Live Your Destiny — Now! Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Live Your Destiny — Now! ------------------- Date: 2/4/2002 Keyword: "light" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. We're currently studying one of the Apostle Paul’s great prayers, found in Colossians 1. This prayer, for spiritual growth for his readers, is tailor-made for men and women who wrestle with — and sometimes fail in — a chronic temptation to use pornography. God bless you! Passage: Colossians 1:9-14* 9. For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10. so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11. strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 12. giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13. For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son 14. in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Questions 1. Verse 12, above (and the last word of verse 11) shows us, the reader, doing something. What is that?   2. Verse 12 also shows us something that God has already done for us. What is that?   Practical help Each term in the verse we are highlighting deserves our attention. Today, I’ll highlight only three of them. First, Paul says that the Father has qualified us for a future inheritance (verse 12). This is not something that is up to you to qualify yourself for. Your inheritance is secure. It is currently reserved in your name. The inheritance the apostle is talking about is guaranteed. There is no tentativeness about it. He is talking here about Heaven! You didn’t qualify for it based on your goodness. You were qualified for it by the goodness of God when you placed your trust in Christ for salvation. Second, because the Father has qualified you for Heaven, you are to be joyously giving thanks (verses 12-13). When are we Christians going to learn that Jesus meant it when He said that He came to give us "abundant life" and that He wants us to have His "joy" in us? The Christian life is to be the most joyful of lives. And you, as a Christian, have so much for which to be genuinely thankful (why not stop and give thanks for some of God's goodness to you now?) Finally, the ultimate destiny and the place where you will "inherit" it is with the saints in light (verse 12). You will not live forever in darkness or in shadows, but in the light of God’s holiness and joy with fellow Christians. So, the next time you are tempted to surf to the darkness of porn, remember the content of Paul’s prayer for you: You are going to wind up in the light with brothers and sisters, so don’t spend your time now, by yourself, in the dark prison of porn. You are qualified for Heaven by the merits of Jesus’ death on the cross for you. So, allow that truth to filter down to your soul — and joyously give thanks to God. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2002 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission." -