If He Did What We Deserve

For ten days I underwent training to be an assessor as part of my responsibilities for a new job I will be taking with the military.  By Friday night of the second week I was exhausted.  This job is intense because it requires me (when I am on call) to make a final recommendation to senior U.S. or Canadian leaders at the critical point of what appears to be an enemy attack.  Because I have no experience in aviation, I have to learn new terminology and methodologies in order to make key decisions for terrible contingencies that can occur rapidly.

One of my test runs went poorly and instead of certifying me, my team of evaluators recommended I receive more training. There is no hurrying this process and I am fortunate to be surrounded by patient instructors.  Honestly, I am amazed that a team with thousands of flight hours and experience in analyzing threats would trust an Army guy to take on this challenging role.  
 
Meditation
Psalm 130:3,4—Yahweh, if You considered sins, Lord, who could stand?  But with You there is forgiveness, so that You may be revered.
 
I’m aware of how often I fall short in rushing to judgment, in speaking too soon, in focusing on my own needs instead of the needs of others, etc.  So I find the Psalmist’s observations above to be profound.  Consider that in Psalm 111 we learn that all that God does is “splendid and majestic; His righteousness endures forever . . . The works of His hands are truth and justice; all His instructions are trustworthy.  They are established forever and ever, enacted in truth and in what is right” (111:3,7,8).  

If God decided to judge us against His standards, we would have no chance!  Yet even before Jesus lived on earth, the Psalmist understood that with God there is forgiveness.  He knew that he and his countrymen were guilty of breaking Yahweh’s laws yet still God chose to frequently pardon His people.  Because of His forgiveness, He is to be revered. 

Are we grateful to serve a forgiving Father? If He did what we deserved we’d be finished.  Instead, He does what He deserves.  He gives us a Savior, a plan of redemption and a future which allows us to be transformed so that we can praise Him forever!  

​Don’t ever let Satan make you think you are a failure or that you have messed up and don’t deserve God’s forgiveness.  The fact is he is a miserable liar who refuses to worship his Creator and wants desperately to destroy our relationship with God as well.  The truth is your Father loves you!  Because of your repentance and faith to follow His Son, you are part of His family so that you can participate on His permanent praise team! 
 
Inspiration
The object of God’s will and purpose of love is mankind as one, mankind as an organism, mankind in its totality—in its moral totality round the redeeming conscience of Christ and His Reconciliation.—P.T. Forsyth in The Christian Ethic of War
 
©2015 Daniel York  ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)