Member, First Baptist Church, Gantt
How is your 2016 going so far? I only make one resolution every year and I am so proud of myself. I have kept it every year for the last three years. What is the resolution you may ask? Well I will tell you: I resolve not to make any other resolution. It’s worked out well for me (you are supposed to grin here).
There is a solid reason behind this decision; I am a planner. I make lists, appointments and have meetings. I have made the resolution in the past to lose weight, but I can’t plan every aspect of it. I have made the resolution to complete that 365-day devotional only to end up reading it all in December before the end of the year. You get the idea.
Do you want to know the really incredible thing about God? He has planned out our whole lives and He did it before He created us. Sure we have free will and will make bad decisions, and He knows that too. He planned out what spiritual gifts we would have, what parents we would have, what choices we would have to make, etc.
When we make the choice to follow Jesus and give our lives to Him, all of those bad decisions, all of those sins we have accumulated, everything that would hold us back from a loving relationship with Christ is washed away in believer’s baptism. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s masterpiece, He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”
If you believe for one second that God would ever give up on you or that He has forgotten you — forget it. Scripture is God’s letter to us, His Bible — B-asic I-nstructions B-efore L-eaving E-arth — is full of promises. In it He tells us: “God promises to seek the lost, bring back those who have been driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick” (Ezek. 34:16). He loves us and He wants us with Him for eternity. He will never leave us. That’s His promise.
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