100 Days of Right Believing: Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing (27 page)

I
love how in Luke 24, the Holy Spirit intricately records for us the meeting that Jesus had with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus on the very first day of His resurrection. With heavy hearts, grieved and shell-shocked, they talked about how Jesus, whom they greatly esteemed, had been taken by the religious leaders, condemned to death, and crucified.

Read the full story and notice how the two disciples were caught up with their own understanding of the events that had transpired and with their thoughts about the redemption of Israel. As a result, they were downcast, disappointed, and depressed. This is what happens when the truth about Jesus is absent from our minds.

The disciples had hoped that Jesus would be the one who would redeem Israel. To them, Jesus was simply a means to an end. They were more consumed with Israel’s redemption than with the Redeemer Himself. No wonder they were depressed! Jesus can never simply be a means to an end, no matter how noble that end may be. We need to be occupied with Him and allow everything to revolve around Him as He takes center place in our lives.

The disciples were downcast because they didn’t believe in what God’s Word had prophesied about Jesus’ suffering and resurrection. If they had believed and understood that the events in the last three days were all orchestrated by God and that the cross was His grand redemption plan to save all men, they would have been rejoicing with faith, love, and hope. They would have been greatly anticipating their reunion with the resurrected Christ instead of being so inward-looking and discouraged. But because of their wrong beliefs, they had become disillusioned and were mentally defeated.

If you are feeling fearful, anxious, or depressed today, do a quick check. What’s on your mind? What’s your heart occupied with? Are your thoughts filled with faith in Jesus, the Shepherd of your life, or are they filled with apprehensions about the future, fears about your current situation, and excessive self-introspection? Give Him center place by believing that He is the answer to every thing you need in life, and begin to walk in a new measure of His peace, joy, and liberty.

I
n many places there are believers who still think that God is mad at them whenever they fail. They simply don’t have a revelation of the gospel of grace and what God’s unconditional love means. Like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus we read about yesterday, such believers still do not understand the grace of our Lord and what He has done for them at the cross.

Then there are believers who know about the gospel of grace and who even know that God loves them unconditionally. However, this knowing is only in their heads. When they fail, even though they have the knowledge of grace, they are nevertheless still afraid to come with boldness to God’s throne of grace to receive mercy, favor, healing, and restoration.

Beloved, God doesn’t want you slow of heart to believe His promise of abundant grace and gift of righteousness to reign in this life. Knowing God’s truths and the gospel of grace intellectually is not enough. You have to be quick to believe everything that Jesus has accomplished on the cross for you, especially when you are struggling with failure, guilt, and fear. God doesn’t want you defeated because of a lack of knowledge of His grace. At the same time, He wants you to be quick in believing in His promises for you.

This is why we study God’s Word. It is not to merely accumulate Bible knowledge and historical facts, but to have a constant revelation of Jesus that feeds our quick and right believing in Him. And how do we do this? We can start by asking the Holy Spirit. Many times when studying the Word, I would pray this simple prayer: “Holy Spirit, open my eyes to see Jesus in the Word today.” That is what it’s all about—
seeing Jesus
. When you see Him in the Scriptures through the lens of grace, faith will arise and your mind will be renewed with His truths and promises for you.

My friend, you have already learned many things about God’s love for you in this book. If you want to see the power of right believing operating in
every dimension of your life, I challenge you to believe in His grace, His love, His righteousness, His forgiveness, and His finished work. I promise you that you will be transformed beyond your wildest imagination if you dare to lean hard on His love for you. His love never fails!

W
e’ve spent the last two days considering the experience of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. What happened there that caused the disciples’ hearts to ignite and burn within them? Go back to today’s scripture and read it again. Therein lies the key to transformation! When the Scriptures are opened to you and things concerning Jesus are unveiled, your heart will be set aflame and burn within you as it did for these two disciples!

Don’t forget what Jesus did when He heard their wrong believing and conversation of defeat: “Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning Himself
” (Luke 24:27, emphasis mine). In other words, beginning with the first five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, collectively known as the Torah), Jesus expounded all the things concerning Himself. Then He continued to reveal Himself in the books of the prophets, books such as Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.

On the first day of His resurrection, Jesus set a precedent for us on how we ought to read and study the Bible today. He doesn’t want us to approach the Word to find out what we need to do and go away with a bunch of laws. Absolutely not! Jesus wants us to open the Scriptures to see HIM. See Him in everything from Genesis to Revelation. The more you see Him, the more you will be free from all forms of self-occupation and be transformed from glory to glory.

I encourage you to open up the Bible and see Jesus in the types and shadows in the Old Testament. Every sacrifice, every feast, and even the tabernacle and priests point to Jesus. In the New Testament, see Jesus loving and forgiving those whom the world despised, such as the woman caught in adultery. See Him healing the blind, lame, and all who were oppressed with sicknesses
and diseases. See Jesus multiplying provision for those who lacked. I promise you that your heart will burn, your body will be renewed, and your mind will be filled with His shalom-peace, joy, and soundness. I promise you that sin, addictions, bad habits, fear, guilt, anxiety, depression, and condemnation will drop off from your life when you are absorbed and occupied with the person of Jesus. They simply cannot coexist in your life when you are occupied with Christ and not yourself.