Do you have any plans for today, the next few days, weeks, months or later on in the year? What are you looking forward to most? Do you have a special birthday coming up? Do you have an engagement party or a wedding to look forward to, maybe? Do you have a holiday planned?
Where does God fit in to any plans that you have made for a future date? I once heard this excellent advice a few years ago: “Plan as if Christ’s return were years away but live as if it were today.” Can I ask how do you respond to that advice?
It was Benjamin Franklin who said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” He also said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” These are wise words and reinforce the quote I have already shared with you.
Allow me to share God’s great plan to restore humankind to a loving relationship with Him which was necessary after Adam and Eve had disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. It is summed up beautifully in a hymn written by William R. Newell in 1895:
Years I spent in vanity and pride,
Caring not my Lord was crucified,
Knowing not it was for me He died
On Calvary
I will give you the chorus, or refrain, after verse 3 which reads:
O the love that drew salvation's plan.
O the grace that brought it down to man.
O the mighty gulf that God did span
At Calvary.
Mercy there was great and grace was free,
Pardon there was multiplied to me.
There my burdened soul found liberty
At Calvary.
This was always God’s Plan A as there was no Plan B. So often, our plans change because of people or circumstances. God has always, is always and will always be constant in His love for us, His care for us and in His desire to be in a relationship with us, His created people.
God’s grace is that He sent Jesus, His beloved Son, to die a sinner’s death on a cross for us at Calvary. The ‘mighty gulf’ refers to the massive gap between God and us as a result of our wrongdoing, our sin.
Mercy means that God is prepared not to punish us for our sin because, when we believe in Jesus’ death as a sacrificial death or substitution for us, we are then made right with God. This mercy is both great and free although please remember that it is free for all who believe. It cost Jesus His life.
To be pardoned puts us in a wonderful position. The debt of our sin has been paid in full so we are able to walk free, as it were.
Do you have a troubled soul, a burdened soul, today? Do you have inner peace and an assurance that God is both for you and with you? If not, liberty can be yours but it starts at Calvary with a realization of why Jesus lived, died and then why He had to be raised to life again, conquering death and sin once and for all.
So, if you want that God-given peace it starts with you visiting the cross and thanking God for sending Jesus. Do not plan to do that. Just do it wherever you are right now and enjoy a life lived with God.
Photos all courtesy of Unsplash
DAILY MESSAGES WITH MEANING (08/09/24)
Written by NIGEL BINDING
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