DEVOTIONAL

THE REFUGE

Beloved, those of us who have been chosen of God, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit, and adopted into His eternal family; may our hearts be overjoyed for all time and evermore. As we enter into the season of thanksgiving, my heart is directed toward the cross where our Lord was crucified for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and where the chastening of our well-being was laid upon Him. It is sad to say that many of us have become so desensitized to the Gospel. We have heard the Gospel so many times that our hearts aren’t even moved with compassion toward the mercy that God bestowed upon us in His Beloved. Let us take a brief moment of our time and allow the Holy Spirit to soften our hearts, to recondition our minds so that we may meditate upon the depth of these words written by the Apostle Paul while under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” To understand the depth of God’s grace is an undertaking that mere finite man is incapable of doing, but by the Holy Spirit may we dare to tread these hallowed grounds.

The Scriptures tell us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins, seeking to indulge the desires of the flesh and mind, and we are by nature children of wrath. This word, “dead” rendered to us in the Greek language carries the understanding of being a corpse, one who is incapable of coming to God without divine help. It wasn’t that we didn’t acknowledge God, or that we didn’t have His laws written upon our heart, but that we were incapable of understanding the corruption of our nature handed down to us by Adam. Therefore we were bound in chains of darkness where sin ruled and reigned over our hearts, violating The One Who created us in His very image. Though The Lord made Himself known to all humanity through all that He had created, we suppressed this truth of natural revelation in our hearts and minds. We ignored His moral laws that were written upon our hearts, and we worshiped created things rather than the Creator Himself. Therefore, we didn’t acknowledge Him as God and continued to gratify the sensual pleasures that lurked within our very bones with little or no conviction at all.

So with reckless abandonment we were headed for hell; The judgment cloud of God’s wrath hovered over us and we didn’t even know it. While we were treading the waters of eternal damnation, enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season, the grace of God over took us through the work of His Son Jesus Christ, who is seated at the right hand of God. He drew us to Himself with sweet cords of love through the the work of The Holy Spirit. With effectual love from eternity past, by the will of God, through His grace, He removed the veil from our eyes so we could see the condition of our own hearts. Then through our brokenness, by His grace, He bent our will to freely receive His will, pointing us to the cross where we received Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, making atonement for our sins. Come now Christians, lift up your hands to heaven and give thanks to the infinite One whose love for you is unfathomable, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God.”

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8 NASBS