Solid Joys Daily Devotional

Our emotions are governed in large measure by what we consider — what we dwell on with our minds.

When the command of God comes with the creating, converting power of the Holy Spirit, it gives life. And we believe and rejoice and obey.

Freedom from greed comes from the deeply satisfying faith in God's future grace.

If God exists, then he is the measure of all things, and what he thinks about all things is the measure of what we should think.

When God judges believers in the end, he will forgive us all our sins and grant us life everlasting.

God is not the God of some grace. He is the God of all grace — including the infinite, inexhaustible stores of future grace that we need to endure to the end.

Christ promises to work for us, and to be for us so much that, when our missionary life is over, we will not be able to say we've sacrificed anything.

God gives both the sustaining grace we need in times of trouble, and the suffering which makes us depend on his grace.

This is God's will for you and this is why Christ died: that you would draw near to God.

Satan is helpless to do the one thing he wants to do most: damn us. Christ bore our damnation.

Does your faith make you eager to forsake sin and make progress in holiness? That's the kind of faith God requires.

The strength of your faith does not uproot trees. God does. The object of your faith is more important than the quantity of your faith.

If you are a Christian, death is no longer a punishment for sin. Your sin has been put away by the death of Christ. Christ took the punishment.

Be thankful for the past grace from the last year, and be confident in the future grace for the new year.

The lifetime of this year passes before our eyes, and we face the inevitable question: Did we live it well?

When God works in our hearts by the blood of Christ, we feel and think and act in ways more pleasing to him.

Flee from the wrath of God, tremble with joy that you are saved, and rescue others along the way.

Study the glory of God. Treasure it in all things and above all things. Then study your soul. Know why you treasure glories that are not God's glory.

God did not create humans in his image to be aimless, like lifeless leaves blown around in the backyard of life. He created us to be purposeful.

Christ's death was judgment on him because he bore our sins (not his own), and it was mercy toward us who trust him.

Jesus offers you a clear purpose for living, hope that your failures will be forgiven, and help in your fight against sin.

Jesus appeared in the world for two reasons: to help us stop sinning, and to satisfy God's anger when we do sin.

Look to Jesus this Christmas. Receive the reconciliation that he purchased. Don't put the gift on the shelf unopened.

The whole Bible is written that you might be awakened to the wonder that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came into the world.

Jesus's birth was not a coming into being of a new person, but a coming into the world of an infinitely old person.

If you want to give a gift to God this Christmas, walk off the assembly line of sin and don't go back. Take up your place, instead, in the picket line of love.

Forgiven, we are indestructible. Satan's plan was to condemn God's followers in God's own courtroom. But now, in Christ, there is no condemnation.

Distrust God's mercy, and all is lost. But conquer here, and nothing can harm you for a million ages.

God put our sins on his Son and judged them there, so that he could put them out of his mind, and deal with us mercifully and remain just.

God delights to show his power through apparent defeat. He sometimes retreats in order to win strategic victories.

Jesus came that we might have Life, now and forever. Make your Now the richer and deeper this Christmas by drinking at the fountain of Forever. It is so near.

The meaning of Christmas is that God takes salvation, puts it in your heart, and seals you as his child.

Our High Priest is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. No Old Testament priest could ever say that.

Jesus came to orient all our attention on himself, ministering for us first on Calvary as our final Sacrifice and then in heaven as our final Priest.

In dying, Christ de-fanged the devil. How? By covering all our sin. This means that Satan has no legitimate grounds to accuse us before God.

Giving gifts to Christ is like fasting — going without something to show that Christ is more valuable than what you are going without.

Let this Christmas be the time when you ponder what it means — what it costs — to worship and follow Jesus, the Messiah.

God influenced the stars in the sky to get a little handful of foreign magi to Bethlehem so that they would worship his Son.

Christmas proves how Jesus is Messiah — a King, and Promise-Fulfiller — for all the nations, not just Israel.

The key that unlocks the treasure chest of God's peace is faith in the promises of God.

God could have seen to it that Jesus have a room at his birth. But that would have been a detour off the Calvary road.