Sometimes it’s good to take inventory. To pause for a moment and take stock of what is your reality. Even, if just briefly, to consider again where you’ve been and where you are now. Making a list isn’t necessarily a bad idea. Finding a list in God’s precious word will do too. Such a list presented itself to me this morning . . .

” . . . giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” — Colossians 1:12-14

So, if I’m taking inventory, here’s what I’m seeing . . .

First, God has qualified me . . . He has rendered me fit to lay hold of a portion of the inheritance that awaits those He has called into light. There’s no questioning my credentials when it comes to why heaven’s riches should be available to me. I’m up to the task . . . my sufficiency secured . . . equipped with adequate power to participate in the things of heaven itself.

Next, this “right” to the kingdom of heaven has been secured because the Father has also delivered me from the power of darkness. Rescued me from bondage of the one who would seek to destroy me through sin. The grip of temptation leading to sin has been broken . . . the cords of a worldly system which seek to bind me to a way of destruction have been snapped. Deliverance secured through the power of the One who has conquered sin and death on my behalf.

And finally, I’ve been conveyed . . . translated . . . transferred . . . into the kingdom of His beloved Son. This isn’t some future “pie in the sky, by and by” sentiment . . . this is a here and now, day in, day out, reality. I am a subject of the king, today! . . . I operate within the sphere of His rule and authority, today! . . . I interface with the spiritual reality of the Risen King through the King’s indwelling Spirit, today! I have been transported from darkness to light.

So how’s that for a list? Qualified . . . delivered . . . conveyed. That’s the work of redemption . . . add that to the list, too!

I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, through His blood. The price has been tendered in full to liberate me from the marketplace of sin. The ransom for my soul was paid on the cross some 2,000 years ago . . . so that today I sit here, confident (in Him, not myself) that I truly have been delivered from sin’s power . . . that I really have been transported into an “all things new” spiritual realm . . . and that I am fully qualified, through the blood of Christ, to partake in the inheritance that awaits me.

Sometimes it’s good to take inventory . . . for our assurance . . . for our blessing . . . for our encouragement . . . for His glory . . . amen!