Today’s Devotion
Topic: They Will Be My People!
Text: Zechariah 8: 2, 7b, 8, 12
2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “I am very jealous for Zion; I am burning with jealousy for her. 7… “I will save my people from the countries of the east and the west. 8 I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem; they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God. 12 “The seed will grow well, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its crops, and the heavens will drop their dew. I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of this people.” Amen
The Almighty God gives a prophecy through His servant Zechariah of how His heart burns with jealousy for us. He also tells of how He will save us from the countries of the east and west and MAKE US HIS PEOPLE, while He remains faithful and righteous to us as our God. Now, this sounds amazing, doesn’t it? But how was this All Righteous God going to make a people so vile and rebellious His Own?
The answer is very simple: by sending His only Son to reconcile us back to Himself through the shedding of blood and the forgiveness of sin. Apostle Peter explains it better when He says “… you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.( 1 Peter 1: 18- 19).
He (Jesus) was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for our sake (1 Peter 1: 20). “He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1: 11- 13).
So that the such as us who were lost in sin and misery, can become a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that we may declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God; once we had not received mercy, but now we have received mercy. (1 Peter 2: 9- 10).
It is at this point where we have fully become His own that God promises to bless not just the seed we sow, but everything else around to ensure that our harvest of righteousness does not fail. He promises to bless the plant we sow, the ground into which we sow and even the heavens that should rain over what we sow. He then affirms that “I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of this people” (Zech 8: 12).
Beloved, this is a holistic blessing for each one of us who will be found in Christ and known as His. What more can we ask for than to remain in Jesus, The True Vine (John 15: 5). Begin to pray now. Pray with the hymn “draw me nearer, blessed Lord”. Ask for grace to continue in Him as an heir; One to inherit every blessing that is in Christ to take. You will be as far from danger and lack, as from fear. Known by all for generations to come, as “God’s Own Special Person”; born into Christ to reign eternally with Him!
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