October 14, 2022
What Would You Do with a Huge Inheritance?
Sharon Jaynes
Today’s Truth
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3 NIV).
Friend to Friend
I’ll be honest, I’m not a sports fan. I know which way a ball is supposed to go, but that’s about it. My husband, on the other hand, loves the games. If I’m sitting with him while he’s watching one, I want to know about the players’ families, where they’re from, and other nonsensical information that has nothing to do with the game. I’m what some might call a distraction!
Occasionally, Steve shares something with me from Sports Illustrated that he thinks might be of interest…what he calls a human-interest story. The story of Matthew Joseph White was one of them.
He signed with the Cleveland Indians in 1998, the Boston Red Sox in 2002, and the Colorado Rockies in 2003. (All you non-sports fans, don’t you dare stop reading!)
In 2003, Matt had an aunt who needed to go into a nursing home. She didn’t have the funds to make the move, but she did have a piece of land in his home state of Massachusetts. So Matt agreed to pay her $50,000 for the 45 acres of mountain real estate, which gave her enough to enter the nursing home and get the care she needed. (I love him already!)
Matt’s original intent was to build a home on the property, but found the ground too hard. When he called a surveyor to inspect the acreage, he discovered treasure lying beneath the rocky soil. The land was solid Goshen stone, a type of valuable mica. Approximately 24 million tons of mica schist rock, worth about $100 per ton, had been resting on the mountain for thousands of years. The estimated worth of Matt’s land? Two point five billion dollars—that’s billion with a B.
When my husband read me Matt’s story, my mind immediately went to the truth of what we have in Christ. Most of us are sitting on a mountain of precious promises and don’t even know it. Goshen stone may be valuable, and I am tickled pink that Matt made the discovery, but followers of Christ are sitting on a treasure worth even more. Jesus is the Rock, and God has already paid the excavation costs. The title deed has your name on it, and you simply need to take hold to access your glorious inheritance.
Being in Christ comes with many benefits. You are a dearly loved, completely accepted, totally forgiven, uniquely chosen child of God. And because you have been adopted into God’s family, you are now heir to a plethora of precious promises.
For starters, when you exhale your last breath on earth, you will inhale heaven for all eternity. There is no other promise that comes close in comparison. But there’s more, so much more.
Paul wrote,
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
He goes on to say that in Him we have been given:
- redemption through his blood
- the forgiveness of sins
- riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us
- the promised Holy Spirit (13b-14 emphases added).
Did you see it? Paul is describing blessings and promises we already have. Every single one of those verbs are in the past tense. We don’t need to earn them. We don’t need to wait for them. We simply need to take hold of what is already ours.
God made a deposit of blessings in your safe-deposit box before the creation of the world, fashioned the key in the shape of a cross and gave you access the moment you believed.
So what would you do with a huge inheritance? I guess the better question is, what will we do with the huge inheritance that we already have?
Let’s Pray
Father, forgive me for living like a spiritual pauper rather than a child of the King. Help me to let go of my scarcity mentality and take hold of the riches of my inheritance. And Lord, I know this isn’t about money or the treasures of this world. Oh, Your precious promises go so much deeper than anything this temporary world has for us. Open my eyes to see what is important...the blessings You have already given me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Now It’s Your Turn
What are some of the deposits of your inheritance that God has already given you this side of heaven?
More from the Girlfriends
Want to know more about how to take hold of the promises, provision, and power that God has already given you? Then check out Sharon’s book, Take Hold of the Faith You Long For!
© 2022 by Sharon Jaynes. All rights reserved.
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Originally published Friday, 14 October 2022.
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