THE REFUGE DEVOTIONAL

“Put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. ” Ephesians 4:24 NASBS Blessed Christian, rest in this, that God is sovereign, and that which He purposes He will always bring to pass. As it is written, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Remember, everyone who does evil, hates the light, but you have come near to the light. And the reason you have come to the light is that God chose to love you before the foundations of the world were ever laid. Though you were a child of wrath, fitted for destruction, when the fullness of the time came, the light of God’s living word pierced through the hardness of your heart. You see, The Holy One of Israel, Who never sleeps nor slumbers, knew you when your life demonstrated that you wanted no part of Him. But despite your wickedness, He drew you to Himself, and He showed you your sin. Then He turned the eyes of your heart to see His Only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, hanging onthe cursed cross. For the first time, you saw His weakened frame, His dismembered joints, the nails that were driven through His hands and feet, His swollen eyes, the torn flesh of His bruisedbody, and the blood that was your atoning sacrifice flowing out of Him. The word of God says, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

You see the most tragic death in the whole of humanity brought about your salvation. The word of God says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for ood to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” So let your heart be kindled with a flame of passion for Jesus that will never go out, for He did not spare His own Son for you, but delivered Him over to wicked men to die in your place. This, I say beloved, was the demonstration of His great love for you, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God.” Therefore, do all things without grumbling or disputing. Prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, a Child of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as a light in the world, holding fast the word of truth. Reader, strive in the narrow way of holiness and let not sin get a foothold in your life. Deny yourself and take up your cross daily, for whoever wishes to save his life for the sake of this world, will lose it, but whoever loses it for life for the sake of Christ, will save it. So, “Lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” May God lead you in the pathway of holiness.