The
Devotional
Comment:
The gathering of wisdom and
knowledge is impossible if one uses their emotions as a gathering tool to
collectively use it for decision making. If we care to look back over the
course of a month (or if our memory is good) over the course of the past year
we can easily see that viewing life and making decisions from an emotional
frame of reference is often soaked in tears, torment and trouble. Years of
living emotionally drain the body of health, also this sort of living destroys
friendships and isolates those we love causing an inner feeling of failure. To
be honest – New Year resolutions are one or more emotional quips of those who
live by the fat in their pants seeking to right all of the wrong. However the
LORD, the Creator of the heavens and the earth has no resolution, He has the
solution!
Devotional:
How often do we think of looking to the LORD for “right
living?” Most of us would say, “What? I don’t have time for that! I have to
solve this problem now!” Well the bottom line is… No! No you do not. In most
cases the problem will resolve on its own and while we wait for that solution
and not the resolution we might calm our heart with the Book of Proverbs. This book
could also be titled the book of “Right Living.”
My focus this morning is not in Proverbs, but in Matthew’s
gospel. Worry, it is an emotional SIN. The words of Jesus recorded by Matthew,
reveal that the Sermon of the Messiah was to direct our life to the kingdom of
God and His Righteousness. A direction that leads us away from the worries of
the world. This Sermon on the Mount holds some of the most important aspects of
right living too.
Beginning in chapter 5 the beatitudes, (right attitudes for living
– 5:1-12), those who believe in God are to be the (salt and light of right
living – 5:13-15). Christ is our righteousness, He fulfills right living in the
(Law of God – 5:17-20). The model prayer, sixty six words that are literally (perfect
for right living – 6:5-15) and the command to (stop worrying and live rightly –
6:25-34), lastly but certainly not totally the charge to live rightly by (the
narrow way – 7:13-14).
We do not need resolutions for the New Year, we need the
Righteousness given to us by Jesus Christ. At the present time we know Him as
the Lamb/Servant of God who willingly laid aside His life for the selfish,
emotional sins of living wrongly in darkness. And He by the Power of God picked
His Life again, He destroyed the last enemy of life. 1 Corinthians 15:20- 28.
He is risen from the dead, He is the firstfruits of all who have believed and died
or will die. If you are in Him by faith, you will live again in Him by faith.
This then is the solution to “right living!” Romans 13:14 – but put on the LORD
Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
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