Key Verse: Galatians 4:6
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
What a great change! We were enemies of God, but have become His friends…and more than friends, we have become children of God. As His enemies, we deserved His wrath. Instead, He has shown us His infinite love. We deserved to be punished, separated from Him forever. Because of His initiative, the opposite has happened. We are welcomed into His Kingdom as members of His family.
In these chapters, Paul explains an astounding change. The Galatian believers have come from being slaves — slaves to sin and from trying to obey God out of a sense of duty — to being heirs of God. In reality, they have the rights, privileges and freedoms of sons and daughters of the King. We have these same rights. Therefore, we can call God “ABBA, DADDY!” If we struggle with this, consider praying the prayer written in our Prayer for Today…
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Father God, I pray for the Spirit of Your Son to fill me now. I pray in faith believing that You are now keeping Your promise to me. The promise of the Spirit was given to me by Jesus, Himself, when He said, “How much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11:11-13). I’m asking, Abba Father, and You are more willing to give of Your Spirit than I am to receive. Therefore, I am receiving the Holy Spirit at this very moment. I praise You! I thank You! I worship You! Hallelujah! Glory to Your Holy Name! Amen!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
As a child and in my early teens, I would go forward to the altar at church from time to time, asking Jesus to come into my heart and to write my name down in His “Book of Life.” I was confident that He did this at the time. However, when I did something that I knew was wrong, that confidence was gone, and I would give up until the next time I came forward to kneel at the front. We called the bench in front of the pulpit “the penitent form.” Sometimes it was called “the mourners’ bench.” Of course, I knew I was to be “penitent” and I was to “mourn” over my sins. It was not until I was 16 that I realized that I truly am a child of God by faith and faith alone. I believed that even as my human father would not ever cease to be my father, even so God, my Father, my Abba, would not ever take an eraser and rub my name out of His Book. The day after I fully believed that, I went down to the creek behind my sister’s house at Shady Nook, just outside of Pembroke, Ontario, and quoted over and over John 6:37. Jesus said, “The one who comes to Me, I will by no means cast out.” I came to Him! He does not lie! Therefore, He does not cast me out. He receives me! What freedom and confidence that fact has given me right up to this day, over 64 years later.
Yours for believing Ephesians 2:8-9 (our next New Testament book after we read 1 & 2 Kings): “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast,”
David
Up Next in Year 1 | April
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100 Words - YR1 April 24 - LIBERTY! F...
Key Verse: Galatians 5:6
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision or uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.The word “circumcision” is used in one form or another 10 times in today’s reading. I think Paul wants us to pay attention! The practice of circumcision was the...
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100 Words - YR1 April 25 - THE NEW KING
Key Verse: 1 Kings 1:48
Also the king said thus, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who has given one to sit on my throne this day, while my eyes see it!”Thank God for a peaceful transition from King David’s rule to that of Solomon. No precedent had been established in Israel to determine succ...
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100 Words - YR1 April 26 - SUCCESSOR
Key Verse: 1 Kings 2:3
And keep the charge of the Lord your God: to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn.King David’s final words to his s...