A Daily Devotional – Justified – The first Step of Faith

A Daily Devotional – Justified – The first Step of Faith

Comment: A popular commercial in the recent past carried the slogan “What’s in your wallet?” Whatever is in the wallet is minor compared to what resides in one’s heart and soul! The most precious possession any person has is THE SOUL (the eternal compartment of the heart) and if one’s heart is filled with foolishness their soul is being starved of joy, of peace and most importantly the TRUTH that God loves you; your soul belongs to Him. Ezekiel, a very dear Prophet of God to Israel expresses the will of God concerning all SOULS, the sinner’s soul and the saved soul is loved by God, but the soul that fails to return to Him will die. See Ezekiel chapter 18. Our personal responsibility before God is to return to Him.

Devotional: Proverbs 18:19 – A brother offended is harder to win (over) than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a castle. The walls and bars of the natural mind preventing the Truth and Revelation of God are strong. Solomon understood much about private and public life and we can learn a great deal from his Proverbs. Like all of the Inspired (written) Word of God (The Holy Bible alone) is provided by God for the purpose of ‘reconciliation’ or I like this ‘to make friendly again!’

So, when the natural man looks at the TRUTH revealed by God’s Word and sees that they are at ‘odds’ with Him and His Word. Or as Scripture says that, the natural man has no peace, no patience and no pleasure with God (enmity), the natural and first response is that God hates them. 1 Corinthians 2:14 identifies this, that the unsaved person has no understanding that God is opposed to the natural minded person and still; God continues to love that person’s SOUL. Please review the context of 1 Corinthians 2.

God can only reveal His Love for us by His Grace and through our personal faith. See how this happens from Ephesians 2, the entire chapter will reveal several truths about the redeeming Power of God through the Blood of Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son. In the first part of the chapter verses 1 through 10 we see that the natural person is spiritually DEAD. A condition of being naturally alive and in accord with prince of the world ‘the devil’. Note that Paul says in verse 3, these folks are children of wrath. Note also verse 4 – but God who is rich in mercy, because of His great LOVE with which He loved us, provides a solution between this chasm.

First, we see the absolute condition (wall and bars) of the unsaved, they are by personal choice “children of wrath” and the absolute position (chasm) of God that even while being dead to God in sin (personal choice), God can and does by grace through personal faith reconcile (makes us friendly to Him) through the Blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ who is God’s Son, Ephesians 2:12-13. In this Truth and as His children we are no longer at odds with God – Romans 5:1-5, there is NO greater joy than to KNOW our soul is filled with the love of God!