Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 112:1-5
Ps 112:1-5
Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who finds great delight in his commands. His children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man. Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely, who conducts his affairs with justice.
Col 3:12-14
Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
God wants his children to be nice. He wants us to be kind to others and to be considerate of their problems. A big part of being nice is being able to forgive others when they have done us wrong. The more we love them, the easier it is to forgive them. The more we put others and their feelings ahead of our own, the easier it is to be considerate and forgiving. In other words, being nice is being like Jesus in our attitude, our speech, and our behavior. Praise the Lord!
Sadly, in our country and in our culture, we are taught that life is about “me” and that we are to look out for ourselves above all else. We are told to demand our rights and we are to get all the gusto we can in life. Often, we are told that if we don’t look out for number one (that is me), then nobody else will look out for us.
This is the core thinking of the life philosophy of humanism, demanding relativism. This removes God from the picture and makes us our own gods. We determine what is right or wrong for ourselves. We rightly (using this thinking) demand that others please us and give us what we want, when we want it. We are entitled.
This is the opposite of Christianity. We put others ahead of ourselves. We give, expecting nothing in return. We love the unlovable. We forgive the undeserving. Every moral choice is made by God and is absolute. We die to self and then allow Christ to live in us. We live by faith in the Son of God who died for us.
O Lord God, when I measure myself by others around me, I feel like I am doing pretty good, at least most of the time. But when I measure myself by you and your glory, I realize how much I fall short of always being just like Jesus. So, I need your constant and continual mercy and forgiveness. Help me always extend this same mercy and forgiveness to others. Help me open my heart to the work and bidding of your Holy Spirit in all things. I humbly pray in the name of Jesus my Lord.
Robert
