December 2 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

1 Thessalonians 1:1–7

Devotional

Many want to know their election before they will look to Christ, but they cannot learn it this way. It is only to be discovered by “fixing our eyes on Jesus” (Heb. 12:2). If you want to make certain that you are elect, you will assure your heart before God in the following way.

Do you feel yourself to be a lost, guilty sinner? Go straight to the cross of Christ and tell Jesus so. Tell him that you have read in the Bible, “whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (Jn. 6:37). Tell him that he has said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). Look to Jesus and trust him, and you will quickly confirm your election, for as surely as you trust him, so surely you are elect.

If you will give yourself entirely to Christ and follow him in faith, then you are one of God’s chosen ones. But if you stop and say, “I want to know first whether I am elect,” then you don’t know what you are asking. Go to Jesus—no matter how guilty—just as you are. Leave all curious probing about election alone. Go straight to Christ and hide in his wounds and you will know your election. He will give the assurance of the Holy Spirit to you so that you will be able to say, “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that Day” (2 Tim. 1:12).

Christ was at the everlasting council. He can tell you whether or not you were chosen. But you cannot find it out in any other way. Go and put your trust in Jesus, and his answer will be, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jer 31:3). There will be no doubt that he has chosen you when you have chosen him.

“Sons we are through God’s election,
who in Jesus Christ believe.”
(anonymous, 1777, from Gadsby’s Hymnal)

[July 17]

Extracted from C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (public domain), language modernized by Larry E. Wilson.