Our Daily Bread: Unshakable预览

A Beautiful Vase

Since you are his child, God has made you his heir. -Galatians 4:7

After a failed relationship in my twenties, I felt needy and adrift, yearning to know who I was.

One day as I poured out my feelings to God, an image flashed into my mind of a crystal vase. It was beautiful but filled with mucky, dirty water. I sensed that the vase symbolized me and that I should ask God to cleanse me from my wrongdoing and release me from my feelings of unease.

I then saw, in my mind’s eye, the gunky water being replaced with His living water. The vase could now sparkle in the sunlight.

That time of prayer deepened my understanding of my identity in Jesus: that God created me in His image and adopted me as His child.

Sin dirties us, but God “sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts” (Galatians 4:6), which restores our original sparkle, the beauty He intended for us. In this, we’re “his child . . . his heir” (v. 7).

That prayer became a turning point as I rejected the lie that I wasn’t good enough to be God’s child. When I would sink into unhelpful self-talk, I’d remind myself that God made me and made it possible for me to live in the freedom of His Spirit. With His help, I could look outside of myself as I asked Him to use me for His honor.

Know that if you’ve received God’s loving invitation to believe in and follow Jesus, He welcomes you as His child and heir.

Amy Boucher Pye

How does being God’s child affect the way you live your daily life? How can you live more out of this, your primary identity?

Jesus, You came to redeem me so that I might be adopted by God. Thank You for this marvelous gift.