In Touch Daily Devotional 20th January 2023 By Dr. Charles Stanley, Friday Inspirational Message
Read In Touch Daily Devotional 20th January 2023 and be blessed.
TOPIC: Life Before Grace
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE: Ephesians 2:1-3
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Charles Stanley In Touch Daily Devotional 20th January 2023 MESSAGE
Grace is the unmerited love that God shows to sinful people. He expressed this love through the sacrificial death of His Son, and it becomes ours when we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior. Because of grace, we are forgiven by God and adopted into His family.
Today’s passage describes our life before grace—when we were dead in our trespasses and sins. This means that every one of us is born with no spiritual life, numb to the things of God. Our nature leans away from the Lord and instead toward ourselves and the ways of the world.
Before encountering grace, Saul of Tarsus (later known as the apostle Paul) was very religious but blind to God’s perspective and plan. He actively opposed those who followed Christ (Acts 26:9-11). With a goal of destroying the church, he sought to eradicate the Christian faith, which he deemed false. He continued persecuting believers until he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3-6). There he surrendered his will to the Lord and became a true follower of Christ.
Like Paul, some people are religious and yet lack a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Does that describe you? God offers every one of us grace and salvation today through faith in Him.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Exodus 13-15
REFLECT: Whether pursuing sin or goodness, people are without hope apart from Christ.
In Touch Daily Devotional 20th January 2023. Charles Stanley is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church Atlanta and founder of In Touch Ministries, both located in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Stanley’s heart’s desire is to get the gospel to “as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, as clearly as possible, as irresistibly as possible, through the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God