Casandra Martin

My dog has qualms about being a dog. Most of the time, Jack loves the dog life. He gets to sleep twenty-three hours a day, has a soft bed to stretch out on, gets treats for looking cute, and has a door person who lets him in and out.

In exchange for all of this good life, he is expected to be the dog and let me be the master. This is where he isn’t always sure that he agrees. There are times when he gets stubborn and wants to do it his way. He runs when he should come. He sits under my desk when he is being called. He crawls under the couch when it is time to go. You get the idea. There are just days when he decides that he should decide.

Surrender is rarely easy, and I see myself in Jack’s stubbornness more than I would like to admit. Blessed beyond measure, my heart should be tender to His touch, attentive to His voice, and responsive to His will. Instead, I find myself trying to devise my own plans, choose my own ways, and follow my own designs. Submission requires the minute-by-minute commitment to remember that I am the servant and He is the Master.

My Jesus Resolution today is to obey when called. I know the truth about Jesus. He is loving, good, kind, faithful, and true. When He calls me, He is moving me into a place that is better for my soul. Obedience allows His transformation to take full root in my life. It opens the door for His presence, aligns my heart with His purpose, and positions me to receive His power.

Guilt can eat you alive. It gnaws away at your insides, crushing your spirit, twisting through your mind, and nagging at your soul like a drip in the night. Guilt is a burden that makes our hearts ache with its weight. We get caught in its vise-like grip and struggle to breathe. Guilt is persistent. Once it has its hooks in your heart, it digs in and hangs on. Over time, its roots seem to work their way into the fabric of your soul.

God created guilt for our good. Guilt, in its proper context, serves as a warning system that we have veered away from holiness. When our hearts and minds are calibrated by His character, guilt flares up when we move out of alignment with His will. It encourages us to quickly repent and seek His face. His grace is the remedy for our guilt. As His mercy washes over us, the guilt alarm is silenced and replaced by His peace.

The function of guilt has been skewed by our sin-infected, self-absorbed, shame-enflaming world. We wrestle with reconciling the forgiveness that God promises us with the guilt that seems to have a hold of our hearts.

God did not mean for us to be crippled by guilt. Living in the freedom of forgiveness begins by examining the truth of your guilt in the light of His Word. Repent of what needs repenting. Confess what needs confessing. Then believe what God says about the grace He pours out on you. Remember that your feelings don’t always accurately reflect His truth. Your feelings have to be trained to follow what He teaches us is true. It takes time, practice, and surrender, but even guilt can be transformed.

My Jesus Resolution today is to take my guilt to the cross. Jesus paid for it there. Drowning in guilt doesn’t help me look like Jesus. It eats away at my peace, and robs me of my joy. I am going to answer guilt with the truth of God’s Word. I am going to let what He says about me speak louder than the guilt that wants to whisper continually in my ear. Like the sinful woman who poured her tears out at Jesus’ feet, I am going take heart in His gentle words. “And he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’” (Luke 7:48, 50)

“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say ‘thank you?’” ~William A. Ward

Gratitude is an art. It has a beauty that inspires, a rhythm that helps us dance, and a warmth that results in smiles. Gratitude is more than casually saying two words. Gratitude notices. Gratitude loves. Gratitude sees God in the moment. Gratitude changes how we think. Gratitude softens our hearts.

Take a few of the precious seconds God has given you today and be creative about expressing your gratitude. Here are ten gratitude-giving ideas to help you get started.

1. Buy (or pick) a single flower. Attach a note that says, “Thanks for helping me bloom.”

2. Bake some cookies, and tell someone thanks for the sweet way they….

3. Share a cup of coffee with someone. Thank them for always being your pick-me-up.

4. Create a trail of colored notes at your child’s eye level. On each one, write a single word that tells them something about them for which you are thankful.

5. Have a family gratitude circle. Everyone gets a chance to say one thing they are thankful for about each family member.

