TRUTH: what the world needs - Week 6 (Monday Morning Devotions)
Lent starts next week.
If you haven’t received the Lent Devotion Book in the mail, and you would like a copy,
please confirm your address and we’ll get it in the mail!
As we welcome in a new year, let us focus on God’s Word and HIS TRUTH, dedicating this year to the Lord.
What the world needs now - is not love, in my humble opinion, but Truth. Truth with a capital 'T'. Yes, what the world needs now is Truth.
Need to start at week 1? Find it here.
It is one thing to know what is true, it is quite another to actually trust in what is true!
Throughout this study, we have been reflecting on what is true. Based on the Sacred Word of God various truths have been revealed. Some are self-evident and others are suppressed, denied, and ridiculed, such as: Creator God speaking into existence all of creation, the virgin birth of the Son of God - Jesus, countless miracles, and the list goes on.
For those of us who take God at his Word, we must humbly admit that this is the blessed work of Holy Spirit! To God be all glory and praise. You see, we did not choose God, we do not play a role in our being redeemed from our sin and rebellious ways. It is solely by the will and the grace and the work of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Creator God reveals His transcendent truth as His Spirit inspired Paul to write these words to the saints, the believers in the Word of Truth, at Ephesus. Paul writes in the opening verses:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every blessing of the Spirit in the heavenly places in Christ, inasmuch as it was in him that he chose us for himself before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blemish before him, since in love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will. (Ephesians 1: 3-5)
Did you catch this Word of Truth? Believers in Jesus were chosen by God prior to the foundation of the world. Paul continues a few short verses later:
In whom also you, having heard the Word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the deposit of our inheritance, for the redemption of [his] special possession, to the praise of his glory. [Ephesians 1:13-14 (ESV)]
Jesus prayed for us - his followers - with these words to His heavenly Father:
"I am coming to you now . . . I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world." In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.