How To Know If Your Inheritance Is Secure

Today is April 27, 2019. For most of us this is not significant. It will be a typical Saturday full of ballgames, yard work, and errand running. For some, this date bears more weight as we celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, or remember loved ones who have passed away. When viewed through the Julian Calendar, April 27th is always April 27th. It might fall on a different day of the week, but if there is something significant about April 27th it will always be significant on that date. I venture that few of us are spending today considering whether or not we’ll receive an inheritance.

When we alter our perspective and view our days through the Christian calendar, we’ll discover that seemingly anonymous dates are days we should be wondering if we have an inheritance and if it is secure.

Seeking God’s Face – Praying with the Bible through the Year is the devotional I use for my personal prayer time.  It is organized around the Christian calendar starting with the season of Advent, then Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and ends with Ordinary Time.  With the exception of Christmas always falling on December 25^th, the Christian calendar is not set.  Ash Wednesday and Lent are not always at the same time.  Easter Sunday is not always the same day.

This year, Easter was celebrated on April 21, 2019 ushering in the 50-day Easter Season that culminates with Pentecost. Today, April 27, 2019, is  Easter Day 7 in my devotional. Again, unless this particular date carries meaning, for most of us this is not significant.

But for me, as I opened my devotional, the note at the top,  “Day that Dad passed away – 4/2/2016,” makes this day special.

The anniversary of my dad’s passing will always be April 2^nd.  But there is a sweet sentiment in knowing that its anniversary, when viewed from the Christian calendar, is also marked by celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  April 2^nd is not always in the Easter season (this year it fell on Lent Day 24).  But Easter Day 7 is and it beckons me to view the day my dad passed away, not just through the worldly lens of life to death, but the through the lens of a new life born out of faith in the resurrected Christ.

Easter invites us to view the world through a different lens. Click To Tweet

The devotional passages for this day compel our eyes upward, shifting our perspective away from the temporary toward the eternal.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you… (1 Pet 1:3-4″ (NIV).

Spiritual rebirth is a good gift from a good God that is given when we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior. It’s a here and now reality, but it also secures our eternal inheritance. This inheritance is not subject to decay, no division of it diminishes its value, and it is divinely kept for us by Christ in heaven.

Faith in Jesus changes our status. We become children of God, adopted and granted all the rights and privileges of a natural born child. We are heirs with Christ!

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col 3:1-4, NIV).

The Easter season is the time to evaluate what our hope is grounded in.  As children of God, we have been given the gift of new birth into the living hope that is Jesus. We are all familiar with feeling stuck in the muck and mire of daily life.  Our new birth and the living hope that is Jesus set our feet on solid ground in the here and now – giving us what we need to press on through the trials, the difficulties, the annoyances of life, and into living a life that honors God. It anchors us today and promises us an eternal tomorrow.

My dad believed in Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord.  He knew rebirth into the living hope of Jesus. As I read these verses each year on Easter Day 7, my heart celebrates that my dad has been raised with Christ, taken his seat at the right hand of God with Christ, and has received his eternal inheritance.

The same eternal inheritance Christ is keeping for me and for you.

Happy Easter Day 7. Christ is Risen! May you, through faith, receive God’s good gift of new birth into a living hope that becomes your solid ground for all of your todays and securing your eternal inheritance for all of your tomorows.

Easter Blessings,

Denise