This is one of my favorite verses in the Book of James…
“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that–and shudder.” Jas 2:19 NIV
This is a verse for those who have already claimed to believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord. Let me pause for a moment just to point out the difference, as well as why we need Him as both our Savior and Lord. Today let’s talk about Jesus as our Savior. We are all desperate for Jesus to be our Savior, because He alone can save us from our old, sinful nature. That’s what we talked about last week. Jesus is the only way to the Father and Heaven because He is the only one who can make us holy. Holy does not mean perfect in our case, but it does mean set apart to become holy just like Jesus is Holy.
Once Jesus saves us and the Holy Spirit comes to live within our heart bringing us Eternal Life and the potential to be like Jesus, we still need Jesus as our Savior! Every day, with every decision we must make, we must choose between death- our old, MMI way- or Life, choosing Humility over Pride. We cannot do this alone. We need His wisdom, His insight, His discernment, His strength…we need God’s guidance and power because our perspective is tiny compared to His Eternal viewpoint. We need Jesus to continue to save us from living like we use to live, when we were apart from Him and dead inside. We need Jesus to save us from making those same old choices that kept us from His Love and His Life. We need Jesus to be our Savior, but He must also be our Lord…
Join me in memorizing 52 verses this year:
January: 1- Jn 3:16; 2- 2Co 5:17; 3- Jas 2:26; 4- Eph 2:10
February: 5- Jn 10:10; 6- Ro 6:23; 7- Rev 21:4; 8- Php 4:13
March: 9- 1Pe 5:7; 10- Jn 8:32; 11- Dt 30:19; 12- Jn 3:30; 13- 2Chron 20:3
April: 14- 2Chron 20:12; 15- 2Chron 20:15b; 16- 2Chron 20:17
May: 17- Ro 8:28; 18- 1Co 13:13; 19- Php 2:12; 20- Mt 5:4
June: 21- Lk 23:42; 22- Jas 4:7; 23- Pr 22:6; 24- Mt 5:3; 25- Jn 14:6
26- Jas 2:19
<>< Peace, Diane
