The Adventure

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading, titled The Adventure, was written by Ann Cetus. Christianity is not for me.

It's boring. One of my values I hold onto is adventure. That's life to me, a young woman told me. It saddened me that she hadn't yet learned the incredible joy and excitement that comes with following Jesus, an adventure like no other. I excitedly shared with her about Jesus and how real life is found in Him. Mere words are inadequate to describe the adventure of knowing and walking with Jesus, God's Son. But in Ephesians 1, the Apostle Paul gives us a small but powerful glimpse of life with Him. God gives us spiritual blessings directly from heaven, holiness and blamelessness in God's eyes and adoption as His own into the King's royal family. He blesses us with the lavish gift of His forgiveness and grace, understanding of the mystery of His will and a new purpose of living for the praise of His glory. The Holy Spirit comes to live in us to empower and lead us, and He guarantees eternity in God's presence forever. When Jesus Christ enters our life, we discover that getting to know Him more and following Him closely is the greatest of adventures.

Seek Him now and every day for real life. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the one He loves. In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times reached their fulfillment, to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. In Him, we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession, to the praise of His glory. Let's pray. Jesus, thank You for choosing us and for saving us and taking us on this great adventure of life with You. We pray for opportunities to share You with others today, and the words to say that entice them to follow You as well. Thank You, Lord. It's in Your name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening. My name is Rachelle Traub and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.