Past Tense
Looking back to learn from our past can be a good thing, if we don’t stay there. There are things in my past I could wish undone either because of the embarrassment that went with them or the damage I did to the relationships involved. But there is one thing in the past that I was reminded of in my morning reading today that really fired my jets.
In the first two chapters of Ephesians,
Paul’s pen takes us on a journey to the past for each of us who are already in the family of God through our faith in Christ. Picture yourself as the recipient of all these things…already. Notice the highlighted words are all in the past tense:
He chose us; He predestined us; He freely bestowed grace on us; He lavished forgiveness on us; we have obtained an inheritance; we were sealed in Him by the Holy Spirit who was given as a pledge of our inheritance; we were formerly dead but now have been made alive; formerly excluded and far off with no hope and without God in the world, but now have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
I liken all this to a big box under the Christmas tree
with my name on it, but it’s only December 14th. All these things above describe us positionally, and in God’s mind they’ve already happened. But we only glimpse them now“…in a mirror dimly” (1 Cor. 13:12).
If you don’t have a big box under the tree
and would like to know that God is waiting to put one there for you, click here Steps To Salvation to understand how you can become part of the family. If your box is already there, use this reminder of what has already been done for you and in your quiet time, see if there’s not something more you can be doing to “deliver some boxes” to your friends who don’t Jesus yet. Thanks for reading.