Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Does New Covenant faith make a discernable difference in our daily life? Can we see the change for the better? Yes, a thousand times! Let's look:
1. If one will simply accept and believe those seven New Covenant promises that God makes to every believing child of Abraham (in Genesis 12:2, 3), his or her self-respect will be lifted immeasurably. Not self-esteem, but self-respect. (There's a world of difference.)
2. Self-esteem is praise or flattery of one's self ("I'm handsome!" or "I'm beautiful!" or "I'm better than someone else!"). It's not good.
3. But self-respect is solid appreciation for the "price" that Jesus paid for your redemption from hell itself. It grows within you the longer you live; it never becomes passé. Faith is well defined as a heart-appreciation for the self-sacrificing love (agape) of the Son of God.
4. Thus New Covenant faith causes you to hold your head high, to lift your sagging shoulders, to open wider your drooping eyes; it's all "in Christ," and therefore it's the actual beginning of eternal life.
5. It's not only "I believe." It's also the prayer, "Help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24), an ongoing blessing the longer you live.
6. It's the Holy Spirit not only doing His first work for you, according to Jesus in John 16:8, which is convicting you of sin; it's the Holy Spirit doing His second work for you, convicting you of righteousness; and yes, His third work also, convicting you that through the faith of Jesus which you have received, Satan is "cast out" of your heart and your life (vss. 10, 11).
You are overcoming! There's no greater joy in life.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 4, 2008.
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