Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 5:7-12
Ps 5:7-12
7 But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house; in reverence will I bow down toward your holy temple. 8 Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies--make straight your way before me. 9 Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with destruction. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongue they speak deceit. 10 Declare them guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they have rebelled against you. 11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. 12 For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.
There are two sides to serving God. The first is God which includes who he is, as to his nature and his attributes. He is creator of all that exist in our knowledge today, all that we know and all that will ever be discovered. As to his nature, he is love and filled with mercy and kindness. However, his is a holy God, absolute in morality and can never do wrong and as God, cannot lie. In his holiness, he is a just God which means that any sin (anything that goes against glory, his will, and his majesty as God) must be punished, and the punishment is death.
This death is two-fold. The word death meant separation. So there is the death that we all know and face with our loved ones, which is physical death. It is for sure that we all will die and just as certain that we all will face judgment. We will give an accounting to God as to the life we have lived. The other death is an eternal separation from God, which is described in the Bible as hell.
The other side of serving God is what we do. We cannot earn eternal life because we all have sinned and we all deserve death, physical and eternal. But God sent his Son to this world to live as one of us, without sin, and then to die in our place and for our sin. So we must ask: have we accepted him as the one and only true God? Have we accepted his revealed word, the revelation of his will, as the guide in our lives? Have we accepted Jesus as our Savior and the substitute sacrifice for our sins? Jesus said the one who believes and is baptized will be saved but the one who does not believe in him will be eternally condemned.
Heavenly Father I am so thankful and so glad for all you have done for me and all you continue to do for me every day. Thank you for the air I breathe and for my family, both my physical family and my spiritual family in Jesus. Thank you for the ability you have given me to hear beautiful hymns being sung and the ability to sing them. Thank you for showing me how to love with a love that is beyond myself and focused on you and on others. I pray in the name of Jesus.
Robert
