Called and Chosen - Understanding Your Identity and Destiny in ChristShembull

God our Father

Today let us reflect on the result of God being our Father. The result is we are co-heirs with Jesus. He is our elder brother while He is also our Lord and Savior. We also have access to family wealth—every spiritual blessing is ours.

What are spiritual blessings?

Our unrenewed minds tend to compartmentalize our lives. If we think that our physical needs do not come under the spiritual realm, we have a problem. We will never ask with boldness—not for ourselves and not for others.

Jesus came to redeem all our lives. A school of thought likes to separate body and spirit saying everything of the flesh is evil and sinful. This is not true.

Jesus came to bring abundant life and wholeness to our body, mind, and spirit. Every spiritual blessing includes our relationships, finances, our spiritual gifts, our jobs—in short, everything.

Our salvation story starts in Jesus.

Verse 4a - For He chose us

He chose us even before we were thought of by our parents. He decided when we would be born and the day we would become His. In His loving-kindness, He drew us to repentance (Rom 2:4).

Yes, we responded. We have a responsibility to respond to the call. Predestination is a huge topic. Many passages in scripture support this.

No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. (John 14:6)

You did not choose me, but I chose you. (John15:16)

Those whom he called, He justified, and so on. (Romans 8:30)

We do not understand it fully. However, rejoice in the truth that God chose YOU.

God chose us before we could do anything to impress Him. It is by grace that we have been saved- (Eph 2:9-10.) I can never earn it not will I ever deserve it.

Some of us Christians live like this: Thank you God for this gift. Now let me prove to you that I deserve it. You get saved by grace, and then you get into religious, graceless, faithless works trying to win God’s favor that you already have.

A true son does not work to win favor with his father; he works hard because he is loved, and his hard work is a response to love, not for love. Do you see the difference? Being co-heirs with Christ makes us royalty. Yet sometimes instead of living as princes or princesses, we live with a pauper mindset.

This grace gift is humbling. It makes me realize how grateful I need to be and makes me realize that my life is not my own.

REFLECT:

Can you name some of the spiritual blessings you have access to?

Have you ever caught yourself trying to earn God's favor or even trying to impress people by trying to be someone that is not you?

Rejoice in the truth that God is your Father.