City Life Starter

Written by Eric Stephens

The Word

“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”

Ephesians 1:13-14

Reflection

In 2009, after another unsuccessful run at making the NBA Finals, LeBron James decided to take his talents to south beach to play for the Miami Heat while breaking the heart of Cleveland Cavaliers fans.  Dan Gilbert, the then frustrated Cleveland Cavaliers Owner, took out a full page ad in the paper and penned the infamous words “The Cleveland Cavaliers will win an NBA title before the self-titled former ‘King’ wins one.”

Meanwhile in South Beach at the introductory news conference with his new team’s impending dynastic run at NBA championships, Lebron James also shared the now infamous quote  “Not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven. Hey, and when I say that when I say that, I really believe it.”

The Miami Heat would go on to win 2 championships (not 7, 6, 5, 4 or 3) in 4 years while the Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t win one during that time period.  Both LeBron James and Dan Gilbert failed to deliver their guarantees regardless of how much they meant them. 

Application

Paul writes in Ephesians‬ ‭1:13-14 that when we heard the word of truth, which is the gospel of our salvation, and believed in Jesus we were sealed with the Holy Spirit “who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”  The third person of the Godhead is the guarantee of the work that God started in my life. 

I don’t know about you but that’s reassuring because I’m not good with guarantees. As a matter of fact the only guarantee is that I’m not good with guarantees.

Prayer

Lord God, thank you that you not only started the work of salvation in my life by granting me repentance, but that You’ll see it to the very end by the guarantee of yourself! 

TO THE PRAISE OF YOUR GLORY JESUS!!!!!!!!!!