February 20, 2021 7:00 pm
In our moments of greatest failure, it can be easy to believe it’s too late for us, that we’ve lost our chance at a life of purpose and worth. That’s how Elias, a former inmate at a maximum-security prison in New York, described feeling as a prisoner. “I had broken . . . promises, the promise of my own future, the promise of what I could be.”
It was Bard College’s “Prison Initiative” college degree program that began to transform Elias’ life. While in the program, Elias participated in a debate team, which in 2015 debated a team from Harvard—and won. For Elias, being “part of the team . . . [was] a way of proving that these promises weren’t completely lost.”
A similar transformation happens in our hearts when we begin to understand that the good news of God’s love in Jesus is good news for us too. It’s not too late, we begin to realize with wonder. God still has a future for me.
And it’s a future that can neither be earned nor forfeited, dependent only on God’s extravagant grace and power (2 Peter 1:3). A future where we’re set free from the despair in the world and in our hearts into one filled with His “glory and goodness” (v. 3). A future secure in Christ’s unimaginable promises (v. 4)—of a future transformed into the “freedom and glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Living on the Edge
Chip Ingram
Clearview Today
Abidan Shah
Family Life Today
Dave & Ann Wilson, Bob Lepine
Truth for Life
Alistair Begg
A New Beginning
Greg Laurie
Running to Win
Erwin Lutzer
Hi, and welcome to another daily encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Today's reading titled Unimaginable Promises was written by Monica LaRose. In our moments of greatest failure, it can be easy to believe it's too late for us, but we've lost our chance at a life of purpose and worth. That's how Elias, a former inmate at a maximum-security prison in New York, described feeling as a prisoner. I had broken promises, the promise of my own future, the promise of what I could be. It was Bard College's Prison Initiative college degree program that began to transform Elias' life.
While in the program, he participated on a debate team, which in 2015 debated a team from Harvard and won. For Elias, being part of the team was a way of proving that these promises weren't completely lost. A similar transformation happens in our hearts when we begin to understand that the good news of God's love in Jesus is good news for us too. It's not too late, we begin to realize with wonder, God still has a future for me. And it's a future that can neither be earned nor forfeited, dependent only on God's extravagant grace and power. A future where we're set free from the despair in the world and in our hearts into one filled with His glory and goodness, a future secure in Christ's unimaginable promises, and a future transformed into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from 2 Peter 1, verses 2-8. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these, He has given us His very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness, and to goodness knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control perseverance, and to perseverance godliness, and to godliness mutual affection, and to mutual affection love.
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for making something beautiful out of our broken lives and setting us on a new path and forgiving every follower of Christ all they need for a godly life. Help us live with a new purpose and mission as we follow you and shine your light before the world. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-12-23 09:27:29 / 2023-12-23 09:29:01 / 2