THE LORD SPOKE (August 10)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: Psalms 35-37

Psalm 36:2 - “For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin.”

How do you hate sin?

(1) Consider its consequences. Just stop for one moment and think about the outcome of your actions. Think of the grief and remorse you will feel afterwards. Think of the pain you will bring to others that you love. Consider the results. The “pleasures of sin are for a short time” (Heb. 11:25) but you’ll spend a lifetime regretting that moment. Maybe several lifetimes! Your influence will lead others to mimic your lifestyle and repeat your sin and you’ll have to see it repeated in their lives too. So...

(2) Look at the little eyes that are watching you. They are very perceptive and learn quickly from seeing what you do. They pick up quickly from what you’ve taught them and can see the inconsistencies between your words and your actions.

(3) Remember what Jesus did for you. He made the ultimate sacrifice - Himself - for you. He died and now He’s pleading as your advocate before the bar of heaven at this moment. He’s a good lawyer but, if His client won’t cooperate, His work is rendered ineffective. Can you let Him down like that?

(4) Think of your heavenly Father’s grief. Just as a good dad here on earth is saddened by his son’s wrong choices in life, so too your Father in heaven is grieved when you choose sin over righteousness. He hurts when you don’t follow His plan for you.

(5) Consider the joy of obedience. This verse (Ps. 36:2) nails it down. It nails us down. We “flatter” ourselves to the point that we don’t even perceive our own sin. We don’t “detect” our own defects. I John 1:8,10 says:

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves [we sure don’t fool anyone else] and the truth is not in us....If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

So give God’s Word some space in your life and do what it says in the skipped verse (I Jn. 1:9):

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Or, as David says in this psalm (Ps. 36:7-9):

How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.

Isn’t that a better way to live?


New Testament: James 5

Being sick is not fun. If we feel “something coming on”, we start to take aspirin right away in an attempt to avoid it. The days of antibiotics seem like forever. A relapse is horrible because just when you think you’re getting better, you start all over.

Jesus made it clear that sickness is not always caused by sin. Sickness (or any broken-ness, for that matter) is one of the results of sin but every instance of sickness is not necessarily God’s judgment upon an individual’s sin. On one occasion a man blind from birth was brought to Jesus and people asked, “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither...but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (Jn. 9:3).

Here are some possible reasons for illness. You may find some comfort in realizing that it could be part of a much bigger plan that God has for you. Illness...

• reminds us of death
• makes us think seriously about God
• makes us sympathetic to others
• changes our outlook on life
• humbles us
• tests our faith
• brings us to live prepared to meet God
• drives us to our knees

James adds one more. In the context of prayer for the sick (Jas. 5:14-16), he begins with “any one of you” but turns it to “one another” and ends with “that you all may be healed” [plural in Greek]. There is a value of community that comes from sickness. When we’re concerned for the well-being of each other, we’re drawn together. The fellowship of suffering can sometimes unite us better than anything else.