A Gift from God

A Gift from God

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.

Ephesians 2:8, NKJV.

TODAY’S WORD

We serve such a loving, gracious and generous God. He loves you so much that there isn’t anything He wouldn’t do in order to have a relationship with you. The Bible tells us that sin separates man from God. But God doesn’t want to be separated from us. That’s why He sent His Son into the world—to pay the penalty for sin so that you and I could live in eternity with Him.

So many people today think they have to earn their way to heaven. They think they have to be “good enough” or “do the right thing” in order to be accepted by God. They want to “clean up” before they come to Him. But notice what today’s verse says—salvation is a gift from God. You can’t earn a gift. You don’t pay for it. You can only receive it by faith. If you’ve never made Jesus the Lord of your life, I encourage you to receive this free gift. Let Him fill you with His eternal peace and joy so that you can live the abundant life He has for you.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Father in heaven, I come to You today giving You all that I am. Thank You for the gift of salvation through Your Son, Jesus. I believe He died and rose for me, and I invite You to be the Lord of every area of my life in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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Children Need to Know God Loves Them

by Rick Warren

 “You (God) created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created.” Revelation 4:11b (NLT)

Out of all the conversations parents need to have with their children, one of the first and most important is telling children that God created them and loves them.

Until our children understand that they were made by God and for his pleasure, life will not make sense. Isaiah 44 tells us, “I (God) am your creator.

You were in my care even before you were born” (Isaiah 44:2 CEV). Children need to know that God thought them up. They were not an accident. They may not have been planned, but they were not an accident because God knew them and loved them from conception.

Now, no parent is perfect. They can have their good days and bad days. But God does not. His love is not based on his mood. He doesn’t love us one day and dislike us the next because his love is unchanging – that’s his character. It has nothing to do with who we are or what we do. We can’t make God stop loving us. He created us and made us to love us.

Our children need to understand this. And then we need to talk to them about how we respond to this love because God also gave us the capacity to love him back. It is called worship. So we need to talk to our children about this key issue – what will be the center of my life?

Whatever is at the center of your life is what you worship. As children grow up, they can center their life on what other people think (peer pressure), sports, school, family, career, having fun, money, or collecting things. And there’s nothing wrong with any of those things. God created all of them for our enjoyment. They just don’t belong at the center of your life because they don’t last.

If you center your life on your career, it can go away. If you center your life on money, you can lose it. If you center your life on your appearance or health, they can fail. All of these things can disappear and you’re left growing up with insecurity. But a life centered on God is solid because God cannot be taken away from you.

So a parent’s primary responsibility is to teach their children to love God. It is the first critical choice a child has to learn because it is a choice they will be faced with over and over at every stage in their life. Will they choose to live a self-centered life or a God-centered life?

When our children understand that they were created by God to be loved by him, and they choose to put God at the center of their lives, they will be able to stand strong against any challenge that comes their way.