Ephesians 1:4-5 "In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will."
Webster says that predestine means "to appoint or ordain beforehand by an unchangeable purpose." And this is exactly what our text for today is talking about. God, in His grace and out of love for us, ordained beforehand that we should be His adopted children. Are you doing cartwheels for joy? We all should!
What have we ever done to deserve to be called the children of God? We are by nature prone to lie and cheat. We are a rebellious, arrogant lot. We often think we have all the answers and are very proud of our accomplishments ... until our world begins to collapse, leaving us beaten, destitute, and very insecure.
And yet, undeserving as we are, God's love for us has prevented Him from abandoning us to our fate. Even before the creation of the world, it pleased Him to decide to adopt us in Christ as His sons and daughters, so that we would live in His kingdom and enjoy all the blessings He grants those He loves. And all this God did out of pure grace, calling us out of the darkness of our selfish natures into the light of a life lived for Him and with Him through the atoning work of His Son.
PRAYER: Lord God, thank You for making me Your child. Amen.
(Taken from "Words of Promise," copyright 1996, Concordia Publishing House (out of print). For information on other devotional materials call 1-800-325-3040.)
Today's Bible Readings: Leviticus 17-18 Mark 9:1-29
To Download Devotion MP3 to your computer, right click here and select "Save Link As" or "Save Target As" or "Download Linked File As"