Check out your inheritance

Everyone likes the idea of a big inheritance. Suddenly finding that we are the principle beneficiary in the will of some distant and forgotten relative is the stuff of dreams. Who knows what treasure might be waiting to be handed down to us at some unexpected moment in the future?

But the Bible reminds us of another sort of inheritance, which could be having a serious consequence in our lives, one that is not necessarily good for us. Many passages of Scripture tell us that there is a spiritual legacy that is handed down from our ancestors and this can have a powerfully negative effect on us if the lives of our forbears were not in line with God.

God’s plan for us was to pour spiritual blessing down the family line as our forebears walked in covenant with Him, through their surrender to Jesus Christ. This was intended to give us a sound foundation to our lives from which we could also walk in obedience to the commands of God. Unfortunately, for many of us, that flow of godly inheritance got distorted and defiled by the sinfulness of those that have come before us and also, of course, through our own sin.

But there’s good news! Jesus has cleaned up our inheritance, not by some financial deal, but through His being both a sacrifice and a scapegoat on the cross. We can appropriate that cleansing today by acknowledging the sin of our forbears, forgiving them for the effect of the defiled inheritance on our lives and by choosing to receive the new inheritance that has been declared for all those who are part of God’s family, through receiving Jesus. This really is worth having!

Prayer: Father God, I forgive my forbears for defiling the spiritual inheritance of blessing that You have wanted me to receive. I confess that I have also added my own sinfulness. Thank You that, through Jesus Christ, I can be cleansed from all that has been spiritually harmful to me and I can lay claim to a new family legacy. Amen.