"I know you by name and you have found favor with Me." Exodus 33:12
Individual citizens sometimes say, "Why should I go to the polls? My vote, pro or con, doesn't make a difference." But it does! In 1649 King Charles I of England was beheaded on the strength of a 68 to 67 vote of a special high court. In 1869 the impeached President Andrew Johnson escaped being ousted by one vote in the United States Senate. A larger lesson one may draw from this is that not only each vote but also each person counts.
How important is each person in the sight of God? Very important! God told Moses, "I know you by name" (Exodus 33:17). God's awareness of us as individuals is stressed throughout the Bible. According to Genesis, Adam and Eve counted for much, for they were the fountainheads of the human race. They were important to God also after their fall into sin, for He promised them a Savior. In Revelation we read that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God slain for people of all ethnic groups, making the individual believers "priests to serve our God" (Revelation 5:10).
Open Holy Scripture anywhere and you find reference to God's relation to us on an I/you or person-to-person basis. David, in Psalm 139, declares that God knows everything about him--his coming and going, his thoughts and his words. Even stronger testimony in behalf of God's awareness comes from Jeremiah, to whom the Lord said, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:5).
As each person was individually created and was individually redeemed with the price of Christ's blood, so each believer is through the Gospel personally called to faith by the Holy Spirit. Each person counts; each Christian has the promise of personal forgiveness and life eternal.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, my Savior, I thank You for thinking of me when You died on the cross for my sins. Amen.
(Devotions from "With Jesus Every Day" copyright 1997, CPH. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time emailing of this link to a friend. For information on other devotional material, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040 or visit CPH at www.cph.org.)
Today's Bible Readings: 2 Chronicles 1-3 1 Corinthians 16
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