September 1, 2006

[Rev. Doc]

Claim Your Inheritance

"he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-"
Ephesians 1:5

On January 29, 2003, Athina Roussel became the richest teenager on the planet, inheriting a fortune estimated at that time to be between $800 million to $1 billion, and it all came from her grandfather, Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis through her mother. In 1988, when Athina was 3, her mother, Christina Onassis died at age 37 of a heart attack from diet medication. All of Christina’s assets were left in trust to her only child, Athina, who turned 18 in 2003 and was legally able to receive her inheritance. But she had to wait for the money until she was 18!

But our spiritual inheritance is different from this. When Paul wrote Ephesians 1:5, he was undoubtedly aware that Roman law allowed for adopted children to enjoy the same rights as natural children. And because we are sons of God, we have an inheritance, and blessings, and riches that are ours in Christ.

But unlike Athina Onassis, we are not required to wait in order to receive our inheritance. “Adoption is the act of God by which He gives his (children) an adult standing in the family. Why does He do this? God has adopted us and given us the right of sonship so that we might immediately begin to claim our inheritance and enjoy our spiritual wealth!

Prayer: Thank God for His many blessings in Christ Jesus.

"I have now disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more I wish I could give them and that is faith in Jesus Christ. If they had that and I had not given them a single shilling, they would have been rich; and if they had not that, and I had given them all the world, they would be poor indeed."
~Patrick Henry