The seventy return to tell Jesus “even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” (Luke 10:9)

Those who had been sent out came back amazed at what had happened.

Their eyes had seen the power of God at work through them.

But Jesus tells them “do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you , but rather rejoice because your names are written in Heaven.”(Luke 10:20)

Jesus is saying, rejoice because you are God’s children. Your eternity is secure. This is the greatest blessing.

And, though I haven’t ever rejoiced from casting out demons (can you imagine?)…my heart has certainly rejoiced in many other things.

In fact, I like blessings. Blessings feel good!

And there is nothing wrong with thanking God for the blessings we observe in our lives here on this earth, BUT we must be very careful that we don’t equate the blessings we can see with God’s goodness to us.

Let me say that again—we must be very careful that we don’t equate the blessings we can see with God’s goodness to us.

Jesus told us that, in this life, we would have trouble (John 16:33). Those He loves, with the greatest of love, are not immune to trouble in this life.

But if we view that trouble as God being unkind or uncaring, we think wrong.

Absolutely wrong.

Sometimes we heap trouble on ourselves due to our disobedience; but sometimes, trouble comes just because we live in a fallen world.

But God. He can redeem every bit of it. He can use it all for His glory and our good when we continue to love Him with all our heart, our soul and our strength. It’s IN HIM that we will find our peace (see the first part of John 16:33).

This is how we avoid being tossed to and fro by the amount of blessing we can see in each day.

We all have hearts that are prone to do this….“Prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love.”

And so each day, we need to reset our hearts and deliberately remember and rejoice that we have been the greatest gift we could ever be given—we need to rejoice, first and foremost, in the fact our “names are written in Heaven” (Luke 10:20)….remember what we just celebrated at Easter?

This resets our focus. This puts earthly blessings in proper perspective and insulates us from our happiness being so tied to things we can see.

Oh friend, look up! Oh friend, let’s help each other remember the truth—if God never did another good thing for us—He has already done more than enough when He sent His Son!

Rejoice! Rejoice, really rejoice in THAT! This life, it’s temporary blessings and it’s trouble, is NOT all there is!

Oh PRAISE Him!

peace #whataSavior

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