Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 78:40-48
Ps 78:40-48
40 How often they rebelled against him in the desert and grieved him in the wasteland! 41 Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy one of Israel. 42 They did not remember his power--the day he redeemed them from the oppressor, 43 the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan. 44 He turned their rivers to blood; they could not drink from their streams. 45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them. 46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust. 47 He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet. 48 He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.
Heb 10:30-31
30 For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, “The Lord will judge his people." 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
We like to think and talk about the love of God and rightly so, because God is love and it is his love that gives us his grace. To fathom a love that would give a God-Son for the sins of a wicked people on earth is beyond our comprehension. To continue to forgive us when we sin against him, after we have accepted his grace is even more difficult for us to understand. This is the love we want to have.
But God is a just God and therefore sin must be punished. This is not inconsistent with his love but is also a part of his nature. If God did not warn us and did not give us opportunity to accept his grace or if he demanded that we be saved by our own works, maybe we could call it unfair. But even his creation speaks of his existence and gives everyone reason to believe in him, so all are without excuse.
Anything we do that is contrary to the nature of God and that goes against his will is sin. When we fall short of his glory, we sin. And all mankind does this. The fair consequence of sin is death. So all deserve to die. But because of his great love and by his grace he gave our sin to his Son and let him die in our place so we can be counted righteous in him. As a result, all mankind can have their sins forgiven.
O Lord God, teacher of true wisdom and gracious in deed; it is such a wonderful gift to be able to be your child and to know that my sins are forgiven! As I try to fathom your nature and your majesty and your glory, I stand in awe. The more I know you, the more I want to do your will and become like you and like Jesus and when this life is over, be with you in eternity. Use me to help others know you and to live for you. Lord, sometimes life deals all of us some hard blows, so I ask you to give your peace to those who are hurting today. I pray in Jesus name.
Robert
