PRAYER PRACTICE
SPOKEN PRAYER: Out loud, pray for God to speak to you through your reading. Praise God for giving us His word. Ask the Spirit to help you read with faith, and to live out what you hear from God through the passage.
DAILY READING
REFLECTION
My Future Transformed
by Dave Mann
It is easy for me to forget that prior to the coming of Christ, I (and most believers that I know) would have been excluded from the community of faith. At one point in time, I, who was born a Gentile, was left outside of the temple worship. I would have been deprived of the blessings of the covenant of God with his people. But then, the work of Jesus through the cross and the empty tomb opened the way for you and me to be saved.
I recommend that you take some time to read through this passage several times to make three lists of descriptor phrases for three categories. Do this without looking at my list below.
1. What we were formerly without Christ
2. What we are now in Christ
3. The means by which God changed this for us.
Formerly:
Separate from Christ
Excluded
Foreigners
Without hope
Without God
Far away
But now:
Brought near
Made the two groups one
Destroyed the barrier
One new humanity
Thus making peace
To reconcile both
By what means was this accomplished?
In Christ Jesus
By the blood of Christ
He himself is our peace
In his flesh
To create in himself
He came and preached peace
Through him, we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
It is only because of Christ that my future has been changed. I am no longer in the category of “Formerly,” but rather I am in the category of “But Now.” My future is transformed! All of this is thanks to Jesus and his completed work. I am eternally grateful. 😊
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