ICS Daily Devotions
How God Sees Us Is What Matters
Ephesians 1:3-6 (NKJV) 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, 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, Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
We need to know that we have been endowed with all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. It gives us a new identity and as we live out of this identity, it gives us faith, confidence and a firm footing even when we are in the “cave of Adullam” experience in life.
Some common questions when we are going through the “cave of Adullam” include “What have I done wrong to deserve this?” and “Is God punishing me?”, because we feel rejected by men and by God when we are in the lowest points of our lives. Therefore, we need to have the correct image of how God sees us when we are alone in the “cave of Adullam” to help us walk out of it.
The root of rejection originates from the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were booted out after they sinned against God. Therefore, everyone wants to feel accepted from the time they are born to the day they die, which is why bonding with the new-born is so important because it helps to make them feel secure. However, people are searching for acceptance and significance in an imperfect and broken world, and the sad news is that the world will never give us the security nor the correct identity. The only strong foundation for security is our place in Jesus Christ, and what He thinks of us is what matters most in life.
Nothing is certain in the current environment. Therefore, we should build our identity on the Word and continue to remind each other through the Word how we should react during uncertain times like these. One of the greatest concerns of those who are going through the “cave of Adullam” experience is what people will think of them when they are struggling. However, we need to have a paradigm shift from caring about what men think of us to what God thinks of us! That will give us the greatest security that we will ever have in life irrespective of the circumstances. In fact, we will be the strongest person to face any form of adversity in life when we have our identity in Christ, and we need to build it into our children too.
Sermon Series: Handling Stress- The Cave of Adullam
