Daily Devotional

God the Father’s ultimate goal for us is that we should be “to the praise and glory of His grace.”  Our lives have been designed by God to bring Him glory.  We are to be the recipients of His grace.  We are not deserving of the favor, but through the Father’s eternal plan, He has blessed us spiritually beyond anything we can imagine or think.

God has “freely bestowed” His blessing on our lives.  The phrase “freely bestowed” actually means to be highly favored.  It is a word that derives from the word “grace.”  This verb form is used only one other time in the New Testament and that was when the angel came to Mary to announce that she would give birth to the Messiah.  (Luke 1:28)  Mary was chosen out of all the women of Israel for this privilege.  It was the highest honor that could be given to any woman in Israel.  In the same way, we as the sons and daughters of God are “highly favored” by the Father.  We are given spiritual blessings that have been given to no other group of believers in all history.  What Christ has provided for us is superior to what the Old Testament believers ever spiritually possessed or experienced.  We have the very life of God living in us and we will someday rule and reign with the Lord.  We are truly a very special people to God and have rights and privileges that are unparalleled in God’s redemptive plan.

We are heirs and possessors of all of this because we are in the “Beloved One.”  The term “Beloved” literally means the One He loves.  It stresses the manifestation of God’s love to His Son.  Since we are in His Son, the Father has the same love for us.  All of this is possible because Jesus Christ is the Redeemer who paid the ransom for our transgressions and sin.  Through placing our faith in Christ as our Savior, we receive every spiritual blessing.

What does this mean to us today?

• Our value and worth comes as a result of who we are in Christ.

If we are not seeing ourselves as “highly favored” by God, it is time for us to change the way we think.  We need to allow these truths from God’s Word to change our very lives.

• Our life is to be lived in hope, recognizing there is coming a day when we will be taken into the presence of the Lord as an heir of all that God possesses. 

Let us live as an heir today, as one who is truly free from the bondage of sin.

• Our life should be lived as an expression back to God of our praise and worship of Him for all that He has done for us.

New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation