March 31st

March 31st   

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus forgave those who nailed Him to the cross physically, causing so much physical pain. He forgave those who beat Him and flogged Him and taunted Him. He also forgave those of us who nailed Him to the cross with our sins, -the reason for the cross. Umm, that would be all of us. He did that for us because He loves us, and yet sometimes we don’t even give Him the time of day. Now that’s suffering…to give everything for one you love more than anything, even more than life itself -only to be ignored much of the time.

We wrinkle our noses at the Pharisees for being so hypocritical, but where does that leave us? If we are honest, we are the bad guy in the Bible stories. More often than we like to think. More often than not we are not the Good Samaritan, we are the ones that walk by too busy to care. We are not the widow who gave her last mite. We are Cain not Abel. We are not Joshua or Caleb but instead we are one of the other 10 spies. We are not Moses, rather we are Aaron who let the people convince him to craft a golden idol to worship. We aren’t the woman who scrapped her way through a crowd to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, instead we are the Pharisees thinking we don’t even have a reason in the moment to need His healing touch in our hearts and minds -“no, thanks, we’re good”. In the story of the prodigal son, we aren’t the older brother who stayed home and faithful, we are the prodigal son.

We are too busy to care, or we just don’t because it doesn’t affect us directly. We are jealous when others do well or get attention. We allow ourselves to ignore our Creator and instead let ourselves be overwhelmed and afraid of the circumstances. We let the world convince us to idolize things or people instead of God. We grumble about giving God a measly 10% or we just give Him leftovers. We are full of pride or self-pity but either way we refuse to acknowledge that Jesus is the answer for our ailing hearts and minds. We see others as unfaithful to God, thinking that we are more like the older son, when in fact we are so unfaithful so very often.

Romans 3:9-17 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

This week as we approach our celebration of the resurrection, I pray that we would have a deep, deep gratitude for His sacrifice and what it means in our lives now. I pray that the gratitude would be so deep that it would move us to be more attentive to Him everyday. I pray that we would realize every moment that our very best efforts are like dust. I pray that we would resolve to fall upon the mercy of Jesus freshly this week and allow His grace to fall fresh upon us. I pray that we would be exposed, our hearts, our motives, our thoughts, our omissions, every thing that falls short of the Glory of God be exposed so that it can be covered by grace and not used by the enemy to take us down. Let us be a pleasing fragrance to our Heavenly Father this week as we lean in recognizing that we are utterly dependent upon Him.

Jesus thank you for your love. I am sorry that I ignore you, forgive me. Help me to be more mindful of your presence. Forgive me for ever thinking, at any moment, that I am not in desperate need of your love and grace and mercy. Even when I seem to be on track I am so far short of your glory. Help me move ever closer to you and to surrender more and more. Holy Spirit please show me the areas that I don’t realize need to be exposed to you for forgiveness, healing and transformation. Jesus thank you for your patience and love.

Colossians 2:13-14 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.