Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 130:1-8
Psalms 130:1-8
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; 2 O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. 3 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. 5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. 6 My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. 7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. 8 He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.
We enjoy so many blessings from our Lord. When we say that, we usually think of all the physical things we have or the place we live or something else to do with this world. These blessings are indeed great. But much greater than all these are the many spiritual blessings we enjoy in Christ Jesus our Lord. Because God is love and because his love produces compassion and mercy toward us, we can enjoy the benefits of his grace.
Since all of us have sinned (and still do) we deserve to die. Paul says the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. He also tells us that we are saved by the grace of God, not by our own works or doing, so that we have no room for boasting. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf and for our sins, we can have the complete forgiveness of all our sins.
There are so many great passages in scripture but one of my personal favorites is when Paul said that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus our Lord. When God forgives, he never brings it back against us. When he wipes our slate clean, it is never considered as marred again. While the Bible plainly teaches that we can lose our salvation and our standing in Christ, as long as we continue to walk in his light, he continues to cleanse us from all sin.
God’s grace must never be used as an excuse to not do our best to be all that God wants us to be. It is not a license to sin nor is it permission to not strive for total perfection in all things. But we can put our hope in the unfailing love of our Lord because he is full of redemption. He will redeem us from our sins.
O God, thank you for your marvelous and unfathomable grace. I know I don’t deserve anything from you but punishment. Even though I try to be what you want me to be, I know I fail in many ways to live up to your glory. Thank you for your mercy and your forgiveness. Help me use this redemption to motivate me to become more like you every day. Keep me from forgetting that I have made new in Christ to do good works which you have ordained. Open my eyes to be used by you in your way and to your glory. I pray in the name of Jesus.
--Robert
