Daily Devotions based the Sermon from January 17, 2021
Full Sunday message: CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: A Mission-Minded Person Is Clear in Their Calling!
To be chosen is an affirming reality…whether it is being chosen to play on your middle school basketball team, given your first job or elected to a political position.
Being chosen says to our psyche that we matter, we are wanted, and someone trusts us enough to add value to them or to their team.
Perhaps there are time we expect to be chosen because we are qualified, have a needed experience or know the person who is selecting the team. However, when we aren’t qualified, don’t have the needed experience or don’t have a personal relationship with the one choosing…yet we are chosen anyway, leaves us flattered yet humbled.
This is the reality of God’s choice of us to be part of his family and part of his kingdom work.
We aren’t qualified…we fall short of the standard of perfection God demands.
We don’t have the needed experience…we had none.
We didn’t have a personal relationship with the one choosing…we were enemies of God and hostile to him.
Yet…
2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This call to faith is an amazing statement of God’s goodness and grace. From the beginning God chose you to believe as he connected you to the message of the Gospel and the converting work of his Spirit. The result? You believed the truth of Jesus. The benefit? We might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When we think about why are we here on this earth, a key truth to understand is we are here to connect with the saving power of the Gospel. We are here to connect to God’s plan for us to hear the message of Jesus and have his Spirit change our unqualified, no experience, no relationship status to one that is qualified…because we have been given Jesus’ perfect record…to one that has experience as one who has been connected God’s eternal plan and one who has a relationship with the Lord.
Our call to faith is a gift of grace.
Our call to believe is foundational for life.
Our call to trust is what sets the stage for the call to follow.
Tomorrow we’ll delve into that, but today enjoy the gift of grace that God has called you to faith!
Apply: Who did God use in your life to connect you to his saving Gospel message? Send them a note of thanks for God using them in calling you to faith. Thank God for them too!
Prayer: Lord thank you for orchestrating a plan in eternity to include me in your plan of salvation! AMEN.