Devotion for January 21, 2014: O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. O Lord, correct me, but with justice; not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing. -Jeremiah 10:23-24 Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. You make your own destiny. In fact, manifest destiny says that the United States was meant to be conquered and we were/are the people to do it. Be your own man. Girl Power! So many slogans and themes surround us every day that tell us that we are indeed in charge of not only what happens to us but how we are to react to it. We control everything that can happen to us and we need to be more ‘proactive’ and not ‘reactive.’ We need to grab life by the horns and make it submit to us. We need to be the ones in control… we cannot let another run our lives. O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself… Jeremiah had a message for the people of Israel and for everyone today. Our way is not in ourself. We will not find the answers if we look inside… but oh do we not hear that as a solution. When we look inside of ourselves we get a really good picture of how we look… assuming that we are honest with ourselves. Hatred, greed, jealousy, envy, lust, covetousness and all of these “feelings” can lead us to take actions that are not very flattering for us: stealing, lying, cheating. When we look inside of ourselves for the answer, we do indeed see an answer, but it is not the answer that we want to see. When we look inside of ourselves we see the answer to the question: how can I assure myself a seat in hell? Because when we only look inside of ourselves, we are seeing only the ugliness and stain that is there. Our sinful man is lurking within each and every one of us, just hoping that we will look to him instead of looking elsewhere. That sinful man is hoping that we will turn inside to him… and not outside to our Savior. Just as Jeremiah says, “it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.” If we direct our own steps we will follow the devices and desires of our hearts… and we will end up in hell. When we look inside, when we see our sin, when we know the horrible things that we have done… if we are not looking to another place, we will lead ourselves straight to hell. But thank God that He did not want that to be the end of us. Thank God that He set forth His plan to save all of His children. Thank God that He sent a Savior for each and every one of us. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to come into this world to live a perfect life and to die an innocent death. Jesus came to live, suffer, and die for you… and for me. He came to atone, to make full payment, for all of our sin, for all the times we turn to ourselves and not God, for all the times we try to play God in our lives, for all the times when we are not being God’s perfect children. Jesus came so that we might have salvation, and it is through faith in Him that we now have this salvation. Through faith in Jesus Christ we know that heaven is waiting for us when this life is over. Through faith in Jesus’ perfect life and innocent death we can now approach God as His perfect children. Just as Jeremiah, when we come before God we come before Him praying and hoping for His justice and not His anger. For God has every right to be angry over all of our sins… and yet, Jesus Christ bore all of the punishment for our sins. Jesus, our perfect Savior, was our atoning sacrifice, He bore the brunt of God’s wrath… and through Jesus Christ God the Father now looks at us, not as sinners but as Jesus is… a perfect child of God. So when we come before Him we beg that God would look on us in justice; see us as His perfect children, His perfect children who have been forgiven all of our sins, His perfect children who love Him… His perfect children who were made perfect through Christ. Soli Deo Gloria!
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 01:59:21 +0000
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