Father, thank You for the blessings on this relatively normal day. It’s easy to forget to be grateful for normal, but I sure am. All praise to You!
Acts 3:12-26 (<<click here to read the passage)
(This is part two of yesterday’s post – God’s Perfect Agenda – check it out before you read this one.)
When Abraham came along, he listened to God. He followed God’s leading – and yes, he messed some things up, too – but overall, things continued to move in the right direction. Of course, for Israel, there were plenty of ups and downs…alright probably quite a few more downs, but God kept encouraging them to move forward.
God gave them all the direction they needed to be a nation set apart and holy. But they couldn’t escape sin’s constant intrusion. Selfishness, arrogance, lust, greed…they all wiggled their way into the mindsets of God’s holy people.
God desired to reach the world through His people. But they lost interest in the things of God. They chased after their own heart’s desires. And even when God’s Chosen One, the Messiah – Jesus, stood right in front of them, they rejected Him. Sin did what sin always does. It put up a wall between us and God.
Peter, with his infilling of the Holy Spirit, continued to proclaim what God had wanted us to understand from the beginning. We messed things up but God had made a Way for the chasm between us to be eliminated.
Jesus Christ’s self-sacrifice – taking upon Himself the sins of the world, dying in our stead, and His victory over death and the grave became the Way to overcome sin’s control. Yes, we still struggle. We still fall. But the Holy Spirit is there to pick us up, dust us off, and encourage us to keep moving upward and onward!
We are still called to separate ourselves. We are still called to be holy. Peter and company succeeded in bringing literally thousands of people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, but only because they allowed the Holy Spirit to fill them and use them. When He is in control, He enables us to remain separate and holy. We think differently than the world does. We act differently than the world does. When we do things the world’s way, sin influences us, and both we and the world lose. When we do things God’s way, He influences us, and we are victorious.
Lord Jesus, You created us so that You could have someone to love and that we would love You back. And though we messed up Your plan, You have put everything in place so that we can get back to that place. And You use us to accomplish that goal. May we willingly be used as Your hands and feet to reach the world with the Good News of that message. Amen.
Jan 20th, 2022, Thurs, 8:38 pm
