  He affirms that they are new every morning and cries out in relief—“great is Your faithfulness.”  It is this absolute conviction about the nature of God that gives him hope. 

                If you need a new sense of hope and direction for the New Year, turn to the Lord whose compassions are new every morning. 

Prayer: Thank you for your lovingkindness and your compassion.  Amen