..............................................................................................................................................................
Rick Renner
“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved….” — Colossians 3:12
If you know Jesus Christ today, it is
no accident. God personally summoned you to
know Him.
The fact is, God
looked out into eternity and saw you — and He
said, “I want you. I’m calling you out of this lost world to belong to Me!”
God literally chose you for Himself, which ought to be one of
the truths you speak to yourself every day!
How can we know that
to be true? God gives us that assurance in Colossians 3:12, where it says, “Put
on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved….”
This verse is very important for us to
understand because it tells you and me what God thinks of us.
This is vital for us to get into our hearts, because we need to know what God
thinks of those whom He has redeemed.
Pay close attention as we dig into this
verse. Let these truths sink deep into your heart — because they have the power
to transform the way you think about yourself!
This word “elect” is the first
word that reveals what God thinks of us.
It is the Greek word eklektos, which is a compound of the words ek and lego.
The word ek means out, and lego means I say. When they are compounded, the new word literally
means, “Out, I say!”
In other words, God loved us so much
that He called us out from a lost eternity and began the
process of making sure we came to Christ.
For that reason, the word eklektos can be
translated elected or selected, carrying the idea that we are
personally chosen by God.
The verse continues,
“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy….”
This word “holy” is the Greek
word hagios, which in ancient times described awe, respect, and reverence for a holy place or a holy shrine — a
place separated and set apart from other places.
Consequently, the word eventually came
to refer to something that was separated from the rest of the
world and was thereby sanctified, consecrated, or holy.
The use of this word in the New
Testament tells us that once we came to Christ, the blood of Jesus separated us, consecrated us,
and made us holy.
He removed our past sins and threw them
into the sea of forgetfulness, separating our sin from us as far as the east is
from the west (see Psalm
103:12).
God sees you as consecrated and sanctified, different from others, so special that you are in a totally separate category from the rest of the world.
So the next time the devil tries to
tell you that you’re too fat, too skinny, too homely, not spiritual enough,
undeserving, or inferior in any way, read the preceding paragraphs to him as a
rebuke!
Then the first thing
every morning, look in the mirror and declare: “I am
holy! Jesus’ blood separated me from my past! He wiped it out and cleared the
slate! He threw my sin into the sea of forgetfulness and separated it from me
forever. Now I am clean, set apart, and consecrated — and God Himself respects
me as the temple of His Spirit!”
All these things are absolutely true
about you. That’s why you must do your best to live in obedience to God’s Word
and to avoid grieving the Holy Spirit who resides within you (see Ephesians 4:30).
Whenever you do anything out of order
or anything that would bring grief to the Holy Spirit living within you, just
confess your sin to the Father, and you will be immediately and completely
cleansed by the blood of Jesus (see 1 John 1:9).
Next, Colossians 3:12
goes on to say, “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved.…”
This word “beloved” is the Greek
word agapao, which comes from the word agape, the Greek word for love.
The tense used in this verse is very
significant, because it means God has loved us in
the past; He still loves us in the present;
and He will continue to love us in the future.
Do you remember moments in your past
when you were so very aware that God loved you?
Were there moments when you felt
overwhelmed by God’s forgiveness, acceptance, and tender care for you, even at
times when you knew that you had done something wrong and didn’t deserve His
love?
The psalmist David wrote that God’s
love is unfailing.
In Psalm 36:7 (NIV), David said, “How priceless is your unfailing love….”
In fact, David and the other psalmists
were so aware of God’s “unfailing love” to sustain them that they wrote
about it 70 times in the book of Psalms.
Are you still aware today that God
loves you with an everlasting, unfailing love?
God’s love for you has never changed.
He loves you today as intensely as He loved
you yesterday!
You may have done things that were not
appropriate for a child of God to do. But nonetheless, you are His child, and
He loves you with an everlasting love.
Even if you’ve largely ignored God and
you need to ask His forgiveness, He never forgets that the Holy Spirit lives in
you, and He respects you as a dwelling
place of His Spirit.
And the really great
news is this: God’s love for you tomorrow will
also be unfailing. It will never change.
Even if you fail,
God’s love for you will not fail. His
love is steadfast and unchanging toward His sons and daughters.
Before I finish this point about you
being the “beloved” of God, I want to take some time to explain further
what the word agape really means, since
it is one of the Greek words Paul used in Colossians 3:12 to reveal what God
thinks of you.
This word agape refers to what
I call high-level love, for there is no higher, finer, or more
excellent love than agape love.
In fact, the word agape is filled with
so much deep emotion and meaning that it is one of the most difficult words to
translate in the New Testament.
Trying to explain this word has baffled
translators for centuries; nevertheless, I’m going to try to clarify the
meaning of this powerful word.
Agape occurs when an
individual sees, recognizes, understands, or appreciates the value of an object
or a person, causing the viewer to behold this object or person in great
esteem, awe, admiration, wonder, and sincere appreciation.
