As a child, I pulled some pretty bad pranks. Most were done not out of maliciousness, but grew out of just trying to have a good time. Probably the worst thing was when my brother and I shut down the power to the church while our father was preaching live on the radio. The church board was not very happy about that!

It was behavior like this that helped me to realize at a very early age that I was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a saint. Unfortunately, I grew up thinking that I had to stop my sinning in order to go to Heaven, and I knew I couldn’t manage that. The harder I tried to be good, the harder it was to be good.

Imagine then my exhilaration when it was finally explained to me that salvation was not what I had done or didn’t do, but what Christ had done for me on the cross. When I finally understood that it was all by grace, and I couldn’t lose my salvation, it was like a burden lifted off my back.

At the moment of salvation, I became a saint in God’s eyes. Now, in the eyes of the world, I’m still not a saint. I still like to pull a good prank every now and then; but what matters is how God sees me. I don’t have to be declared to be a saint by a church - I have been made a saint by God!

Believer, if the devil has you feeling like you are not very important or useful, just remember that the One Who made Heaven and earth not only knows who you are, but has also declared you to be a saint.