Daily Devotional

It should be our desire to be like Christ. But the power of God is the miracle of others seeing in our pressures and trials the character of Jesus.
In Colossians 1:11, Paul prays that his friends may be “strengthened with all power according to His glorious might...”. What are they going to use all this power for? “…so that you may have great endurance and patience.” That is where the life and the power of God is manifest. That is the “life of Jesus.”
As we read through the Gospel accounts, the Spirit of God brings to our minds a far more beautiful and wonderful picture of Jesus’ character and life. We see His compassion of heart, His moral beauty that attracted people everywhere He went. We see the serenity of His spirit, how He moves through every scene of anger and unrest with calmness and quietness. We see His disciplined will and His obvious joy in living. That is the “life of Jesus,” and that is what we want.
How do we get it? Look to the cross for the answer. The cross is a symbol of something very real in our experience. What was Jesus like on the cross? He was not powerful and impressive and significant; He was not being applauded by the multitudes that listened to His every word. No. The cross was a place of physical weakness, of rejection by the proud and arrogant world around Him. It was a place of obscurity, a place where He was willing to lose everything He had built and to trust God to bring it back and make it significant.
Have you been in a circumstance recently, where no matter what you do, you can’t seem to get any glory or credit for yourself? That is exactly where God wants you, because out of those times of inordinate pressure, hurt, despair, heartache, and a sense of being wasted, God is working. Others, perhaps, are being given life because of the death you are going through.

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