Last night our small group discussed an issue that boiled down to why does God save some and not others? One option is that He will save everyone, but that does not jibe with Scripture. Since that discussion, these verses came to mind. God is speaking to Israel:
Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. (Deuteronomy 9:5–6)
Salvation is not earned, not deserved. God selected the Israelites because He would use them, a stubborn people, to deal with the wicked. They were just as sinful as the nations around them in their resistance to God, but Abraham believed when God told him to move, and he moved. God promised to make a great nation of him and did it.
Today’s devotional is about God’s promise to glorify and reward every believer with an eternal heritage given to all who believe. It is part of the package, the gift that begins with God speaking faith into our hearts and at that same instant, changing us from stubborn and selfish sinners to His people. That is the beginning. Then, Paul says:
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)
As the devotional says, we are not what we used to be and there is much to be done to make us all He wants us to be, yet God will finish the task, despite our doubts and struggles. Unlike Israel who could not keep the laws of God, we have a Savior who fulfilled them and now represents us as ‘in Him’ and therefore saved from the penalty of sin. He works throughout our lives to save us from sin’s power and guarantees that one day we will be completely rescued from its presence. God’s work within us is so certain and so powerful that Scripture guarantees its completion, and the final stroke of God’s brush happens when we will see Him face to face.
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 3:1–3)
On that day, my earthly cares will be gone, and I will stand before Him “blameless with great joy” (Jude 24). This is guaranteed by the work of Christ and the promises of God. I can get discouraged with my struggles (yesterday found me frustrated and angry because of technical problems with our computers) and yet I know that God is working to transform me into the image of His Son, even using these frustrations as teaching tools.
Looking ahead to what I will become helps me confess my negative attitudes and sinful actions. I can focus on “the joy set before me” rather than beat myself up for being so stubborn and immature.
All this tells me:
1. Stop beating myself up over confessed sin. It is forgiven.
2. Fight evil, resisting it in my own life and praying for others caught in its trap. Tell them the good news.
3. Rejoice that I will be like Jesus when I see Him.
4. God gives me all I need to do all that He wants me to do. No excuses. Get at it.
5. Don’t let anything keep me from praising God and taking all issues and concerns to Him in prayer.
Lord Jesus, this is a prayer from Your Word and my prayer today: “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now I thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.” (1 Chronicles 29:11–13)
MORE: According to Revelation 7:9–17 and 22:1–5, what is God giving me to look forward to?
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