MONDAY October 30th
As I announced when preaching a week ago, I am going to spend eight devotions re-capping from Peter’s epistle. I have highlighted eight subjects, and each will begin with the letter ‘H’ along with a reference from the letter. There will be no audio version of the devotion for these two weeks.
For today
HEIRS
1 Peter 1:3-5
‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.’
The word heir is linked with being a beneficiary of something. Because of the grace of God that has been revealed through Christ at Calvary and given to all who believe, we have become beneficiaries of all that God has prepared for those who love him.
Another verse of Scripture says ‘But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.”’ (1 Corinthians 2:9)
It is a study in itself to consider the incredible future that God has already planned for each of us, we are going to inherit the Kingdom of God ‘Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ (Matthew 25:34) We will receive the crown of life, eternal life, (James 1:12).
All that God has prepared for us we will receive.
I have known a couple of occasions where I knew that someone had willed something to me, and yet I never received what had been willed. Not because the will had been changed, but for some reason the ones dealing with it failed to deliver, or someone decided to change it. Not so with God, whatever he intends for us to receive as heirs we will receive.
In Ephesians 3 we read ‘This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.’
In Galatians 3:29-4:7 ‘And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.’