This week's promise...

Thursday April 24

This week's promise: The gift of salvation

Formed and reformed

I was appointed in ages past, at the very first, before the earth began.
Proverbs 8:23 NLT

Lord my God, You have formed and reformed me.
St. Anselm

Sin and assurance

Our human pride often reverses the order of things. We think God came into our lives rather late. Our identity was firmly established, and then He invited Himself in, trying to woo us into a relationship with Him. We were in control of the heart that opened up to Him. Or so we thought.

In spite of our sense of independence, God has a prior claim on us. He created the world that became our necessary environment. He began the genetic process that eventually resulted in our birth. He even fashioned us in the womb (Jeremiah 1:5; Psalm 139:13). He is no late-coming Redeemer. He and His wisdom have been there all along.

This is extremely important to know when it seems as if your life is falling apart. It isn't. The life you have constructed may be falling apart, but the life God has fashioned is not. His wisdom has known all things before the foundations of the world— including you. If God has let you be undone, He has allowed it for a reason. He is bringing you to the end of your sinful self and to the beginning of life in His secure arms. God is bringing you home.

Do you realize how thoroughly rooted in eternity your life is? It was not an afterthought in the mind of a play-it-by-ear God. Did you think your sin was a surprise to Him? It wasn't. He has already made provision for it. Before the foundation of the world, He did at least two things: He brought forth His wisdom; and He thought of you (Ephesians 1:4). His wisdom and your existence went hand in hand. Does that boggle your mind? It should. Rest in the assurance of a forever-wise God.

Adapted from The One Year® Walk with God Devotional by Chris Tiegreen, Tyndale House Publishers (2004), entry for May 7. (THAT'S MY BIRTHDAY)

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House