“Your hands made me and
formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands.” – Psalm 119:73
God created each and every one of us with a purpose in mind. He wants to bless us and shower us with His love as we perform His will for our life. Jeremiah gives us a great picture of this truth. Before God formed him in his mother’s womb, God set him apart and appointed him as His prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5).
Paul
made this same statement. He realized that God set him apart from birth and
called him by His grace. God was pleased to reveal Jesus to Paul, so that Paul
would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles. No human being
revealed this to Paul. God called Paul Himself (Galatians 1:15-16). God is not hindered by
time, because He lives in eternity. He created life and He sees the past,
present and future all at once without the restrictions of time. God knows the end from the
beginning (Isaiah 46:10).
Jesus
existed before anything was created. He actually created everything – the
visible and invisible things, as well as all the dominions and rulers and
authorities. They were created through Him and for Him, and He holds everything
together (Colossians 1:16-17). God chose us in Christ according to His foreknowledge,
saved us by the blood of Jesus and sanctified us through the work of the Holy
Spirit in our lives (1
Peter 1:2, 20; Ephesians 1:4).
God knew before the foundation of the world who would
believe in Him. Therefore, He predestined all Believers to become conformed
to Christ’s image (Romans 8:29). Jesus was the firstborn, and we are co-heirs with Him and
adopted into God’s family (John 3:16; Romans 8:17).
Those
whom God predestined because of His foreknowledge, He also saved; and those He
saved, He also sanctifies them throughout their lifetime; and those He
sanctified, He will also glorify their body when they joined Him in heaven (Romans
8:30, Romans 11:2). By God’s set purpose and foreknowledge, He handed Jesus over to wicked
men, who put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross (Acts
2:23). This was
part of God’s plan before He even created the universe; because He knew mankind
would need a Savior (Revelation 13:8; Acts 2:3).
Jesus also had foreknowledge
of His death. He knew from the beginning of time and creation which of His
apostles would believe in Him for salvation and who would betray him (John
6:64; 13:11).
When Judas led the soldiers into the garden, Jesus willingly gave Himself over
to them (John 18:4). He readily gave up His
life, because Jesus came to seek the lost, to pay our sin debt and to save us
for eternity (Luke 19:10).
The
Lord keeps His promises to us. He is patient with us, calling us over and over
again, because He does not want anyone to perish in eternal damnation, but for
everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). God also came to give us abundant life on this earth, as well as in the next
life with Him (John 10:10).
Prayer:
Father God, You are like the wind. We cannot see the wind. It blows wherever it
pleases. We hear its sound, but we cannot see where it comes from or where it
is going; just its affects as it passes by (John 3:8). We
are amazed at how You formed us in our mother’s womb. Your ways are far above
our understanding. You are the Maker of all things (Ecclesiastes
11:5). We find comfort in Your
foreknowledge and we thank You for including us in Christ’s Body
Thought for the Day:
God did not design mankind with a predisposition
for belief or unbelief, but He had a foreknowledge of our choices (1 Peter 1:2; Acts 2:23; Romans 8:29).
