March 9, 2006 - Deuteronomy 8-10 and Mark 11:19-33
Pride and self-sufficiency are terrible sins. They ruined the Israelites' relationship with God, and they will ruin our relationship with Christ today. I urge you to read this passage with that truth in mind. We all need to hear God's heart on this.
There is no righteousness in us apart from God giving us righteousness. We cannot merit God's favor in any way. Our character is never worthy of His forgiveness and blessings, and neither are our actions. This passage shows us this truth as it applied to the Israelites, but it is true for all of us. We need to see that He did not choose us because we were good or even that we were better than someone else. If we believe that, we have pride in our hearts. God drew us to Himself, revealed Himself to us, and extended salvation to us because of His love for us and because of the potential for us to have a loving relationship with Him. To have that relationship we must put aside the pride and self-sufficiency and give ourselves totally to Him. There must be the end of rebellion and self will. Do you see this as you read this passage about Israel? Do you see this as you think about your own life?
That is why we should be so thankful to God for the plan of salvation and to Christ for carrying out this plan by dying for us. We owe Him everything. If we begin to think we have any ability in and of ourselves to do God's will or to do anything meaningful on our own, we are seeing pride rise up in our hearts. We must stop and submit to the Lord who loves us so much. We love Him because He first loved us. We can relate to Him, because He came to us. We can worship and serve Him, because He makes it possible. What a blessing for the Lord of the universe to care about me, to die for me, and to save me. I am totally unworthy of any of these blessings, but I want to respond to His love by loving Him back with all of my heart and that love is shown by obedience.
This truth is seen in Mark 11, too. Jesus exhorts us to "have faith in God." He says that our prayers will be answered if we do not doubt. That implies trust in God, not in ourselves. He forgave us, so we should forgive others, too. We have no authority apart from God's authority. Jesus was trying to get His disciples and the Jewish leaders to understand their total dependence on God. He was trying to show them the downfall of pride. Aren't you glad that salvation is by grace? We could not pay enough to have it. Aren't you glad that salvation is through faith? We could not work enough for it. However, if we surrender to Jesus in faith, He will save us. He will give us His righteousness, and He will bless us as we follow Him. That is a plan that anyone can follow, if he or she will lay aside the pride and self-sufficiency.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Deuteronomy 11-13 and Mark 12:1-27.
There is no righteousness in us apart from God giving us righteousness. We cannot merit God's favor in any way. Our character is never worthy of His forgiveness and blessings, and neither are our actions. This passage shows us this truth as it applied to the Israelites, but it is true for all of us. We need to see that He did not choose us because we were good or even that we were better than someone else. If we believe that, we have pride in our hearts. God drew us to Himself, revealed Himself to us, and extended salvation to us because of His love for us and because of the potential for us to have a loving relationship with Him. To have that relationship we must put aside the pride and self-sufficiency and give ourselves totally to Him. There must be the end of rebellion and self will. Do you see this as you read this passage about Israel? Do you see this as you think about your own life?
That is why we should be so thankful to God for the plan of salvation and to Christ for carrying out this plan by dying for us. We owe Him everything. If we begin to think we have any ability in and of ourselves to do God's will or to do anything meaningful on our own, we are seeing pride rise up in our hearts. We must stop and submit to the Lord who loves us so much. We love Him because He first loved us. We can relate to Him, because He came to us. We can worship and serve Him, because He makes it possible. What a blessing for the Lord of the universe to care about me, to die for me, and to save me. I am totally unworthy of any of these blessings, but I want to respond to His love by loving Him back with all of my heart and that love is shown by obedience.
This truth is seen in Mark 11, too. Jesus exhorts us to "have faith in God." He says that our prayers will be answered if we do not doubt. That implies trust in God, not in ourselves. He forgave us, so we should forgive others, too. We have no authority apart from God's authority. Jesus was trying to get His disciples and the Jewish leaders to understand their total dependence on God. He was trying to show them the downfall of pride. Aren't you glad that salvation is by grace? We could not pay enough to have it. Aren't you glad that salvation is through faith? We could not work enough for it. However, if we surrender to Jesus in faith, He will save us. He will give us His righteousness, and He will bless us as we follow Him. That is a plan that anyone can follow, if he or she will lay aside the pride and self-sufficiency.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Deuteronomy 11-13 and Mark 12:1-27.