EPHESIANS 1:3-6 – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

THEME OF THE DAY. SIT BACK, PAUSE, BE IN AWE. Let’s start today with the theme of the nugget – sit back, pause, be in awe. And the starting is this . . . do the first two things – sit back, pause. Then after reading the rest of today’s nugget, we should with ease and passion do the last – be in awe.

First, sit back and pause over what it means to be able to say, “I am a Christian” but don’t begin with yourself. Start with God. After all, salvation is of the Lord – all of it. If He doesn’t come to us and do the work of salvation in us, we would never be able to say, “I am a Christian.” Yes, I understand everyone is responsible to believe in Christ for salvation. Yes, God won’t believe for us. Yes, we are without excuse if we don’t believe on the Lord Jesus. I get all that, but if our understanding of salvation is “I made a decision for Christ”, “I believed in Christ”, or “I accepted Jesus”, we are starting in the wrong place and our understanding of God’s sovereignty and amazing grace in salvation needs some work. We respond only because we were sought and given the ability to believe. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44). Notice the words of Jesus. They are words of inability and unwillingness. God must enable and God must draw. And praise His name, He does. But not only were we sought by God for salvation but chosen for salvation before the world was formed – even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Is the “be in awe” starting to work its way into our hearts yet? Good, but there is more.

Next, sit back and pause over what God did so we may say, “I am a Christian.” Now, please don’t inwardly say, “Pastor Jim, I know the Gospel. I know Christ died for me. I memorized John 3:16 a long time ago – For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. I am not asking us to sit back and pause over known truth about the Gospel. I am challenging us to see if we are still in awe of the Gospel; an awe like we never heard it before; like we were when we were first saved. Friends, if we act and think with ease and familiarity toward the glorious Gospel of the Lord Jesus and are not moved to awe, wonder, and humility every time we think of the Gospel, we are in spiritual trouble. A dangerous spirit of indifference and a lukewarm heart is forming within us. Don’t let it happen. Ask God to once again place us in awe over what He did so we may proclaim, “I am a Christian.”

So, have you arrived at the final stage of today’s nugget theme – be in awe. I hope so for the “awe factor” is one of the main reasons for salvation and to be able to say, “I am a Christian.”

PRAYER: “Father, oh deepen my awareness of what I am as Your adopted child.”

QUOTE: “Think often of what God has done, is doing, and has in store for His children. It will keep the heart warm.”