"And God spoke all these words, saying: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." (Exodus 20:1-2)
TODAY'S WORD , let me first say thank you for being a part of these Daily Devotions. You may have noticed, and even made contact with me, as the last devotional I sent out was May 10th and now it's May 25th. The last few weeks have been so crazy I haven't had time to sit down and get these done. That happens in life...things have a way of pressing out the important. I just went to Church this morning with my family and thought that I had to reconnect again, that even though life is crazy I should take time to connect with you. I was thinning in church that before the Lord gave the first of the Ten Commandments to Moses, He offered a reminder of what He has done for His people, the Israelites. He was saying, "Remember, I brought you out of Egypt. You were slaves there. You were in bitter bondage. You were in misery. You called out, and I sent a deliverer, Moses. He brought you out of that land of oppression and slavery. Remember that I did that for you."
In the same way, we were once living under the power of sin. We were facing a Christless eternity and a certain judgment. But God in His great mercy loved us and reached out to us. And when we put our faith in Him through His Son, Jesus Christ, He pardoned us and forgave us of every sin that we had ever committed.
God was saying to the Israelites, "Before I tell you what I want you to do for Me, I want to remind you of what I have done for you." The same principle is true for us. God is saying to us, "Before I give you My laws and standards, I want to remind you of what I have done for each of you."
Now if I really appreciate what God has done for me, it should be my privilege and pleasure to seek to live a life that is pleasing to Him. It is not because I have to, but because I want to. As 1 John 4:19 reminds us, "We love Him because He first loved us." Our obedience to God's commandments should spring from our love. A PRAYER FOR YOU TODAY Almighty Father; I enter your presence confessing the things I try to conceal from you and the things I try to conceal from others. I confess the heartbreak, worry, and sorrow I have caused, that make it difficult for others to forgive me, the times I have made it easy for others to do wrong, the harm I have done that makes it hard for me to forgive myself. Lord have mercy on me, and forgive for all my sins against you and against others, through the grace of my Lord, Jesus Christ, Amen. |
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