WHAT ARE YOU?

If you are in Christ Jesus, there are some very wonderful descriptions of you in the Word of God. The words that are employed in these descriptions emphasis the grace of God more than what you personally have achieved. It is what God has made you that is precious, never what you have made of yourself. Even though all of your effort is required in living for the Lord, it is His grace that makes you what you are (1 Cor 15:10). You will find spiritual and moral power in the way the Spirit speaks of you. By "spiritual power," I mean the ability to move toward God through Christ Jesus, resisting the devil and being sensitive to Him that is speaking from heaven (Heb 12:28). By "moral power," I mean the ability to say "NO" to sin and "YES" to righteousness (Tit 2:9-12). In Christ, you are a son of God (1 John 3:1-3), heir of God, and joint heir with Christ (Rom 8:17). You have been washed from your sins, and constituted a king and priest unto God (Rev 1:5-6). God has put you into Christ, making Him to be your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor 1:20). By His grace, you are the light of the world and the salt of the earth (Matt 5:13-14). Your name is written in heaven (Luke 10:20; Heb 12:23), God Himself is your Father (2 Thess 2:16), and you have been "joined to the Lord" (1 Cor 6:17). As a child of God, "all things are yours," including Paul, Cephas, Apollos, the world, life, death, things present, and things to come (1 Cor 3:20- 23). If you wonder what God is able to do in you, He is able to "do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us" (Eph 3:20). You once were lost, but now you are found; were blind, but now you see. Think of it, you once were not a people, but n ow you are the people of God; had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained it (1 Pet 2:10). Once you were alienated from the life of God, but now have been reconciled to Him through Jesus Christ (Eph 4:18; Col 1:21). You once were among the worst of sinners, but now you have been "washed, sanctified, and justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor 6:11). God. Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined into your heart, to give you "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus" (2 Cor 4:4-6). God has given "everlasting consolation and good hope through grace" (2 Thess 2:16), His own Holy Spirit (1 Thess 4:8), and "all things pertaining to life and godliness" (2 Pet 1:3). He has even given you "the spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Tim 1:7). The Lord has given you "access with confidence" to the "throne of all grace" (Eph 3:12; Heb 4:16). O, what a wonderful position you occupy in the Beloved. There you have been "made accepted" (Eph 1:6), and God "will not impute sin" to you (Rom 4:6-8). What reason do you have to quit, leave the faith, and refuse to go on to perfection (Heb 6:1)? Why should you fail to be victorious when you can continue to believe Jesus is the Son of God (1 John 4:4-5)? Hold in there, child of God! "Yet a little while, and He that shall come will come" (Heb 10:37). Then the battle will be over! Then the enemy will be removed! They you will receive your reward! Until then, "Be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Forasmuch as you know, your labor is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Cor 15:58).

-- MONDAY: HE KNOWS THE SHEEP --