Dear Father, I want to thank You this morning for being the stabilizing factor in my life. Even with all the ups and downs, You are the hand on my rocking boat. All praise and glory go to You!
Matthew 18:8-9 (<<click the green)
It is pretty rare, but what if you were to develop skin cancer on your hand? Wouldn’t you be concerned? Would you ignore it or would you get it taken care of by a professional as soon as possible?
Addressing it in a timely manner would be the wisest course of action but what if you chose to disregard it? What if you decided that it wasn’t that big of a deal and if you got around to it at some point later in life that would be fine? What if it metastasized and began to affect other areas of your life and not having it removed was now life threatening, what would you do? Close your eyes and pretend that it wasn’t there?
That’s crazy! But isn’t that quite often how we treat sin in our lives? At first, it may be relatively easy to ignore. We keep a lot of our sin hidden from the sight of others. It’s not a big deal. No one can see it. Even though we all realize that God sees everything – we still choose to pretend like our sin isn’t there! God cannot be fooled – the last portion of Numbers 32:23 states “…you may be sure that your sin will find you out.”
Today’s passage of Scripture is a little jarring – and by no means is Jesus implying that we should take His statements literally – but sin in our lives must be radically addressed!
“So if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand or one foot than to be thrown into eternal fire with both of your hands and feet.”
Sin must be eradicated! And only we can bring it to the Lord to have it removed. No one else can do it for us and only Christ can remove it!
Lord Jesus, help us all. Absolutely no one is free from sin. We all struggle. We all fall. Not a single one of us is innocent…except You. You are the sinless sacrifice in whom we find salvation. Only You can set us free from the bondage of our sin. You alone are the Great Physician who can eradicate the cancer of sin in our lives.
July 23rd, 2018, Mon, 6:45 am
