Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 98:1-3
Ps 98:1-3
1 Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. 2 The LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations. 3 He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Eph 3:2-6
2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
Peter speaks of how the prophets of old had longed to know the meaning of the things they were writing and speaking and yet even the angels did not know the plan of God. That plan was to use the nation of Israel to bring a Savior and a King to rule over his kingdom. While many read those prophecies and thought that God did not care about the other nations, it was his plan to bring all nations into one great kingdom. But this kingdom was not to be an earthly nation but rather the people of God from every nation around the world. So Paul tells us that as the people of God, we are spiritual Israel. We are his people and he is our God.
It is in Jesus Christ that we are all one people. It is in him (and in him alone) that we have all spiritual blessings. The greatest of these blessings is that our sins are forgiven and we are one with him and one with each other. Thus, those who are in Christ that live on the other side of the world are my brothers and my sisters as we serve the same Lord. While our lives are so different, we share the same goals in life. We each seek to be like our Lord and to share his gospel with those who do not know him, with our final goal being eternal life with God.
Lord God, I am so thankful that even before you created the earth you had a plan for my redemption. It grieves me that my sin made it necessary for you to give your Son as a sacrifice on my behalf. Help me keep this truth implanted in my mind at all times so I will seek to always do your will and not get caught up in the sin of this world. Give me wisdom to know how to share your gospel and fortitude to speak up when I need to do so. It is so hard to watch those I love as they suffer from physical sickness. Please be with them. I pray in the name of Jesus.
Robert
