Daily Devotional

I grew up on a farm in Northern Califonia, 18 miles north of Chico.  I attended a small Elementary School where there were nine kids in our class.  When it was time for recess, we would run out the classroom door and choose up teams to play baseball.  Two kids would choose teams and be the captains.  The two of them would toss up a bat, and they would grab it and go hand over hand until the one who would get to choose first would place his hand on the end of the bat.  Whoever had first choice would either choose his best friend or the best player.  They would continue selecting players until they got to the last players, and then they would argue over who had to take the last two players.  Neither team wanted them because they could not play very well.  They were never really chosen by either captain.  They would then be placed out in right field or somewhere that no one would ever hit the ball.  We would then play ball, and in thirty minutes, we could play more baseball than the major leagues play in three plus hours.  

Some of us were those kids who were never chosen to play on a team.  We may have come to realize that we have never been chosen for anything in life, and we feel that we have very little value because of this.  But God so loved/valued us that He sent His Son to die in our place for our sin, that He might provide eternal salvation for all who believe in Him.  Because of this, God the Father has overwhelmingly blessed us in His Son.  The reality is that we have been blessed and chosen.  Chosen just because God loves us and wants us to be His child.

As God’s chosen children, “He chose us…that we should be holy and blameless before Him.”  Notice that verse does not say, “He chose us so we better be holy and blameless.”  This would make our holiness the result of our own effort.  Instead, God has designed that we should be like His Son.  This is not possible on our own.  The Scriptures so clearly declare that we are “sinners.”  God has taken the appropriate steps to make it possible for us to have a right standing before Him.  Notice how the Apostle Paul says that we are “in Him.”  God has chosen us “in Him” to be holy and blameless.  At the moment in time when we believed, we became a part of God’s family, and we were placed into Christ.  As a result, we now share in Christ’s very life.  It is as if we were clothed over with the very character of Christ.  Now when God the Father looks at His Son, He sees us in Him.  Some day, when we actually stand before God the Father, the Son will present us as holy and blameless, without any reproach.  (Colossians 1:22)  That takes all the fear out of what life will be like after our days on earth are finished.  God the Father has made complete provision for us.  It can’t get any better than that.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for all the blessings you have given us in Your Son Jesus Christ. We love You and desire to live our lives for You.  Help us to live in such a way that others will see Christ in us.

New American Standard Bible®,
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