DEVOTION
THE 1ST LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS
HOLY AND BLAMELESS
1 Thess 3:13
13 May he strengthen your hearts
so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father
when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
NIV
I must first come to the conclusion that at one time my heart was weak.
It is the Lord my God who makes my heart strong. He continually strengthens my
heart each day. Without his power, my heart would still be weak, but praise be
to my God that he has strengthened my heart, and the work that he started in me,
he will bring to completion. There is no work that I can do to strengthen my
heart, for it is God’s work and He does everything perfectly. If I were the one
responsible to strengthen my heart, I still could not make myself blameless and
holy in His presence. He is the only one who can make me blameless and holy in
his sight. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he makes it very clear that Christ
gave himself up to make the church, which is me and all other believers, holy.
He cleansed us all by the washing with water through the word, and to present
us to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any blemish, but
holy and blameless. In that same letter, Paul also says that God predetermined
that we would be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ because that is what
pleases Him. It also says that he chose to make us holy and blameless in Christ
before he even created the world. He could not be God if he did not know in
advance of creation all that would happen and that I would be born in the time
I was and that I would respond in the affirmative to His invitation and that
He would strengthen my heart and that He would make me holy and blameless in
his sight. Only the God of all creation could know and do everything that has
been done. All over gods are the invention of man, for their own reasons. There
is no other god who can make me holy and blameless. My God has done it, I am
already holy and blameless in his sight, for I am hidden in Christ and He has
already presented me in the presence of the Father. He watches over me, He
loves me more than I can even imagine. Yet, I am confident of the Love of God because
He sent his Son to be the ultimate sacrifice for sin. After Jesus died on the
cross, there was no more need for any sacrifice for sin. I have been forgiven,
I have been cleansed in the blood of Jesus.
I have been made holy by and in Christ. I have been declared blameless, innocent
before God, because of Jesus. This brings peace to my heart. I have no reason
to be anxious about anything for God is my strength, He is my fortress, and He
is my help in ever-present danger. Just as a small child is comforted in the
arms of its parent, I am comforted in the ever-present arms of Jesus. He has
made me holy and blameless.
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