Such great respect is awakened in the
heart of the observer for the person or object he is beholding that he is compelled
to love it. In fact, his love for that person or object is so strong that it is
irresistible.
In the New Testament,
perhaps the best example of agape is found in John 3:16: “For God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
In the phrase, “For
God so loved the world,” the word “love” is the word agape.
This means that when God looked upon
the human race, He stood in awe of mankind, even though man was lost in sin.
God admired man; He wondered at man; He
held mankind in the highest appreciation.
Even though Satan held mankind captive
at that moment, God looked upon the world and saw His own image in man.
The human race was so precious to God
and He loved man so deeply that His heart was stirred to reach out and do
something to save him. In other words, God’s love drove Him to action.
You see, agape is a love that
loves so profoundly that it knows no limits or boundaries in how far, wide,
high, and deep it will go to show that love to its recipient.
If necessary, agape love will even sacrifice itself for the sake
of that object or person it so deeply cherishes.
Thus, agape is the
highest form of love — a self-sacrificial type of love that moves the lover to
action for the sake of the beloved.
He has personally chosen you; He has
separated you from your sin; He respects you as the dwelling place of His
Spirit; and He loves you so much that His thoughts are continually turned
toward you, causing awe, admiration, and wonder to be drawn from His
heart.
That is what God thinks about you!
MY PRAYER FOR TODAY
Heavenly Father, I am in awe of
Your great love toward me. Thank You that even before the foundations of the
world, You looked into eternity and saw me personally.
When You fastened Your gaze
upon me, Your heart of love opened toward me and You deliberately chose me that
I might know You.
Holy Spirit, You are the
treasure within my earthen vessel. Help me see myself as the Father sees me.
Then empowered by the confidence of His love
and favor, strengthen and guide me to walk as a continual demonstration of that
love to others for the glory of Your name!
I pray this in Jesus’ name!
MY CONFESSION FOR TODAY
I confess that I am personally summoned by God to know Him
intimately. When God sees me, His great “agape love” for me compels Him
to behold me with an admiring gaze as when one beholds a treasure with awe and
wonder.
I am the chosen dwelling place of God’s own Spirit. Therefore, I
am valued greatly and esteemed highly by Him.
I believe and receive God’s great love for me, and today I walk in
the reality of its irresistible strength and power.
I am continually aware of His love for me, and for that reason, I
remain secure and my faith in Him never fails!
I declare this by faith in Jesus’ name!
QUESTIONS FOR YOU TO CONSIDER
1.
Describe a moment
when God’s unfailing love for you left you feeling overwhelmed and
speechless. How did that moment and expression of God’s love for you
change your walk with God and your relationship with others?
2.
As you meditate on
how God thinks about you, how does that change the way you think about
yourself?
3.
Did you realize you
were the special dwelling place of God and that God respects you as a
consecrated dwelling place? If you really embrace that truth, how will that
help to shape your self-image?
OUR VISION… Is to take
the Gospel both to our nearby world and to the ends of the earth, proclaiming
Christ, and warning and teaching every man with all wisdom, in order that we
may present every person fully mature in Christ Jesus. –
Colossians 1:28
Rick and Denise Renner
Rick and Denise met while they were each
on an individual quest to wholeheartedly follow God’s plan for their lives.
Rick was a college student, growing in his teaching ministry. Denise was a
talented vocalist. She chose not to pursue a course that held the prospect of
performing with the Metropolitan Opera so that she could instead pursue a
relationship with Rick and fulfill her heart’s desire to enter full-time
ministry.
Rick and Denise’s friendship has led to a
lifelong love and a powerful partnership in building the Kingdom of God. After
a decade of ministry, first as pastors and then as itinerant ministers, Rick
and Denise Renner embarked on an adventure of a lifetime. In January 1991, the
Renners and their sons — Paul (then 8), Philip (then 6), and Joel (then 2) —
left behind all they knew to relocate their family to serve the region that
only weeks earlier had become the former Soviet Union.
Rick and Denise remember kneeling
together as a family and kissing the ground when they arrived at the airport in
Latvia on that cold January day. In that moment, they all committed their lives
to the will of God and to the people of their new homeland. The following year,
Rick moved forward to launch and establish the first of its kind — and
eventually the largest — Christian television network in that region of the
world.
Over the years, Rick and Denise pioneered
three churches, a Bible school, and a ministerial association that serves
thousands of Russian-speaking pastors throughout the former USSR as well as
parts of the Middle East. As Rick began training and mentoring leaders in the
early days, Denise also developed a women’s ministry that is actively involved
in changing the lives of women and their families today. Specifically, they
minister to the needs of orphans, women prisoners, the homeless, and
drug-and-alcohol addicts.
https://renner.org/devotionals/what-god-thinks-about-you/
You might also like:
Unfailing Love
CLICK HERE . . . to view complete playlist . .
.
No comments:
Post a Comment