Colossians 1:13-14—”He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
All of us have gone through a journey to have a personal experience of Christ Jesus or prior to being in a personal relationship with Lord Jesus. Yes, we were in the world either through ignorance of the Word. Other possibilities could include issues of: age with peer influence, yearning for power, prestige, wealth and status, chasing careers, dreams and marriage. The list could go on with ‘reasons’ that kept us away from seeking God.
However, God always has us, whom He called to be separate from the world, in His mind. Even or especially when we were astray. Like the Shepherd that looked for the one sheep that went astray from a flock of hundred, God came looking for us and kept calling us back to Him in His own way. He never forced us in His way. But He sent His Son to bring us out of those powers of darkness into His Kingdom of love, through His redeeming love and grace that forgave all our sins. (Surely then we shall deem it a favor to be delivered from Satan’s kingdom and brought into that of Christ, knowing that all trials will soon end, and that every believer will be found among those who come out of great tribulation.)
Remember just as we got our faith in Jesus through God’s power of convicting our hearts, minds and souls, Satan tries to steal our faith through his wily schemes and lies. He wants us back in the world. John 10:10—(The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.)
Can we do anything to thank God for His redeeming love and grace? What can we give God as thanks? It is only our faith that keeps us bound to Jesus. Galatians 1:21-23—(And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, …)
Simply a life that obeys the Word; a life that shows God’s love, compassion and forgiveness to others, a life that submits to God’s ways and thus displays fruits of the Holy Spirit are the actions that pleases God. Can we try to do these actions from today to say ‘thanks’ to God for His redeeming love and grace?
