Saturday 17 November 2007

Saturday Reading: Romans 3:19-20
 
Key Verse: Romans 3:19
19  Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
 
Devotion:
Have you ever looked at society in this way... The law convicts you and declares you guilty, not because someone has caught you, but because you have done something wrong. That means that we should all be on our way to jail. That means that we are all hypercritical law breakers because we, as a society, are condemning people to jail because they have broken bigger laws than us! If we truly do follow the law to the utmost, then we are going to be broken, distraught, condemned, failed humans.
 
We like to think that we do have a good set of laws in our own countries, and that we try our best to keep those laws. And yet we don't like to follow the laws that we do not agree with. It sounds so bad when you say it out loud. But that is exactly what we do. We follow the laws that we like. We try to keep the laws when others are around so that we can look good. We like to look good in front of others. We try to look good in front of others. We don't like to point out when others do small things wrong, because we don't want them to point out when we do things wrong. There is no real encouragement to follow the law and make a good example...
 
But when we come to look at the Law of God, we find a whole new set of laws. We find laws that tell us what we should be doing and not telling us we are guilty of what we have done wrong. The laws of God are there to encourage us to reach further into doing what is right, but also to show us that we do do small things wrong. God's laws are there to show us that we are sinners, that we do do things wrong. God's laws remind us of what we are doing wrong so that we can convict ourselves. When we begin to see what we are doing wrong, we can identify what we have to change. We are still guilty until God forgives us. That comes through admitting our sins to Him and asking for forgiveness... So simple... not so hard...
 
Points to Ponder:
How many laws do you break each day?
 
With God looking into your mind, how many laws do you break through your thoughts alone?