Our Daily Bread Teens EditionSample

Read Romans 8:28–30

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Hyper-Seeing

Have you ever wondered how artists can turn a block of wood into a carving of an animal? Or a lump of stone into a person’s face? Artists have a word for this: “hyper-seeing”. When they look at a block of wood, rather than just seeing the block, they can see the image they want to create from it.

Hyper-seeing is also a good description of what our all-seeing God does. He sees all that we are—and more. He sees what we will be when He has finished His work in us, when we stand before Him at the end of our lives, blameless and without fault. The God who started this great work in us will keep going until He finishes it on the day Jesus Christ comes back (see Philippians 1:6). Bit by bit, He is chipping away at us each day to make us look even more like His Son.

God’s work in us can’t be stopped. Whether we’re enjoying life or feeling low, God is at work. Whether we’re looking forward to today or wishing it would pass quickly, God is going to use everything we go through to keep shaping us. —DR

No matter what we see in ourselves today, God can see how we’re going to look in heaven.

Thinking It Over

In what ways do you look more like Jesus today than you did last year? What is God “chipping away” in your life right now to make you more like Jesus?

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