Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father, by the guiding and growing of the Holy Spirit, convict us of our sin. Father, our flesh cries out for your throne, eager to grip it, to take it from your grasp. Father, may our spirit, with your Spirit, cry out to your throne. Take us in your grasp and forever keep us in your grip. Break our hearts of our sin, Father. And in the name your son Jesus help us to wake up, stand up, and grow up. No cop-outs in your presence Father! No we all could do better! We all should do better. Show us Father. By your Spirit guide us. In the likeness of your Son grow us. And remind us that you always make us able to do what you command us to. Grieve our hearts! Convict us of sin! And when we repent rejoice Father, and eagerly wash our feet again! Amen. Amen. Amen.
Your Morning Song: "Joy of the Lord" by Rend Collective
Your Morning Scripture: Psalm 69:5
O God, you know my folly;
the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.
...
We come back once again to sin, our folly, the wrongs that we have done which cannot be hidden from our Heavenly Father. In sermons, bible studies, and on this devotional we have talked a great deal about sin. And if we were to keep coming back to sin at the expense of all other topics, at the expense of all else that the Bible talks about, at some point it would be too much. But we're not there yet.
Our culture is perpetually painting each of us as the main character of our own movie. We deserve, we should have, we should get, etc, etc, etc. Speak your truth. Have it your way.
And the greatest variety of choice we have falls into the least meaningful of categories. There are more flavors of ice cream than any of us can count anymore. Entertainment, TV, movies, video games, virtual reality, all of it together is like storming waves crashing against a sandy shore, over and over and over.
We are constantly, daily bombarded by a world that echoes it's master's original temptation. Did God really say? Why not take the power? Why not be the one who decides what is good for you and what is bad? Why should God be God? Why not me?
And the horror of it all is that embracing this crescendo of self-love, self-focus, self-indulgence, self-worship requires nothing. It takes no effort to listen to this eerie choir of temptation singing so sickly sweet around us. Playing God needs no plan, only appetite.
But loving God is different. Denying the voices of the world that Satan rules cannot be done on accident. Obeying God cannot be done by happenstance.
Only on purpose, for His purpose.
And the best way to struggle, to wage war in our hearts against the spirit of this world, is to repent. Our Heavenly Father knows our sin and calls it sin. And He has made a way to Himself by the work of His Son, Jesus. Welcomed into our Father's presence by the blood of the Son, we are invited to repent once and be forever cleaned of the power of sin (though the presence remains). And remaining in our Father's presence, we are welcomed into deeper intimacy as we daily deny ourselves and repent of our sin. For though once we have been wholly washed, He continues to forgive our sins and wash then only our feet.
Resist the temptation to be God by admitting that you are not, by saying the same thing about your sin that God does. And saying sorry. And thanking Him for His forgiveness. And thanking Him for His joy that He shares with us.
If we're doing this right, our sin should daily grieve us so badly that we daily go to God and repent to Him and daily ask His forgiveness.
And if we're doing that right, then God’s joy and delight at our obedience and submission to His view of sin will daily fill us to overflowing, beyond our ability to ever fully express. And our daily living will be so full of God's love that we will shine like stars in the darkness of this world.
The crushing weight of the presence of our sin and the incredible heights of God's joyful forgiveness should be the functional, practical foundation of our everyday living. And the voices of this world, echoing their master, will daily fade in a faint buzzing. And even that will be someday gone forever.
For now, grieve sin.
Say about your sin what God says about it.
Repent.
Be forgiven.
Receive and live in God's joy.
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