Heirs of Salvation: The Blessed Assurance and Expectant Joy of Our Descendant’S Salvation

By Gloria Laura Lavoie

Everyone hears a lot about Gods promises, but seldom are they grasped and claimed for themselves. We often see them as words of what we can hope for but fail to see what we can actually expect. When it comes to the salvation of our descendants, why nestle our hope amidst a sea of doubt-laden anxiety? As time passes and prayers seem unanswered, why merely cling to what we believe is dwindling hope when we can joyfully come to expect in their personal resolve to follow Jesus? Gods Word is explicitly clear in how and why we can rest in this expectancy. This book seeks to study these promises more deeply and explain why a covenant with our Lord can give us our blessed assurance that well share the kingdom with our heirs our heirs of salvation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490881003

Gloria Laura Lavoie

Glory loves serving Jesus. She takes great pleasure in leading the ladies' fellowship in her church, where she insists that she receives far more than what she gives. She is the author of Heirs of Salvation: The Blessed Assurance and Expectant Joy of Our Descendant's Salvation and Touching Holiness: Capturing the Essence of Jesus. Glory lives in New Bedford,Massachusetts, with her husband, Paul. They have two grown sons and four grandchildren.

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Copyright © 2015 Gloria Laura Lavoie.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-8101-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-8102-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-8100-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015907663

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/12/2015

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 Raising Hope to Expectancy

Chapter 2 Unbreakable

Chapter 3 Solid Rock or Sinking Sand?

Chapter 4 And for This We Are One

Chapter 5 Prepare the Feast

Chapter 6 Is Eternity in Your Will?

Chapter 7 Pearls of Great Price

Chapter 8 A Most Purposeful Journey

Chapter 9 Just as We Are

Chapter 10 The Light before the Dawn

Prayer Requests for Children and Grandchildren

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my beloved husband, Paul, who entered my life at the tender age of seventeen and has remained my strength ever since. I have truly been blessed to have a man of honor to journey with. It is also dedicated to my wonderful children and grandchildren, as well as to my future great-grandchildren, whom I hope to meet on this side of heaven. Finally, it is dedicated to all my descendants who will come long after I’ve gone home, but fully expect to meet in eternity.

Acknowledgments

It is to my Lord Jesus Christ that I give all glory and praise for this book. I am deeply humbled, and find it an honor and privilege to have been given the opportunity to serve Him through the written word. I pray that all who read this book receive the knowledge of His unwavering faithfulness through His unending promises.

Introduction

We live in troubling times, both abroad and within our own nation. History proves that mankind has consistently dealt with strife and turmoil since Creation. But never has America faced the overwhelming push to eliminate God from its borders as now.

At the height of the Civil War, in a speech delivered on March 30, 1863, Abraham Lincoln said, "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God.

We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!"

This was only part of a speech calling for our nation to a day of fasting and prayer. It has been over 150 years since Lincoln’s words were delivered. In light of our current, unabashed opposition to our country’s godly roots, it seems incomprehensible that words such as these would necessitate utterance at that time. Sadly however, his words were necessary. But where the need for these words were evident at the time, they are words that beg to be spoken even more so today.

Despite man’s age-long tendency to pull away from God, what we face today is far different. There will always be those who either defy the existence of God, or believe He exist, yet do so on their own terms. This has never changed, nor will it ever.

But today, our country faces an added ingredient. Singularly or collectively, there is an uprising of those who not only don’t believe, but are convinced that no one else should, and are bent on prying it from our very existence. Shamelessly, our precious children are the prime objective to this endeavor.

Added to this brazen resolve to indoctrinate a godless society into the minds of youth, we’re faced with all the repercussions of what society must face when God is diminished. With immorality, compromised principles and an anything goes mentality raging its war to steal the hearts of toddlers, schoolchildren, youth and young adults, the reality can be frightening.

As parents and grandparents, we know what’s out there. We know exactly what our children and grandchildren are exposed to each day, either by subjective choice or through a force-fed menu. Yes, these are difficult times, and parents may feel a sense of overwhelming anxiety at what they can’t control.

Despite the best of efforts, our descendants can fall (and all too often do) under the influence of our culture’s enticing aroma. So is that it? Is it then left to anxious hopefulness? The problem with relying on this kind of hopefulness is the propensity to sway to hopelessness.

This is not to say that we do not have hope in God. Conversely, His Word fills us with His blessed hope for our eternal home with Him. But this glorious word has lost its luster in how the word plays out when spoken.

I’m sure we’ve all heard the phrase, Yeah, I sure hope so. Without question, the tone sounds anything but hopeful. If anything, the speaker sounds apprehensively tentative. But God’s Word isn’t about an empty hope, but an overfilling spring of expectation.

What if, instead of keeping hope in the quagmire of uncertainty, we take it to where God intended. Expectancy.

God gave us many promises—for every area of our lives, and He is delighted when we believe those promises and claim them for ourselves.

There is a plethora of promise books offering handfuls of Scriptures on an array of topics. These books beautifully categorize many of His promises for quick-referencing comfort and guidance. But for all the promises outlined in these books, they are merely a taste of how many He has so lovingly poured out to us.

If we’re so eager to take hold of these promises to find comfort, peace or guidance, why then would we hold back the reins and not take them all? Perhaps we missed them?

This book was borne through much prayer. I have burrowed deep in His Word, searching for the assurance that we all seek.

As the Holy Spirit guided me, God’s perfect and holy Word pulled me in like a wave withdrawing from the shore. As each covenant … each promise, was revealed to me, I rejoiced in His blessed assurance for all of my descendants.

It is my prayer that this book guides you through His promises, bringing you to the same expectancy. In these days of uncertainty, it is my hope that you too will find His absolute assurance.

If your joy has been snuffed out by your reality, but absent from God’s intent, then I pray that His truth becomes your new reality. If you’ve come to the end of yourself with anxiousness or despair for present circumstances with your children or grandchildren—or perhaps even concern for the future of young children, then allow His promises to lift you to your own expectation.

It is my prayer and heartfelt desire that this book will reveal His grace and mercy upon you and your descendants, and that you may see His perfect plan for them. God bless you as you surrender your fears and unrest, and instead count them as heirs to salvation.

CHAPTER 1

RAISING HOPE TO EXPECTANCY

My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.

—Psalm 62:5

Have you ever had Scripture touch you in a way that it hadn’t ever before? This fifth verse in Psalm 62 did just that for me.

In those first seven words, "My soul, wait thou only upon God," I found a gentle reminder and a clear directive to rely solely on my Father for my petitions and to experience the peace while waiting.