Daily Reading
Daily Thought
The sin common to all is unbelief. It may be a lack of faith in God’s good intent when I fool myself into thinking I know better what will satisfy my desire than God does. Or it may be a disbelief in the certainty and finality of God’s judgment, brushing aside “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), as Eve did when she trusted the serpent above God. “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4), hissed the snake.
Yes you will.
These common sins are a terrible sins, yet there is worse, and that is a sin of rebellion. Rebellion is not unbelief; rather it believes and rejects. Jehoiakim “was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord” (2Kings 23:36-37). His reign was the end of the road for Judah, yet God was still extending grace. The Lord instructed Jeremiah, “Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin” (Jeremiah 36:2-3).
One last chance.
The scroll was read to the people of Judah, and they responded rightly, with fear and fasting, until the scroll came to the king. As the scroll was read to the king, three or four columns at a time, “the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire” (Jeremiah 36:23).
The sin rooted in rebellion is Satan’s sin, a defiance that says, “I believe God, and his way is true, even good, but I prefer my way because I prefer me.”
Daily Prayer
Heavenly Father, Your Word is life itself. It lights the path in front of me and leads me in the way everlasting. It is good, and it is good for me. I will read it and hear it, listen to it and follow it. I will put it in my heart and meditate on it.
There are other words, other advisers, calling out to me, distracting me from Your Word and Your way. What they offer sounds fun and free, worldly and wonderful. May I choose what is heavenly and good, what comes from faith and gives hope. May I choose Your joy and Your love. May I choose You.
Amen
Daily Question
When have you preferred your plans over God’s plans?