God’s promise for Week 3:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2Cor 12:9)
For those who want further Scripture reading each day here are a couple of suggestions:
-Read one Psalm a day and meditate on it.
-Read a chapter or part of a chapter out of Acts or Matthew or Hebrews each day, focusing on the idea of faith.
Day 16
“At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children." Matt 11:25
Many times during Jesus’ life on earth, He confronted the Pharisees on their pride that stemmed from the fact that they were educated scholars who kept every letter of the law of Moses. The Pharisees had a way of complicating matters. God gave Moses 10 laws, which soon turned into more that 600. The keeping of the law translated, for the Pharisees, into holiness. And when Jesus, their long-awaited Messiah was among them, they spent all of their time trying to catch him in the act of breaking those laws: “when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they became indignant" (Matt 21:15). I don’t think this ‘indignant’ attitude is absent from the church today, nor is it absent from my own heart. How many “What are they thinking?" conversations have I had about people who are making mistakes? How many people have I written off because of their bad habits and wrong living? I am guilty so often of hopelessly complicating the simplicity of God’s mercy and grace that extends to every single person on this earth. It is so easy to become wise in our own eyes. I had a conversation once with a Christian relative who told me that she didn’t think it was fair that a person who had lived his whole life in sin and committed terrible atrocities could, on their deathbed, repent, turn to Jesus, and like the thief that hung on the cross with Jesus, spend eternity in Paradise. To our human reasoning, this doesn’t seem fair, does it? But, as I thought about it, I saw that so often we ignore the reality of our own unworthiness and the presence of God’s grace in our lives. I read once that the worst criminal, in actuality, is in fact no different from any one of us, in probability. What this means is that the sin that is woven into the heart of each and every one of us gives us all the potential to sink to the lowest depths of sin. It is not our own moral uprightness that saves us from these depths, but the hand of our God who reached down and saved us. I remember Sharon once telling us to close our eyes and think of the one thing that we would do if we could guarantee that no one, not even God would see us do it. What would you do? Then she said, that is your secret temptation—your massive struggle and the sin which God, in his grace and mercy has kept you from. This was such an eye-opener for me and it showed me, once again, the need I have to rely on Jesus for my strength. Religious education doesn’t make me fit to serve God, a broken and contrite heart does—a heart that knows that without Jesus, I am a worthless fool. The contrast between the pride of the Pharisees and the humility of the children in Matthew 9, teaches us a great truth: Humility allows us to clearly see Jesus, whereas pride in our religious wisdom will blind us.
Prayer:
Help us not to be wise in our own eyes. Help us to see ourselves and others in the light of Your awesome grace.
In faith:
Pray for your list, and don’t forget the new addition!!
