These are my People! – Week of December 30, 2019

He said, “Surely they are my people, children who will be true to me”; and so he became their Savior.

Isaiah 63:8

“These are my people,” God declares. Usually it starts at baptism. God adopts sinners into his family. He makes them heirs to the kingdom of heaven. He makes them his. “These are my people!”

It also happens when we confess Jesus as Lord. Jesus said, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven” (Matthew 10:32). He puts faith in our hearts and we confess him as Savior. He then says to the Father, “These are my people! I vouch for them. They belong to us. They belong in heaven.”

Of course there is nothing that we have done to earn such a status. Isn’t that the whole point? He makes us righteous in his sight. He gives us the status we need. He chooses us. He makes us the children who are true to him, as Isaiah describes above. This is good news for us because there are plenty of days when we do not feel like God’s children. There are plenty of days when we absolutely know we should not be claimed as God’s children (the ones who will be true to God).

How about the little ones you teach? Those are his people. HIS people. They belong to him. And no, they do not deserve it. But they are his. He claimed them. He said, “This is my daughter. This is my son.”

It makes us look at our students in a different way, doesn’t it? Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is advocating for these little ones before the Father. Our job is then to advocate for them down here. These are God’s children. He claimed them in his blood. He died for them. We will fight for them and love them and live for them. These are his people.

Prayer:
Dear Holy Spirit, Be with us every day moving our hearts in love for others and trust in our Savior, Jesus Christ, whose blood has claimed us and our students for God. Amen.

Early Childhood Ministry Educator’s (ECME) Devotions are brought to you by WELS Commission on Lutheran Schools.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
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