How was your day?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
(Romans 7:21-25 (NIV))

No one can escape this truth. Even Paul, whose desire was to live as Christ, was not exempt from the sin that we all fight each and every day.

There is not a day that goes by that I don’t fail to live up to what I know that I should be doing. A quick thought, a wrong word, a misguided action, all remind me that I cannot do it on my own. I cannot live the life that Jesus calls me to live, that I want to live, without His guidance, grace and forgiveness.

Unfortunately, society expects members of the Church to be perfect. They are quick to judge those who profess a faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. They hold us up to a higher standard that no one can meet without Jesus, and when we fail, they are quick to condemn, To be honest with you, it is my opinion that we should willingly hold ourselves up to this higher standard with Jesus as the example. If we did that daily, then society may not need to be so critical.

Perhaps we should be more critical of ourselves. We have the truth that if we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we will be forgiven. Do we take this and forget to see that we still need to be made mature and we will still need correction? Do we have the wrong idea that since we are a loved child of God, we can do no further wrong in the eyes of God?

We are loved children and not spoiled brats who can get away with anything!

We should desire as Paul desired. We should long to do what is right in the eyes of God. We should desire to be rescued from this body of death. We should desire God’s law and hate sin. We should willingly repent each and every day of the things that we know we should not do.

How was your day?

Copyright 1998 – 2013 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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