6. Cut out a paper heart. Write down ten reasons you are grateful for your spouse. Put it in their lunch, or sock drawer, or briefcase.

7. Set a “thankful alarm” on your phone. Stop. Be still. Tell Him thank you.

8. Turn off the television and see how many blessings you can write down in the time it would have taken you to watch a show.

9. Take a plate of goodies to your local fire station, police station, or school. Thank them for the way they serve your community.

10. Find a small mirror. Give it to someone who inspires you in your walk with God. Tell them thank you for helping you look like Jesus.

My Jesus Resolution today is to say thank you. When my heart is full of gratitude, I don’t have a lot of room left over for grumbling. My eyes see my day differently through the lens of thanksgiving. Gratitude gives my soul a chance to search for God in the ordinary, regular, usual pieces of my day. When I find His fingerprints, it changes ordinary into extraordinary, mostly because it changes me.

Who knew? Spring fever is actually a medical condition. Scientists are still trying to puzzle out the malady that we refer to as spring fever, but there seems to be a hormonal component that helps us make the switch from the colder, grayer days of winter into the more active sunny days of spring. As these hormones ebb and flow, our moods, actions, and appetites change.

I have always associated spring fever with a seasonal restlessness that hits at this time of year. The school year is almost over. We can see the end in sight, and the promise of being released from books, classrooms, and homework is just more than we can stand. Students with spring fever quit before they finish. It isn’t just a school kid thing, however. Adults seem to get spring fever as well. Projects, classes, and resolutions that we made in January get left by the wayside as spring’s longer days invite us to step out of our routines and experience something novel and new. We end up not finishing what we started.

One of the things I am thankful for today is that God is a Finisher. What He starts, He brings to completion. What He begins, He sees through to the end. What He promises to do, He faithfully fulfills. God doesn’t get spring fever. He doesn’t give up on us halfway. He isn’t going to be distracted, lose focus, or get sidetracked. In fact, one element of His rich faithfulness is found in the promise embedded in Philippians 1:6. “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

My Jesus Resolution today is to be a finisher. Jesus was a finisher. What He started in Bethlehem, He finished at Golgotha. I want to be like Him. I want faithfulness and integrity to define my heart. Spring fever has the ability to separate the starters from the finishers. Don’t give up now. Set your heart on continuing to open up your life to His movement, your soul to His power, and your eyes to His presence. As amazing as God’s beginnings always are, can you imagine what the finish line is going to be like?

Grief is a difficult, strangling, heavy emotion. It sits on our chests like a weight, so dense that we feel like we won’t be able to take our next breath. While grief has common elements, everybody’s grief is unique. It takes on the dimensions and facets of the love that we shared with the person who is gone. When we grieve, our souls rebel against the hole that has suddenly been created in our hearts.

Watch the faces of the grieving, and we discover that grief is universal. We all grieve. Perhaps in different ways, with different customs, but the impact of grief rips at everyone’s heart regardless of age, nationality, gender, or culture. It doesn’t matter if you live in an industrialized, modern society or a third-world country, grief is real, present, and touches us in our most private, vulnerable places.

In thinking about grief, I keep coming back to one thought. Grief is evidence of God’s goodness. The universality of grief points to the truth that death was never God’s plan for our hearts. No matter how young, old, infirm, or healthy someone is, we fight against death. It leaves a hole in our hearts that we were never meant to experience. Grief testifies that our hearts were made for life, love, joy, and comfort. Grief, loneliness, pain, and brokenness are the consequences of sin.

“’O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?’

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 15:55-57

My Jesus Resolution today is to search for His goodness in my grief. Grief reminds me that I am not meant for this world. My home is somewhere else. The pain of grief is real and fresh, but the power of grief is tempered by the love poured out from the cross. The empty tomb isn’t just a historical fact. It shouts the truth about God’s good intention for my soul.

