Devotionals for the Heart: Faith

The Power in Our Faith
A devotional by Patrick E. Craig

"For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" ~Hebrews 9:13-14 (KJV)

One of the great dilemmas of the Christian faith is the spirit of unbelief that seems to permeate the lives of many Christians. We come to church and hear great teaching, we read the Bible and appreciate the truths therein, but then we live our lives as though the Word of God is merely a collection of myths and stories: ancient wisdom penned by prophets and psalmists who were men of a bygone age that really has no relevance for today except to encourage us that there is a better way to live if we can only follow some set of rules that will please God.

Take, for instance, the text at the beginning of this devotional. The writer is saying that the old Hebrew sacrifices that were performed daily to cleanse the Jews of the defilement caused by their sins were only capable of purifying them on the outside. But the sacrifice of Christ has the power to cleanse your conscience—that is, to purify you not just on the outside but on the inside, too. What does that mean? The fact of guilt and the feelings of guilt have both been dealt with forever and now we have complete unhindered access to God!

But somehow we miss the point. We no longer need to perform “dead works” to come to God as the Jews did in the old Tabernacle. What we don’t seem to “get” is that Christ has performed the work that purifies us once and for all and we now live in a permanent state of access to the throne. Yes! We really do!

My point is that if we actually understood what this means then we would not be constantly either hiding from God because we feel guilty about something we did or running to counselors or self-help books to find the answer. 

The answer is right before us and it is found on every page of the Bible. The answer is Jesus Christ. He is the purifier, the 13th step of every 12-step program, the healer and the access grantor. Take a leap of faith today and lay hold of this truth. Jesus has done all the work that is necessary for you to live a whole and happy life. Now go out and live it!

"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." ~Hebrews 4:16 (KJV)

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Author Bio:

Patrick E. Craig is a lifelong writer and musician who left a successful songwriting and performance career in the music industry to follow Christ in 1984. 

In 2011 he signed a three-book deal with Harvest House Publishers to publish his Apple Creek Dreams series. His current series is The Paradise Chronicles. The first book in the series, The Amish Heiress, a romantic suspense novel, was published by Patrick's company, P&J Publishing, in August of 2015 and remained on the Amazon Top 100 best sellers list in three categories for seven months.

The second book in the series, The Amish Princess, a historical romance novel, was released in December of 2016 and was on Amazon's Hot New Releases for over a month. Harlequin recently purchased the print rights for both books for their Walmart Amish series. Patrick also just released Cracking The Indie Egg—A Recipe For Publishing Your Own Book and it is available in most major digital bookstores.

Patrick and his wife Judy, make their home in Idaho. They have two married children and five grandchildren. Patrick is represented by the Steve Laube Agency.

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Connect with Patrick:
Website - www.patrickecraig.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PatrickECraig
Twitter - https://twitter.com/PatrickECraig
Amazon Author page - http://tinyurl.com/n6sfagg