Jesus has brought us the gift of Joy … a newer and higher joy found in his friendship to us and fueled by his word when known and believed.

God is love and he demonstrates that love by giving us the greatest gift, Christ. And because of this gift of love, we can now love one another with the same love that God has shown us.

Jesus comes to this world bearing gifts. The first is his gift of hope, the certainty of the living Savior.

At the beginning of Romans 9, we begin to see Paul’s heart for those who do not know Jesus, particularly those who share his Jewish background. Here we see that trusting in God’s purposes in salvation does not keep us from loving and reaching others for Christ.

This last paragraph of the 8th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans expresses the promise of Jesus’ unlimited, unconditional, unchanging love which eternally secures our salvation. Inspired by God, Paul conveys three types of fear that may cause us to doubt this truth: (1) Fear of things in our world, (2) Fear of things in the world beyond, and (3) Fear of things in you and me. Yet, nothing can separate Jesus and His followers!

If the God of the universe is for us… inclined towards us.. finds favor in us… then the opinion or opposition of any other person just really doesn’t matter ultimately.

Our Father is aware of and using every detail and element of our life to create true and best good for us. Those he touches, he promises to complete and shape them progressively into the image of Jesus.

Because of our flesh, prayer can be hard. Thankfully, God has given us his Spirit to help us in our weakness, and because the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God we can trust that our prayers will be heard and answered according to the will of God.

The promised sonship of salvation is legally accomplished by the work of Jesus and carried out by the indwelling Spirit. The unforeseen effect of us becoming sons is that we eventually become co-heirs with Christ, and in are transformed in our resurrected bodies and in role into such majestic significance that God describes it as our revelations and being glorified with Him. And there we find that all of creation and our souls yearns for the freedom and joy of us finally being fully us.

While it is not the only description and demonstration of authentic salvation, the presence of the indwelling Spirit who leads us is an essential sign of salvation. If you are not led by the Spirit, then why would you consider yourself a child of God?