Devotions this week based on the Message: “Hope Comes with a Second Chance”.
“Take it outside!”
What started as a desire for a bag of buttery, tasty popcorn turned into a stinking, about to start on fire, bag of charred popcorn.
If it’s happened to you, you know the smell. You know how hours later you can still smell the reality of a bag of popcorn gone awry.
Some things we just can’t get away from us soon enough. A bag of popcorn is mild. Sometimes we want to get away from our past, get away from a bad relationship, and sometimes get away from God himself.
We run from what we are ashamed of. We hide what we don’t want people to see. We avoid those whom we’ve wronged. It’s natural to want to separate from that which you’re embarrassed by and wish never happened.
Our relationship with God can be challenging when we directly or subconsciously know we have done something that is wrong. We may not always know what it is, but we can feel it. It gets in the way of our relationship. It hinders our prayers. It keeps us from coming to church.
Because we think God is angry at us. Or we think we will just avoid or discount the reality of God and it won’t matter what we think or do. We think we are no longer accountable for our actions, if we avoid the one to whom we are accountable.
God does hate sin. God does say he will punish those that disobey him. Even if we ignore these warnings and try to avoid God, we can’t. We will have to face God for our actions.
Where’s the hope in that? Nowhere. That’s why God invites us to repent, to think differently and to turn to God.
Why would I turn to the one I think is out to get me?
Because you are missing who God is. Psalm 103:8 and following clarify for us:
Psalm 103:8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Reread that again. Soak it in.
What God’s mercy does for each of us is remove the stink of our sin so we don’t have to smell it or live with it any longer. He does not treat us as our sins deserve and does not harbor his anger forever.
These are amazing promises to remember when Satan tries to get us to remember, regret, and run from our past sin. Instead of running from them, run with them to your loving Savior.
He removes your sin.
Apply: What sins of the past or present are bothering you. Confess them and then let this word of Psalm 103 remind you of what God does with those sins…removes them and covers them with his grace.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for your grace and compassion and your willingness to remove our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. AMEN.