My son was hunched over the table filling out forms. Over and over, it asked for his ID number, Social Security number, driver’s license number, and registration number. He breathed in a sigh of frustration and said, “I’m only a number. No name. Just a number in the system.”

We live in a digitalized, codified world. Our identity is defined by numbers, dashes, and electronic impulses. It is easy to feel like we are lost in the maze of impersonal IDs, one more number stretching out in an endless line. We are one more face in the crowd, one more employee, one more customer, one more student, one more patient, one more in the next-in-line countdown, each blurring into the next until we feel invisible.

Next time you feel unseen, unappreciated, unnoticed, or ignored wrap the words of Jesus around your heart. He has a numbering system too. But His numbering doesn’t impersonalize us or count us as just one in a crowd. It reveals how well we are known. Jesus draws us close to His heart and reminds us, “But even the hairs on your head are all numbered.” (Matthew 10:30)

My Jesus Resolution today is to remember that I am numbered. Jesus counts the hairs on my head. He wants me to understand how intimately I am known, how much I am cherished, and how closely involved He is in my life. He sees me. He loves me. He knows me. He remembers my name. He watches my face. He listens to my voice. He bottles my tears. He longs for me to know that His love for me is personal, and that He is paying attention to my heartbeats, my breaths, and the number of my hairs.

My son broke the church. I walked by the back door and saw the pieces of the small, decorative church building lying on the table. I was so surprised. We have had the little church for years. It sits in a convenient spot near our back door. We hang keys on the steeple, which I think is appropriate because being a part of the church is key to looking like Jesus.

I looked at the pieces for days. Seeing a broken church is somehow heart-wrenching for me. My husband watched me finger the cracks, and gently whispered, “I think it can be fixed.” Pulling out the supplies, he positioned the pieces back into place. He applied adhesive, pressure, and a little bit of ingenuity. Now the church sits back in its spot, keys dangling, giving me new reason to hope.

The almost invisible cracks in my little church make me smile now. They remind me of me. We all come to Christ broken, shattered, and damaged. Sin breaks us, splintering our souls, fragmenting our hearts, and wrecking our lives. We try anxiously to fix things ourselves. Our patchwork jobs would be comical, if they weren’t so desperate.

Jesus steps in, gently whispering, “I can fix that.” Putting our hearts in His hands, He applies blood, grace, love, and hope to the pieces. Soon, we begin to take new shape. Stronger, joyful, and radiating with peace, we join with others whose lives testify that broken people can be mended. We are the church.

My Jesus Resolution today is to be thankful for fix-it jobs. Psalm 147:3 says, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Today, I can take my broken pieces to God, trusting that He will put things back together in a way that will bring Him glory. Our scars are places that bear witness to the healing grace of Jesus. They tell a story about brokenness and redemption. The church is made up of broken people fixed by a Savior who offers hope to shattered hearts everywhere.

Never has emptiness shouted more loudly. A stone rolls away revealing God’s greatest joy. It is finished. And it is just beginning. The empty tomb of Jesus testifies to the most amazing truth of all – Jesus is alive. Death, with all of its finality, with all of its horror, with all of its relentlessness, fails to keep Jesus prisoner. Life wins. Light pierces darkness. Hope rises. Love triumphs. Grace surges forward.

Jesus is alive. Breathe. Soak it in. Let the tears flow. Grin. Laugh out loud. Be quiet. Fall to your knees. Worship. Jesus is alive.

Because Jesus is alive, we can experience everything it means to be alive as well. Here are five gifts that He gives us because He is alive.

A – Always – Always takes on a richer significance in the light of Jesus’ resurrection. Always is fueled by the power that brought Jesus out of the tomb. We have always promises on which we can build our lives – always love, always presence, always peace, and always faithfulness.

L – Life – Jesus conquers death and gives us access to life. Not just any life. Not a so-so, half-hearted, bland life – abundant life, eternal life, life to the full, life lived within the power and purpose of His life.

