The Groomers’ Tools - Lynne Phipps

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.  Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14 NIV

Enrolling in a professional dog grooming course required me to purchase tools and a proper carrying kit. Having purchased all the necessary equipment and labeled my kit box, I was also instructed that all my groomer’s tools needed to bear my specific mark. This allowed each student to identify their own tools, thus avoiding mix-ups as we worked together.

Marking these solid steel instruments, however, was no easy task. Fortunately, a friend had the right equipment to cut a small v-shape into the side of each of my cutting blades, scissors, metal combs, and clippers. Once this was achieved, my tools would never be mistaken for anyone else’s. No one could take them out of my hand or kit and claim them as their own.

Likewise, God tells his chosen people that we, too, are sealed with his mark: the Holy Spirit who indwells all who come to know Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit, in turn, continues to mark us as God’s tools for the glory of God's Kingdom through the fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control show the world we belong to God.  

Romans 8:35 assures us that nothing can separate us from Christ: not trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword. In John 10:28, Jesus states that no one can snatch us from his Father’s hand. 

The Father knows us. He has marked us as his own, now and forever. What a marvelous truth and assurance, allowing us to rest in the one in whom we have believed. He is the Savior of our souls and can guard what we have entrusted to him for eternity.

Find peace in knowing that you belong to God. 

Father God, thank you for marking me with the seal of your Holy Spirit, a deposit guaranteeing my inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession. Amen.

Lynne Phipps and her family live on a small hobby farm in the heart of Alberta, Canada’s farming country. She has been writing devotions for forty years and never tires of the spiritual correlation the Holy Spirit blesses her with. He uses normal everyday events and the behaviors of the multitude of glorious creatures He has brought across her path to point her to the truths of God. Lynne is a devotion writer for VineWords: Devotions and More.

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