Citizens & Saints - The Overflow DevoSample

YOU HAVE SEARCHED ME

God knew you before he made you. He knew what you would look like and what your personality would be like. He knew the number of days you would live and the number of breaths you would take throughout the course of your life. He also knew your thoughts. God knew that you would abandon his word and promises for the fleeting things of this world. He knew you would try to hide from him. He knew you would even go as far as to denounce his very existence.

He knew you would worship with your whole heart everything but him, still, he chose to create you. He gave you breath, a mind, the full spectrum of emotion, in spite of our impending sinful hearts. He could have observed the course of your future life on earth before he created you and said, “what’s the point?” But he didn’t. In fact, if he had none of us would even exist. As Romans 3:23 tells us, “all have fallen short of the glory of God.”

So why create us? Well, because he loved us. He knew that he didn’t need to force us into his family, but instead through Jesus he made a way, by lavishing upon us grace upon grace, enlightening the eyes of our hearts to see him as a loving and welcoming Father. It is not the wrath of God that brings us to repentance, for we know that Jesus graciously bore the wrath of God as penalty for our transgressions on the cross. Then what is it?

Well, it’s that God delights in us and through his kindness leads us to repentance. Today we get to walk in the knowledge that God knows us, loves us, sees the worst parts of us, and still wants us. Let the kindness of God the Father soften your heart to not only gentle correction but also his voice that longs to lead you in the way everlasting.