The Promise of Sealing

Like many of you, I've spent time in scripture memorization plans, and I felt a lot safer when I committed Ephesians 1:13-14 to memory.

"And you also were included in Christ when you heard 

the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, 

the promised Holy Spirit,

who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance 

until the redemption of those who are God's possession--

to the praise of his glory."

Yet, practically speaking, what does that mean? Here are a couple of illustrations:

In days of yore, when the king wanted to send an important message meant "For your eyes only," he would fold it and pour sealing wax over the fold. While the wax was still hot, he would stamp it with his seal (usually his signet ring). Anyone tampering with the seal before it reached the intended recipient would suffer the deadly consequences! The contents of that message were safe!

Even before God sent His indwelling Holy Spirit to seal believers, He is known to have put hedges of protection around them so evil couldn't get at them. Consider His servant Job. When God praised Job's uprightness, Satan countered that Job only "shunned evil" because God had put a hedge (or seal) around him and his household and all that was his. As a test, God allowed Satan access to Job. You know the rest of the story.

Today, we have the abiding presence of God's Holy Spirit and He has promised never to leave us or forsake us. We are sealed until the day of redemption, or, in other words, until He takes us Home. No one can get at us without His permission and, even if He should allow it, He is there to protect us from all evil.

I like knowing that I have been sealed with the signet ring of the Most High God. Don't you?

The Promise of God's Sovereignty

Move over Allstate! God's people are in Good Hands--the Best Hands!

Yet sometimes, when battered by the storms of life, our faith is tested.

Job had occasion to waiver in his faith. He lost everything--his wealth, his children, his health. Even his grieving wife took one look at his scabrous body and said something like Have you taken a good long look at yourself lately? Why don't you just get it over with--curse God and die.

In response Job said, "You're talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" Job acknowledged he was in dire straits, but rather than say (as we all do), "Why me?" he basically said, "Why NOT me?"

Good for him! Yet even Job had his moments of doubt. He felt if he could just present his case before God, He'd take pity on him and turn away the evil that oppressed him.

What's wrong with that, you may ask? Only this: Job either forgot, or never reckoned on, God's sovereignty. Meaning? Meaning God can do all things, He knows all things, He is ever present. He didn't need Job to fill Him in on the details of his plight. He didn't need Job's advice on what He needed to do.

It was only after God recounted His mighty acts that Job repented of his faithlessness saying,

"I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. . .

My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 

Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." 

~Job 42:2-4

We all get a chance to drink at the trough of tough times. We all can relate to the truth expressed in Job 5:7, "Man is born to trouble as surely as the sparks fly upward." Yet when those times come, we need to rest in this one thing--God is sovereign. Better yet, this sovereign God loves us. Nothing can happen in the life of a believer but what has filtered through His hands.

So be at peace, believer. You're in Good Hands.

Can you describe a time you saw God's sovereignty at work in your life?