Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 11:1-7
Ps 11:1-7
In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, “Flee like a bird to your mountain, for behold, the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart; if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.
1 Peter 3:12-13
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?
The word “righteous” is used in several different ways in the Bible, depending on the context. There is the absolute righteousness of God, which we can never attain on our own, but we can have it imputed to us by the blood of Jesus. When we are forgiven and we are counted as totally righteous, we are then to live to the best of our ability to be righteous in all of our behavior. John refers to this as “walking in the light” and Paul says we are created in Christ Jesus for good works.
As we live this way, our sins continue to be forgiven, so we are continually counted as being righteous – free from sin. Since our sins are being forgiven on an ongoing basis, there is no condemnation toward us. This means that we are free from the law of God that says the wages of sin is death. We do not have to guess about our salvation. We live without any doubts about our eternal destiny. We can rejoice always because we know we are right with God, all day – every day!
Do we sin? Sure, we do but we are forgiven. Can we abuse this and just go on sinning, knowing that we will be forgiven? Of course not! “How can we who died to sin continue to live in sin?” God’s grace is never a free pass to sin as though sin does not matter. Grace is our most compelling reason to live righteously!
O Lord God, thank you for your marvelous grace given to me in Jesus Christ! What a blessing it is to be able to go to bed at night with the absolute assurance that you have forgiven every sin I may have committed that day, but also with the knowledge that your Spirit will empower me to do better the next day as he continues to mold me into the likeness of Jesus. Your wisdom is beyond my ability to comprehend. Thank you for loving me and taking care of me in more ways than I will ever know. Use me to honor you in all things. I pray in Jesus’ name.
Robert