What We Were

A little while ago I bought a daily Bible Study book about prayer because I wanted some help with that part of my relationship with Christ.  It was a guy whose works I have read before, and while I don’t usually use books like this, it was something that I needed at the time.  It has been a great study so far and a wonderful addition to my quiet time, but a few weeks ago one of the passages I read has just stuck with me.  I used it as I led a devotion time at Christianville, and it just kind of keeps coming back to my mind periodically so I thought I would write a blog about it.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Hopefully you have time to read it right now, but if not, read just the first sentence of the passage…

“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called.”

What were we when we were called by Christ into a relationship with Him?  That is such a difficult question for many of us to answer because many of us have known Christ for a long time.  For others of us, we know exactly what we were because we have only come to know Him recently.  For others, maybe you don’t have a time after you were called because you don’t yet know Christ.  I have no idea where any of you are in your relationship with Christ right now or if you even have one.  I don’t know what is going on in your life that would affect how you view GOD or even if you think about Him at all.  I cannot speak for anyone except for myself, and most of the time I don’t even know myself well enough to speak about that.

Here is what I do know.  Before I was called, I was nothing.  When I try to do things on my own, I am nothing.  When I think I know what is supposed to happen next, and I try to move without the power of GOD, I accomplish nothing.  What was I before Christ called me?  I was without hope (Eph. 2), I was without a Father (an orphan), I was without true wisdom (1 Cor. 1), and I was dead in my sin (Eph. 2).  But foolishly, even after I have been saved and given the infinite power of GOD, I still try to do things on my own.  How can I live like I don’t know Christ when I do know Him?  But here is the key.  What am I after Christ called me and saved me?

I am a child of the one true and infinite GOD.

 What does that mean?  I now have hope, I have power, I have wisdom, I have a Father (I have been adopted), and I have life in Christ!  Oh that I would never forget this!  That I would never forget that my Father loves me and cares for me and gives me His power, wisdom, and His very life.  How could I live one more second of my life apart from Him?  How could I spend 1 more second relying on my pitiful and powerless self when I have the infinite love of the infinite GOD who wants me for eternity?

We think about what and who we were before we were called so that we can bask in the glory of a life that has been perfected by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and then we can live and pray like a people who have been given everything.