ICS Daily Devotions
We Belong To His Kingdom
The Word teaches us about our identity in Christ. There are people in the world who have their identity based on how they look, their dressing, the university that they graduated from, their calling card, the company that they work for and the list goes on. Many people are very bothered by how others think and what they say about them. It is a miserable life! We might feel insecure when all these things are taken away from us or someone else is better than us! This insecurity can break up relationship and families.
Many people whohave lost their jobs have missed many job opportunities or provisions that comefrom the Lord. They feel that it is embarrassing to take a job or company thatis less known or prestigious than the previous company. Yet, they didn’t knowthat the job might just be God’s answered prayer! When we refuse to humble ourselves,we will pay for the consequences of it.
When a person is insecure, he or she will use what is external to portray his or her importance.The root of insecurity is the fear of being rejected. The person will use material goods, job status and educational background to shield the personality for being rejected. Since this insecurity is deeply rooted in the heart, therefore, he or she will react and seek attention at home, work place and even in the social circle. If this insecurity is not sorted out, it will manifest among husband and wife seeking after the attention of their children to give them love, attention and security. The person might even be manipulative in its ways. This will create friction between in-laws and children.
We have a new identity when we enter into the Kingdom of God. Once we are very clear with this identity, we will feel very settled, satisfied, and secure. Thereafter, there is absolutely nothing we would not be able to do even if we leave our city.
Without this identity in Christ, we will feel very insecure about God’s love for us because we will be concerned about what He thinks of us. We will also be concerned about what others think of us in the world. On the other hand, the biblical truth about our identity creates a rock-solid foundation for us which helps us to be a very secured and confident person.
Ephesians 1:3-8 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
These Scriptures reveal to us who we are in Christ. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing.We are to accept that He has chosen us. He sees us as righteous, blameless and holy in Christ. We are adopted as sons and given the right to be His children. He has accepted us, therefore there is no need to strive to be accepted by God because He already accepted us in Christ. The riches of God’s grace that is abundantly showered upon us have forgiven all our sins because He has redeemed us with His blood! We belong to His Kingdom, the Kingdom of God now!
Sermon series: There is power in the seed
