Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Colossians 1:9, 12 For this reason we also . . . do not cease to pray for you . . . giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
YOUR LOT IN LIFE
When the children of Israel had conquered the land of Canaan for the most part (see Joshua 18), Joshua had them divide the land into seven parts after surveying it, and then those seven parts were distributed to the tribes by casting lots. The land that was thus delineated was to be the possession of that tribe from that time on.
What is your "lot" in life? We sometimes are led to think that what comes our way happens by chance, or by blind fate, or by good (or bad!) luck. The fact that your circumstances are as they are, well, that's just "your lot."
Thankfully, we as children of God know better. As the Scriptures tell us, our original "lot" in life had been in the dead center of Satan's domain. By birth we under his control, and were bound to die forever with him in hell. But thanks to our God, that is no longer our "lot." Now, through the Gospel the Lord has brought us into His family. By faith we now can claim our "lot" in life to be what He promises here through Paul in verse 12 -- "He has fitted us for the portion of the lot of the saints in the light." We have been given spiritual ground, as it were, in His kingdom. Each of us, as children of God, has a place, a "lot" you could say, with Jesus forever.
And that, my friends, has nothing to do with "luck" or "fate." It has everything to do with "grace." Your having an inheritance with your Father in heaven is due to the fact that God loves you. In Christ God your Father has given you, as Paul writes, "redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:14).