I – Immeasurably More – Jesus lives and opens the door for God to work in our lives in ways beyond what we can ask or imagine. Immeasurably More is God’s dream for our souls that finds its roots in the resurrection.

V – Victory – The power that surges from the empty tomb makes us conquerors. We can live victorious lives. The finish line has been crossed. The battle has been won. He allows us to claim His victory as our own. We walk in triumphal procession through this world proclaiming the good news about a cross and an empty tomb that changes everything.

E – East from the West – Here is the rich promise of everything that took place two thousand years ago. Forgiveness, grace, mercy, and salvation are ours because of Jesus. The cross paid the price. The resurrection ignites a firestorm of grace that consumes our sins and transforms our souls.

My Jesus Resolution today is to celebrate being ALIVE! Jesus lives! Jesus reigns! Jesus loves! Jesus forgives! All the exclamation points in the world will never capture the stunning, startling, amazing reality of the truth of His resurrection. Because He lives, we are called to live exclamation point kind of lives. Lives that proclaim His name. Reveal His power. Showcase His grace. Tell His story. Sing His praises. Imitate His life. Live in the truth that because He lives, we are ALIVE!

Sunday will find disciples hiding, angels descending, ground shaking, stones rolling, women rejoicing, and an empty tomb echoing. But not yet.

This is a day of sorrow, regret, and resolve. The wounded, lifeless body of the Savior is being lowered from the crossbeams. Tears flow as hands that refused to be counted in life gently carry His body in death. Anxiously watching the darkening sky, two men hurry with their burdened hearts toward the tomb. Wrapping Him in strips of linen, they press spices into the cloth, a fragrant offering that now serves as a final tribute to His love.

The tomb of Jesus is a waiting place. Death has done its worst, but God has yet to do His best. Seventy-two hours of sorrow must pass before the dawn will break with joy. The disciples grieve. The women weep. God alone knows the promise that Sunday morning holds.

Sometimes we live in a not yet place. Things get very dark. Suffering, pain, sorrow, and fear eclipse the light. We can’t see God’s solution beyond our tears. The burial of Jesus speaks to the absolute certainty of His death and the miraculous truth of His rising. It also reminds us that not yet places are not always what they seem to be. For those who loved Jesus on that day, their hearts ached because they thought it was the end. For those of us who love Him today, we know it was just the beginning.

My Jesus Resolution today is to pick up a stone. I am going to carry it with me until Sunday morning. I am going to let it remind me that what I see as final, impossible, and over may be used by God to reveal His glory and the perfect timing of His not yet plan. In many ways, life itself is a not yet place. Because of the tomb and what comes next, we live with a hope that infuses today with the joy will we will experience tomorrow. “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)  Soon, but not yet.

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” – Mahatma Gandhi

The quiet of the dark night is broken by the rough footfalls of soldiers with torches and clubs. A kiss betrays innocence, and the world is turned upside-down. God goes on trial before the people who were supposed to welcome Him with joy. A human government sits in judgment of the Creator of the universe. A death sentence is handed down. A cross is carried through twisted streets. Nails pierce the hands of the Carpenter.

The Son of God hangs on a cross…for you…for me.

When the world walks into this moment, all they can see is a broken man hanging on two pieces of wood. They mock Him, revile Him, spit on Him, and sneer in His face. Forgiveness is the last thing on their minds. It is the only thing on Jesus’ mind.

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” – Luke 23:34

In a moment that the world would view as one of complete weakness, Jesus reveals His absolute strength. Weakness lashes out, takes advantage, and seeks revenge. Strength sacrifices self, absorbs the cost, and extends grace.

My Jesus Resolution today is to stand in the shadow of the cross. The forgiveness that was extended there reaches out for me today. The blood that was shed there washes across my soul in a cascade of grace. The strength displayed there has the power to transform me. The words spoken there should pierce my soul. The love released there heals me through and through.