I'm going to begin by making a statement that will resonate with some and disturb others: I love reformed theology. I delight in the doctrines of grace. I love the unconditional election of God, the irresistible grace of God, and the perseverance of the saints. I don't love them because they were associated with John Calvin, or because they are advocated by guys like John Piper. I love them because they are thoroughly biblical. The doctrines of grace are everywhere in scripture.

I don't believe that I chose God, or would have ever chosen God, but that he chose me. I believe that he irresistibly drew me with his grace and that he will keep me to the end. These truths warm my heart with affection for God.

But it's when I look at my four-month old daughter Charis, that the rubber really hits the road for my theology. She is so beautiful, so precious, so innocent looking. I love her with an intense love, and care for her with all my heart. Yet scripture tells me that she is spiritually dead and an enemy of God (Eph 2:1-3). Scripture also tells me that she was born under the wrath of God. These are difficult things for me to swallow, but I believe that they're true.

Scripture also tells me however, that God is loving and merciful, not desiring that any should perish. Scripture tells me that God wants to save my daughter. And scripture tells me that God responds to the prayers of the righteous. I don't understand how the sovereignty of God and prayer work together, but the Bible teaches both and I believe in both.

And so I pray intensely that God would save my daughter. I appeal to God, asking him to open her eyes to the gospel at a young age. I ask him to draw her to himself by irresistible grace. I ask him to open her blind eyes to see Jesus Christ as her savior. Before I place her in her crib each night, I hold her close, kiss her on the head, and lift my voice to God in prayer.

I believe God will save my daughter. Why? Because God is full of mercy. He sovereignly gave her a mommy and daddy who pray for her every day. He placed her in a church that preaches the saving gospel of Christ week after week. I believe that God ordained these things to lead her to Christ.

I also find great comfort in knowing that it's God who saves. Why? Because there is no way that I could ever 'convince' Charis to trust in Jesus. I know that I simply don't have the ability to open her eyes to the gospel. God must put spiritual life in her, and because he is good, I believe that he will.

I believe that someday Charis will trust in Jesus as her savior, not because of the persuasive preaching of her dad, but because of the loving kindness of her God. That's my only hope. What's yours?

"The reason no one can come to Jesus is that it is not our nature to come. It is our nature, and therefore our will, to flee from Christ, not come to him. The fact is, and a sad fact at that, we do not want to come. We are delighted not to come. We willingly and freely and voluntarily choose to stay in our sin and unbelief, because we find nothing at all in Jesus that is alluring, appealing, truthful, or in any way an improvement on what we already are and have on our own." - Sam Storms, Chosen For Life

Jesus Christ is the most beautiful, glorious, attractive person that exists. Everything about Him is good and sweet to the soul. Think of all the things that make a person attractive: beauty, intelligence, kindness, integrity, strength - all these and more are found to the fullest in Jesus. Yet in our sick and twisted sinful state, we had no love for Christ. We didn't find Him attractive, beautiful, or desirable. In fact, we found Him disgusting and repulsive. We wanted nothing to do with His ways, His thoughts, or His plans. The very thought of His presence evoked pure hatred in us.

But there came a sweet day when Jesus found us lying in the filthy, leprous, muck of our sin, picked us up, and breathed life into us. He wiped away the spiritual disease that blinded our eyes and allowed us to glimpse something of His glorious beauty. He removed the awful, stinking rags of sin that clung to us, and clothed us in pure garments of righteousness. We wanted nothing to do with Him, yet He wanted everything to do with us. What an incredibly kind God we serve.

Do you remember when Christ first began to appear attractive to you? Do you remember when you saw Jesus as He really is for the first time? As you go about your day, let your heart be filled with gratitude to the Savior. You never would have found Him, but He found you.

"God did not sovereignly choose you so that the idea of his choosing you might merely bounce around in your brain. He chose you for worship, which I define as the proclamation of His excellencies and your extravagantly affectionate and inexpressibly joyful delight in them." - Sam Storms, Chosen For Life

The sovereign electing grace of God is one of those theological ideas that can simply bounce around in our head without ever making it down to our heart. We can know that God chose to save us without ever feeling the slightest inkling of gratefulness. At times I think of election just like I think of stock prices or the weather - with the cold intellect.

But the doctrine of election is intended to set our hearts aflame with passion for Jesus. Think about it for a moment, God chose to save you. Why? Why did He spare you from a torturous, blistering eternity in hell? Why did He choose to pour out lavish blessings on you? Only because of His sovereign grace. We've done absolutely nothing to deserve it, nothing to merit his kindness.

What's the appropriate response to the glorious doctrine of election? Loud, extravagant, joyful, heartfelt, worship. When we think of God's saving grace at work in our lives, we should be filled with gratefulness to Him and the joy of our salvation.

As you go about your day, take time to meditate on the fact that God saved you, and let your heart be filled with joyful devotion.

"In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." - Judges 21:25

Everywhere you look you see people who are spiritually blind, doing whatever seems right in their own eyes. What a terrible, terrifying existence! They stumble around, making whatever choice seems right at the time, with only their sinful passions and pleasures to guide them. As a result, they are hopeless slaves to sin. Marriages are destroyed, men and women are slaves of sexual sin, children are abused, work becomes a god, and true joy is completely foreign.

Do you remember what it was like to be trapped in this black existence? Do you remember what it was like before Christ invaded your life with His glorious light? Do you remember the sinking feeling of realizing that you were hopelessly trapped in sin? We had no hope of seeing the truth, no hope of ever finding God, of ever clawing our way out of the pit which held us.

What a kind God we serve. He saw us in our utter misery and felt deep compassion for us. He stepped down, wiped away the sinful muck the clung to us, and opened our eyes to see His glorious face. Aren't you glad God saved you? Doesn't it fill you with joy to know the Savior? Once you were blind, now you see.

As you meditate on these truths, let your heart be filled with gratefulness to God, and let your soul be stirred to share the gospel with others. Your friends and coworkers are blind, just like you were. Introduce them to Jesus, the miracle maker.

This quote by Jonathan Edwards is breathtaking:

Make God the peculiar object of your praises. The doctrine [of electing grace] shows what great reason you have to do so. If God so values you, set so much by you, has bestowed greater mercies upon you than on all the ungodly in the world, is it too little a requital for you to make God the peculiar object of your praise and thankfulness? If God so distinguishes you with his mercies, you ought to distinguish yourself in his praises. You should make it your great care and study how to glorify that God who has been so peculiarly merciful to you. And this, rather, because there was nothing peculiar in you differing you from any other person that moved God to deal thus peculiarly by you: you were as unworthy to be set by as thousands of others that are not regarded of God, and are cast away by him forever as worthless and filthy.
Quoted in Chosen For Life by Sam Storms

If you are a Christian, it is because God has shown you peculiar mercy. He chose to pour out mercy upon you, not because of anything good in you, but because of His sovereign grace. Why did he save you and not your neighbor? Why do you know Christ, but your parents don't? Because for some reason, God chose to pour out lavish mercy upon you. This should cause our hearts to explode in loud praise for the Lord. Take time today to sing the praises of the God who saved you.