Identity in Christ - Loved and Accepted (Daily Devotional)

Greetings and thank you for joining us today. It's always our joy to be able to come to you and spend these few moments in God's word and pray together. This week, we have been reflecting on few scripture texts that remind us about our life in Christ and what God has done for us in Christ. In Ephesians chapter 1, verses 4 and 5, the apostle Paul writes, "Just as he chose us in Him, that is in Christ 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 to 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.’ Paul is continuing to talk to us here in verses 4, 5 and 6 about our life in Christ and I want to bring our attention to two aspects here. He tells us we've been chosen in Christ even before the foundation of the world and then he tells us here in verse 6 that God has adopted us into His family as He pleased and he tells us He has made us accepted in the beloved. So, here's something very important, God has made us accepted. So many of us, when we approach God, we actually have a deep sense or feeling of rejection. Now, we think, I'm not sure if God really loves me, I'm not sure if God's happy about me, I'm not sure if God's going to welcome me in His presence, I'm not being that great of a person or I'm not holy as the other person or as good as the other person etc. So, we actually approach God with a sense of rejection and it can often be seen in the way we pray. Oh God, we are so unworthy, we are so poor, so bad, so terrible and we make all these things in our prayers and it's just a sign that we are suffering from a deep sense of rejection when we approach God. But this scripture is telling us that God has made us accepted in Christ in the beloved. So, in Christ you are a person whom God says, I've accepted you and you are in the beloved which means you're now also one of the beloved. You're as loved by God as He loves His own son, Jesus and that's a deep thought that we are accepted and loved by the Father to the same degree and extent that He accepts and loves His son, Jesus Christ. So, from now on when you go to God, you and I are not going to God on the basis of our own merit but we are going to God on the basis of who we are in Christ, that we are accepted and we are loved by God to the same degree to the same extent that He has accepted and loves His own son, Jesus Christ. So, we approach God with that sense of acceptance and being loved by our heavenly Father. Would you do that, the next time you pray? The next time you go before God, go knowing that you're you are accepted and you are loved. Let's pray, Father, we thank you for who you've made us to be in Christ, that we are loved and we are accepted in the beloved, that we can come to you without any sense of shame, guilt, condemnation or rejection. We can come as children who are loved and accepted, welcomed by our Father, thank you, in Jesus' name, Amen.
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Daily devotions to strengthen your faith each day. Daily Devotional for Spirit filled living. Each daily devotion is about five minutes in duration. These daily devotionals are centered around a weekly theme. So there are seven daily devotions that focus on the theme and bring you insight, understanding and revelation from the Bible. Each week's theme is listed as a series. So you can listen to the current week's devotions or go to any previous theme/series that speaks to your present need (https://apcwo.org/resources/daily-devotions ). Also available free sermons (https://apcwo.org/sermons), and free Christian books (https://apcwo.org/books) to nourish and strengthen your faith.