Forever Bound to Him

Philippians 1:1
Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons:

Paul and Timothy understood and taught that through the crucifixion of Jesus, because of what He did on our account, we are all bound to Him through His death, His burial and His resurrection. Through the fullness of His love and eternal provision, we are forever bound to Him.

In the days of slavery, the slaves were keenly aware of who their slave owner was and what their slave owner expected of them. When the slaves had a good master, they understood the value of the provisions that they were given. They would delight in pleasing their good master because their good master fulfilled their every need. They would serve their master faithfully each day because they had faith in the continuing provision of the one to whom they were bound.

As Christians, we not only have a good master, we have a good and perfect master. We have Our Lord, Jesus, as our Master. We should be in constant praise and worship for the provisions that we have received, the provisions that we will receive and the eternal provisions that have been set aside for us. We should delight in meeting every calling that Our Master places on our lives. We should purposefully sign away our own rights in order to be bond-slaves of Jesus Christ.

Let us surrender all that we are, all that we will ever be, all that we have and all that we will ever have to Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let us rejoice in knowing that we will be His bond servants day after day without end.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for legally binding us to Your service for all eternity. We rejoice in knowing that we will praise and worship You forever as our needs are met and satisfied beyond our imaginations. We pray, Lord, for the wisdom and the strength to renounce any ownership that we seek to claim from this earth. May we live in the comfort and triumph of Your grace. May we live every day in surrender to Your Son. We ask all these things in the name of the Word, who became flesh and dwelt among us, Jesus Christ.

Delivered From Darkness

Colossians 1:13
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

Sin is our nature. It never leaves our flesh. It keeps us in darkness from which there is no escape. Without Jesus Christ in our lives, we are easy prey for Satan who stands ready to exploit the power of sin in our lives at a moment’s notice.

But our merciful Heavenly Father made it part of His plan to give us the light and the power that we need to escape the darkness. He provided a way for us to be bond servants to His Son and not to be slaves to Satan. Through our relationship with His Crucified Son, we are rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of God. We receive true spiritual light as Christ is revealed to us, causing the prince of darkness to flee from us and the scales of darkness and blindness to fall from our eyes.

Our only refuge from sin is Jesus Christ. By faith in Our Savior we are redeemed at the expense of His shed blood. We are forgiven of our sins so that we may become objects of the Father’s love and delight, just as His Son is.

Let us rejoice in knowing that we have been transferred into the kingdom of the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. Let us seek to become beacons of His light for the world around us. Let us humbly accept our roles as vessels of His light so that He may draw others from the darkness into His eternal light.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing a way for us to be freed from our sinful natures. We thank You, Jesus, for giving us victory over sin through Your shed blood and death on the Cross. We thank You, Holy Spirit, for standing with us and strengthening us to overcome the sin in our lives. We pray that we will come to the humble place where we recognize that we are incapable of victory over sin without the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives. We rejoice in knowing that one day we will stand in the light for all eternity and darkness will never again touch us. We pray that we may become beacons of light for the world around us. We ask all these things in the name of the Great Light, Jesus Christ.