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Kingdom of God | Amanda Beth

Monday’s Blog: Christmas – Our True Inheritance

I forgot to mention last week that it was the last blog in our series on the Beatitudes. If you missed the series, I highly recommend following this link and reading the messages. It was a great series. You don’t want to miss it.

Since it is Christmas time, I wanted to share a revised message I wrote last Christmas, titled:

Christmas – Our True Inheritance

This week we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Christmas is meant to honor Christ, yet He is often overshadowed by Santa, gifts, shopping, holiday festivities, and other non-Christian holidays fighting to be recognized and honored.

Even though my family knows Christmas is all about Christ, I do have to admit that we often get caught up in all the glitz and glam. We love Christmas time. We love decorating and shopping for months in advance. We love baking cookies and watching Christmas shows all through December. We love piling all the kids in the car with their hot chocolates to go driving around looking at lights.

We love leaving my parents’ house on Christmas Eve with presents filled to the roof of our car. We love waking up Christmas morning to shouts of joy when our kids see presents under the tree. We love visiting family and friends during the break, making Christmas last the whole week.

With all that excitement, it’s easy to lose focus of what Christmas is all about. So today I want to step away from the holiday excitement for a moment and redirect my focus toward Jesus, and give Him His due honor this Christmas by recognizing what He has done for us.

We know Jesus was born to be the Savior of the world. But do you know how much more Jesus has given us along with salvation?

I remember as a new believer reading about the promises of the Kingdom of Heaven in the Bible and thinking, “Heaven is great, but what about now? What do I have in this life? Surely, there has to be more.”

I soon learned that Jesus didn’t come to just give us eternal life after we die. He came to give us eternal life now! He came to give us the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. This means that we have access to the same power and authority He had when He walked this earth.

Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16:19, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

In Luke 12, after Jesus told His disciples not to worry about their physical necessities, He said in verse 31-32, “But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”

Jesus came to give us what God has given Him. Everything He has is now ours through our faith in Him. We are co-heirs in His inheritance, because we are now God’s children. We were adopted into the family of God through Jesus.

The Spirit Himself [thus] testifies together with our own spirit, [assuring us] that we are children of God. And if we are [His] children, then we are [His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His inheritance with Him]; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory.

—Romans 8:16-17, AMP

Jesus being born in the flesh was the greatest act of love. Jesus humbled Himself to be like us, to feel what we feel, to be tempted like we are tempted, to hurt like we hurt, to struggle like we struggle, in order to show us the grace that is available to us, through Him, to overcome everything in this world.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

—Hebrews 4:15-16

When Jesus walked this earth, He had victory over everything, though in the natural it may have looked like He didn’t because of the great suffering He endured. That suffering however had a purpose, which is why He endured it even though He had the power to stop it. He overcame the world for us through that suffering.

…for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

—1 John 5:4-5

The authority Jesus has given us means that nothing in this world can ever have authority to rule over us without our permission. We can overcome everything through God’s grace. Nothing in this world has the authority to steal our righteousness, our peace, our joy, our hope, and our inheritance in Christ. We are truly kept safe in Him.

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”

—Luke 17:20-21

So as you pass out gifts this Christmas, remember the amazing gift Jesus has given you—the keys to the kingdom of Heaven! God is living within you!

 The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel–which means, “God with us.”

—Matthew 1:23

 

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**Prayer for the week**

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for saving us and giving us the keys to Your kingdom, making us co-heirs with Christ. Help us to honor Jesus this Christmas, and every day, by following Him and surrendering our lives over to You. 

In Jesus’s precious name, Amen!

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I pray you all have a blessed Christmas!

*Come back next Monday as I reveal what happened behind the scenes at Christ’s birth. You don’t want to miss it!

*If you have never accepted Christ as your Savior, please click on the “SALVATION” tab at the top of the website. Don’t wait another day!

*All Bible verses are taken from the NIV, unless otherwise noted.

 


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