Daily Reading

Welcome to August! July blew by so fast & was very busy for me. How about you? I've missed my time in the Word & am so ready to get back to it! So here we go:

Read Romans 7-8

Paul likens our life before Jesus as a bad marriage to sin. To read his words, this marriage was abusive & controlling. But sin has been conquered! It is dead & has no more power. We are now free to enter into a good marriage full of love, joy, peace, patience, happiness & self-control. (These are the fruits of the spirit.) How refreshing!

So what about the law? Was it part of our former bad marriage? Nope. It simply states what is right & what is wrong. That's it. It's like directions for building a bookshelf. You can follow the directions & get a nice, sturdy, functional piece of furniture. OR You can decide that you know better than the directions, do things you own way, & end up with a lesser-quality object.

So why do we keep throwing out the directions? Why do we settle for so-so, when the best is staring us in the face? It's in our nature. We allowed sin in & now it has its claws in there, whispering, controlling, manipulating. We cannot break these bonds ourselves. Let me just say this is one of my favorite scriptures - to see that others struggle just as I do. And to see that there is an answer, there is hope, I am not destined to stay in this place.

Jesus Christ came to overcome sin for us. God sent His own Son to break the bonds of sin. Praise the Lord! That new marriage I mentioned earlier? It's with the Holy Spirit. He comes in & gives us the power we need to break out of those old cycles. And here is the key - stop obsessing about yourself! Start focusing on God. All you need to do is invite Him in & start listening to His voice instead of your own. It's a sacrifice for sure to do things some different way, but oh the peace you will find when you start making those changes.

Don't you ever get sick of yourself? Want to get out of your own head for a while? I know I do. Start reading the Word of God, start praying & especially listening. Stop jumping in without thinking - start asking God what He thinks. See where it gets you. You might be surprised!

Paul finishes this reading by looking forward to our eternal life in heaven with God. Doesn't your heart long with it? It's like a pregnancy - 10 months of expectation & waiting to meet that new little person who is already so loved. Well, we have a little more than 10 months of waiting, of anticipation, but during that time, God will never leave us, He will be right there with us & we can trust that He knows what He is doing. He has a perfect plan & we can rest assured that it will be carried out exactly as it should be.

So take heart, God is with you. Stop worrying about what other people can do to you, how they can hurt you. They are just people, like you & me. Start looking at what God can do for you. The hope, the love, the peace, the joy that are available to us, no matter what else happens around us. Paul ends with "I'm absolutely convinced that nothing - nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable - absolutely nothing can get between us & God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us." Amen!

Read Proverbs 22:1-16

It's about your inner beauty, not about your outer beauty. It's about the condition of your heart, not the condition of your wallet. Make choices that line up with the law & you will lead a blessed life. Follow your owns way & you will struggle.