Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the Lord
evil is avoided. When your ways are pleasing to the Lord, He makes even your
enemies live at peace with you. ~Proverbs 16:6-7
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for
the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though, for a
good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love
for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” ~Romans 5:6-8
I will listen to what the Lord will say. He promises peace to His people, His
saints—but let them not return to folly. Surely His salvation is near those who
fear Him, that His glory may dwell in our land. Love and faithfulness meet
together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth
from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. The Lord will indeed
give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. Righteousness goes
before Him and prepares the way for His steps. ~Psalm 85:8-13
Thinking back to yesterday, what if we were to say that David died for Goliath?
How would that sit with you? When we consider that we are all sinners, that
because of our sin, we were once enemies of God, and that we all have issues of
pride and selfishness to deal with, when Christ died for us, isn’t that like
David dying for Goliath?
“Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for.” It is because of God’s love
for His creation. God’s unconditionally loving character was determined to save
us, even though we were trying to destroy everything that he made good. Because
of His great love for us, our sin was atoned, or paid for. It wasn’t because of
anything good in us. We were like renters who couldn’t make the rent payments. We
should have been evicted, but instead, we were given the house! We were
forgiven so much because of His love.
“Through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided.” When we love Him back, we no
longer want to destroy His creation or His plan. We want to live in harmony
with Him, so we listen, do what He says, and grow in how to care for all He has
made. We want to avoid the evil that threatens us and His plan because we want
to please Him in every way. We love and respect Him and desire to give back
what little gifts we can: praise, offerings of thanks. and service to others,
because we know that this pleases Him very much.
“When your ways are pleasing to the Lord, He makes even your enemies live at
peace with you.” The one who pleased Him the most was Jesus Himself when, in
obedience, He allowed Himself to be crucified on the cross, for us, the
created. Through His death, we, His enemies, were reconciled with God, making
peace with Him. David died for Goliath so that Goliath could experience
reconciliation and live at peace with David.
When we acknowledge all He has done for us then we welcome that peace. Pity
those who will have to acknowledge God’s sovereign authority over them, and their
guilt before him. while still being His enemy. “Therefore God exalted Him to
the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name, that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the
earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father.” (Phil. 2:9-11)
“He makes even your enemies live at peace with you.” When our ways please the
Lord, we can experience peace as well. Remember, our goal is not to be known as
quarrelsome creatures, but peace makers. When we disagree, it should be with
gentleness and our love for our opponent should also guide us, not our desire
to win and conquer. It’s God’s kindness that draws others to Him. (Romans 2:4) As
imitators of Him, we should do the same.
Prayer: Thank You Lord God for being my heavenly Father and loving me so much!
I love you too! And You too Jesus, and Holy Spirit who stays with me, so I know
and believe and want to love You back! It’s wonderful! It’s amazing! In Jesus’
name, amen.
Song: Reckless Love
Like a coating of glaze over earthenware are fervent lips of an evil heart. A malicious man disguises himself with his lips. But in his heart, he harbors deceit. Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart. His malice may be concealed by deception, but his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. If a man digs a pit, he will fall into it. If a man rolls a stone, it will roll back on him. ~Proverbs 26:23-28 For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. Even one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth. T...
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