The Devotional - R044

The Devotional

Comment:

I am seeking to shorten the devotional again since hearing that most people seem to have little time to read. So as we move forward I am thinking of eliminating the comment section. My personal experience or opinion may be offensive to some even when thinking that I am being practical or useful in the land of the living. Seems to me that people would rather live by the seat of the pants rather than observe the warnings of another’s failures. The choice is always personal!

Challenge: Romans 13:11-14

Time! Life is short no matter how a person spends it, time is also valuable no matter how you waste it and there is little value in just passing time since it is never recoverable. Time is not like the paycheck we receive weekly, it is not reimbursed, nor is it covered by insurance. Once spent, time is over. The apostle speaks clearly here that we know these things, yet many of us are found sleeping. That would be in his mind under the power of the Holy Spirit to say that we are nearing the entrance of our full salvation, but that most of us are asleep at the controls, or living in carnality.

The season of living in the night is “far spent” in other words, by reading deeply into the epistle of Romans you have witnessed that the justified shall live by faith and the wrath of God on all unrighteousness of Chapter 1 and 2. Also you have seen that both the Jew and the Gentile are guilty of the sin and failure of Adam. We see that keeping the Law does not measure up to God’s Righteousness. Chapter 3 reveals to us that all people are sinners and that the Law and the Prophets have been stern witnesses that man’s unrighteousness is to be replaced by Christ’s Righteousness as the missing link to God found only in being justified by grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.

We can and should take the time to recount each chapter of see that we have been learning how to live in time as a living sacrifice (as Jesus lived) holy and acceptable to God. If the mercy of God spoke anything to us in Romans 12:1-2, it was the plea to be holy and acceptable to God (righteous); nothing else in time matters since this is the rationale of serving God. Renewing our mind, proving what is good and acceptable. This is the perfect will of God for all of us.

God has called us His children through His manner of love which we fail to understand (1 John 2:28 through 3:1) which parallels this Romans 13:11-14 passage. We do not understand because we have not cast off all of the deeds of darkness. Again the apostle Paul warns us to put on the armor of LIGHT, walk properly or decently. In the day we are model saints, but in the evening we are filled with the old fleshly way of life. Do not lie to yourself since it is easy to wipe the lips and say, “I’ve done nothing wrong!” Proverbs 30:20. This is not literal day and night time, the apostle is referring to walking spiritually or fleshly as a child of God.

The only way for a child of the Living God to be pleasing to his or her Father God is by living in the “Righteousness” of Jesus Christ who is our personal guide (originator and perfecter) the ONE who is the Author of Faith in God; Hebrews 12:1-2. Thus as children of God we must be willing to put on the LORD Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh and waste time fulfilling those sinful desires. Praise to the LORD who gives us time as He is the Potter over the clay.