Sometimes we just forget.

We forget to be thankful, forget the kindnesses of others, or forget the blessing of having a wife or children. Sometimes we simply take other people for granted.

Sometimes we forget that other people hurt as badly as we do. Sometimes we forget to do unto others as we want them to do to us.

Of all the things we sometimes forget, I think these two are the worst.

We forget what it is to be apart from Christ, and we forget what it is to be in Christ.

When Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus he reminded the Gentile believers what their lives were like before Christ.

They didn’t know about Christ. They were foreigners to the people of Israel, and they had no part in the promises God had made. They were living in the world without hope and without God. They lived far from God (Ephesians 2:12-13). Is anything more tragic than being godless?

But when the Gospel came to them, they experienced peace–peace with God and peace with others. Instead of hostility, they found love. Instead of dividing up and taking sides, they became one in Christ.

Those who had known about God from afar met Him up close. Those who had no hope found the God of hope. “And because of Christ, all of us can come to the Father by the same Spirit” (Ephesians 2: 18).

Because of Christ, we are part of a large family. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God. We makeup the household of faith.

We need to remember. We need to remember what it’s like to be “just lost.” And we need to help other people know what it’s like to be “found.”

They are everywhere, people who are hurting, afraid, lonely, and hopeless.

Share what you have received–the living hope–with someone today.

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