Publish his glorious deeds among the nations.
….Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.
Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! Psalm 96:3-4a NLT
Acts 3:12-26 (<<click here to read the passage)
Why are we so set in our ways? There are times when we refuse to move out of our way of thinking and other times it’s just easier to remain with our limited mindsets. It would take too much time or effort or resources on our part to go another direction. And when I say “we”, I’m not just talking about you and me, I’m talking about a majority of humanity from the beginning of time!
A note in my Life Application Study Bible says that beginning with Abraham God had promised that He would bless the world through Abraham’s descendants, the Jewish race (Genesis 12:3), from which the Messiah would come.
And the last part of the note is what grabbed my attention.
God intended the Jewish nation to be a separate and holy nation that would teach the world about God, introduce the Messiah, and then carry on his work in the world. After the days of Solomon, the nation gave up its mission to tell the world about God.
In the very beginning, God’s human creation decided to separate themselves from God’s perfect agenda. They allowed sin to enter the world and cut themselves off from continuing God’s work in the world He had created.
Through the centuries, there were a few here and there who truly strove to follow God’s directive for their lives…but sin made it extremely difficult. Our mindsets and free will constantly trip us up!
In Paul’s writings to the Romans, he hit the nail on the head. He said,
I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. Romans 7:15-20 NLT
That’s our problem but I need to pull up the reigns here. I finished writing this post, but it is way too long. So, I will put out the rest of it tomorrow! Hang in there, I pray that it will be worth waiting for!
Lord Jesus, plant this seed in our hearts. May it begin to grow and then grow even more when the rest of it is shared tomorrow. Amen!
Jan 19th, 2022, Wed, 7:36 pm
