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2 Corinthians 3 Devotional – Day 5

ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness

GOD IS TRUE The God revealed in Scripture is real, and all other gods are idols. The God of the Bible is the one true God and not a god among others. He is the one and only.

Jeremiah 10:10–11 – The Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. . . . The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens. 

John 17:3 Jesus says to the Father, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” 

Praise God that He is the Only True God.
Praise God that his power is unmatched. Praise God that He is not one of many gods to choose from. Praise God that he has made himself known and revealed his uniqueness in the bible.

CONFESSION: Confess your sins to God and receive his continued mercy.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

THANKSGIVING: Giving thanks to God for his specific blessings in our lives.

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100

SUPPLICATION: Bringing our requests to God.

  • Bring your personal prayer requests to God.
  • Pray for opportunities to share the Gospel.
  • Ask God to prepare the hearts of people to hear the gospel this summer as students who have been training this week in Salina prepare to go.

SCRIPTURE READING:

2 Corinthians 3 Christian Standard Bible

Living Letters
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3 You show that you are Christ’s letter, delivered by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God—not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Paul’s Competence
4 Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 It is not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. 6 He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

New Covenant Ministry
7 Now if the ministry that brought death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory, so that the Israelites were not able to gaze steadily at Moses’s face because of its glory, which was set aside, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry that brought condemnation had glory, the ministry that brings righteousness overflows with even more glory. 10 In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was set aside was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.

12 Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness. 13 We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from gazing steadily until the end of the glory of what was being set aside, 14 but their minds were hardened. For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ. 15 Yet still today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, 16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.

SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:

Shame is another opposite of boldness. Think about a time you have felt shame. Maybe it is this very moment. Perhaps you have given in to an addiction or an occasional sin pattern. At that very moment you feel no boldness. Shame drains you of the sense that you can impact others…your friends, your own children…anyone. “Who am I to try to influence anyone, look at me!” No, look at Jesus. Certainly we want to represent him well and sin patterns do not cause us to do that. But in the end we do not proclaim ourselves but Jesus as Lord. We must be honest about our sin but must not “wallow” in them like a pig in the mud. You are his son or daughter. When you mess up, you must fess up and move on. Be bold, not as a person who is arrogant and who never sins. Be bold as a person whose life is built on a biblical hope. No matter what, Christ has covered your sins with his blood. Since we have this hope, we are very bold.

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