Theme For Joyce Meyer Devotional March 25 2021 – The Exchange of Righteousness
Part of the joy of being a Christian is the ability to exchange all you have for all Jesus has. You can exchange sin for forgiveness, fear for faith, uncertainty for confidence, lack for abundance, anxiety for peace, sadness for joy, despair for hope, failures for a fresh start, weakness for strength, and you can make all kinds of other wonderful exchanges because you belong to God. According to Romans 8:17, believers are “co‑heirs with Christ” of all that God gives to Him (NIV). We can have everything He offers us, under one condition: we need to let go of everything old in order to pick up the new blessings He has for us.
I like to say that Jesus invites us to an exchanged life. On any given day with Him, we can make the exchanges I mentioned earlier, but we don’t get the new until we release the old. One of the great exchanges of the Christian life is exchanging our inability to do everything right for the righteousness of God. Isaiah writes that our old righteousness—or ability to produce right behavior—is like filthy rags or a polluted garment (see Isaiah 64:6), but Jesus’ righteousness is perfect. Because of His sacrifice, 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that we can exchange our imperfect righteousness for His perfect righteousness.
Have you ever gone through life with a vague sense that something just isn’t right about you? You may not be able to articulate it, but you feel it. If you’ve been there, I can relate. Because of the abuse that happened during my childhood, I felt for many years that something was wrong with me, but I could never say with certainty what it was. I just knew that for my father to abuse me the way he did, something had to be wrong with me. Imagine how thrilled I was when I learned that Jesus makes everything about me right before God through my faith in Him!
The impression that something is wrong about you is a lie from the enemy. The truth is that because of God’s lovingkindness, He sees you as right with Him. He accepts you just as you are, holds nothing against you, and is always there to help you become what He wants you to be. You no longer have to carry the burdens of guilt, shame, condemnation, or that vague feeling that something just isn’t right about you. This doesn’t mean that every old sense of something being wrong will instantly go away. But as you study and meditate on this truth, and as it becomes more and more established in your heart, you’ll become more and more confident in the fact that your relationship with Jesus has made you completely right with God.
Prayer Starter: Father, please help me let go of any sense of there being something wrong about me, and to receive Your perfect righteousness and forgiveness, even when I feel guilty. Thank You so much for paying such a high price to make me right with You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Credit For Joyce Meyer Devotional March 25 2021 – Joyce Meyer Ministries / joycemeyer.org