7 FEB 23 Tuesday: A Closer Walk Devotional
“It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore. For our sins are piled up before God and testify against us. Yes, we know what sinners we are.” Isaiah 59:2, 12
We can become pretty good at pointing the finger at others when they do wrong, but have difficulty seeing our own sin and evil. This past week during an awards show on television, a few entertainers dressed like Satan and demons to worship their own unholy lifestyles. It is in your face and easy to see demonic and evil activity in most of the music, movies, and our culture. We can forget that sin and evil operate in us.
God’s own people in the Hebrew Bible wandered far from God on a number of occasions. God sent messengers to tell the people that they were worse than the foul culture that they lived in and sent them into captivity as punishment. God made clear that their sins are blocking their prayers and relationship. He revealed to them their state of sinfulness like a mirror.
God’s people had adopted the ways of the surrounding culture by worshiping their idols and their lifestyles. They were chosen by God and set apart to be wholly different from the nations around them, to be holy. They probably thought since they were God’s children they could do no wrong in his eyes. They were dead wrong.
As Christians today, are we allowing the culture to mold and shape us? Jesus tells us to take on the attributes of salt in Mark 9, so we can preserve one another and stay off decay. It also seasons to what is right and good. It’s not enough to stop listening and watching the culture’s wicked and sinful programs. We have to start living in the light and being holy.
Have you taken the time to examine yourself in the light of God’s word?
Reading Plan: Psalm 78:1-39; Isa. 59:1-15a; 2 Tim. 1:1-14; Mark 9:42-50
Daily Office Year 1
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