Daily Bible Verses for 2/16/2017
Daily Verse(s)
Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Reading Notes
All believers remember that moment the Holy Spirit touched our lives and changed our hearts. When suddenly we understood the Gospel of Christ and what it meant in our lives and for the eternity which awaits us. We accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior and we became children of God, adopted into the family of God by our faith in Christ. From that point forward, we were indwelt by the Holy Spirit, whose work in our hearts, helps us to hold on to our passion of knowing Jesus. A passion which drives the deep, heartfelt desire we have to know Him more. It’s this work of the Holy Spirit which gives us a strong craving to know and understand God’s word as we grow spiritually in Christ. And it’s this work of the Holy Spirit, which is constantly changing us from the inside out. This process of spiritual growth carried out in us by God as a result of our salvation is called “sanctification.”
Sanctification is a process carried out in us, by the Holy Spirit who indwells all followers of Christ. The Holy Spirit works hand in hand with our new spirit, which we received at the moment of our salvation, replacing our old spirit which was dead in trespasses and sins. And as we grow in God’s grace, we develop a divinely inspired delight in God’s Word. A delight which then drives our desire to know it more and to better understand it. And it’s these changes working hand in hand with the Holy Spirit, which changes our hearts. Our spiritual growth creates in us an increasing desire to study God’s word, which the Lord uses to make us living stones with which to build His spiritual house. A sign of this spiritual growth is humility and submission to the Holy Spirit, which God then uses to integrate us with other believers, to do the work of Christ. Through the process of sanctification we grow in the knowledge of Jesus and God’s word, which then makes us useful for the Lord’s service.