Some of you grammar nazis will point out that the title of this should be, For What Were You Saved? But, proper grammar in this context takes away the impact. I want you to consider what were you saved for?
We think often about all that we’ve been saved from. There is no shortage of videos of cardboard testimonies that lift our spirits as we consider the power of God to save from addiction, abuse, poverty, prison, and eternal separation. I love to reflect on the power of God to save a wretch like me from an eternity in hell. He saved me from me and he saved you from you, but why did he do that?
Yes, to all of the theology police, he saved you for his glory. But what else? For what were you saved? For whom were you saved?
What did God save you FOR? What did God save you to do?
He saved you to make a difference in the world around you. He saved you to make a difference in the place where you live and where you work and play.
God saved you to do a particular work. He didn’t only save you to do it, he can even use the sins and pains of your past to do his work. I’ve been living in Psalm 119 in recent weeks and I continue to come back to verse 71,
It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.
In our times of struggle we often turn to God and experience his love in incredible ways. But, it is also through our struggles or sins or failures that God builds our testimonies.
God is using your past to build your story. Your past opens avenues for your ministry. Consider that those things from which you were saved may be the very things that lead you to the people you were saved for.
In 1 Timothy 1, Paul tells us that he was saved “that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”
Paul was saved so that others could look at him and know that salvation was possible: “If God can save him then God can save me.”
And, if God can save you, who else can he save. You have a story and you have a mission field. God has saved you for something and for someone (maybe lots of someones).
God saved you from many things. Go find what God has saved you for.
