Daily Devotional: No Longer a Stranger

You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God. - Ephesians 2:19 (NRSV)

Read: Ephesians 2:11-22

As a bright-eyed new Christian, I believed that everything in my life would suddenly be perfect and every problem would be resolved supernaturally. No one ever spoke about the process of change that needed to happen — the old ways of thinking that needed to change and the refining that God would do in me. In church I would look around at Christians who had been believers for many years. I would listen to their experiences of hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit and walking in God’s will for their lives. I grew discouraged and felt like an outsider in a land that was not my own. I often wondered if I was even supposed to be a Christian, especially since I had once been a “Gentile” and an “unbeliever.”

Ephesians became my comfort and hope during those challenging times. Paul said that he was “preaching among the Gentiles” in Ephesians 3:8, and I clung to Ephesians 2:19, which reminded me that I was no longer a stranger. I declared over and over that I was a citizen with the saints and a member of the household of God. And eventually the labels “Gentile” and “unbeliever” no longer defined me; I had become a Christ-follower!

Teresa Naidoo

(KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa)

Today's Prayer: Dear God, thank you for welcoming us as members of your household. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Thought For The Day: When I keep my focus on God, all labels fall away.

Prayer Focus: New Christians