May 22 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

We must not grieve the Holy Spirit, for in him we are "sealed for the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30). God has sealed us by giving us the Spirit (2 Cor. 1:22). We have received the Spirit as God's seal.

A seal is a mark of ownership. Today people are still finding ancient jars and vessels with the seal of an owner who lived long ago. In a similar way we place our name or stamp in a book to mark it as our property. Not only the sealing of things but also the sealing of persons is common in the Bible. The best example is the sealing of the 144,000 in Revelation 7. It means that God puts his mark of ownership on them. He writes his name on them. They are his. Therefore they may not be hurt in the last judgment.

Also, baptism "in the name of" the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is a kind of marking of a person as the property of God.

When God redeems a person, that is, when he buys that person back, he pays with the price of his Son. We were redeemed not with gold or silver "but with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Pet. 1:18-19). After paying so dearly, God does not want that person to get lost again. He seals that child not by a visible mark but by giving the Holy Spirit as a constant companion. In that way we are "sealed for the day of redemption."

Maybe it takes more power to keep a person with Christ than to bring him to Christ. At least, that's the way it often looks to us. At first there are so many good intentions, but we fail to fulfill them. There are so many brand-new feelings, but they evaporate.

Where is the staying power, the strength to hold on and stick it out? The Holy Spirit is that power. The Spirit makes the lordship of Christ real in our lives and establishes us in an everlasting relationship to our heavenly Father. He cannot and will not disown us. He marks us as God's own—now and in the last day.

REFLECTIONS

Where in your life, right now, do you especially need the staying power of the Holy Spirit, the "strength to hold on and stick it out"?

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published by Paideia Press in 1977. This updated edition is copyright 2009 by Faith Alive Christian Resources. You can order a copy of this revised version of the book directly from the publisher.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this updated edition of Daylight are from the Holy Bible: Today's New International Version copyright 2001, 2005 by the International Bible Society.