07/08/2017
How loyal are we to our Lord Jesus Christ? I am inclined to say "absolutely!", but then I catch myself pausing the television on some terrible show filled with foul language. Am I really serving God faithfully, or do I walk a fine line between righteousness and serving my base human desires?
“And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."”
Joshua 24:15 ESV
In those few moments when my finger hovers above the remote control and I watch something that takes me astray, there is a scripture that shouts out to me...
“Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.”
Malachi 3:18 ESV
I have failed him... even in an instant. Can you relate to what I am saying? Have you been in some situation that for a moment, an hour, a day, or longer, you have been taken from worshiping God and returned to the feet of a god you thought that you had abandoned entirely?
We justify our indiscretions by saying "it is human nature", and most certainly it is, but there is another nature that resides within us too, and it should be the stronger... faith, spirituality, and a longing for God. So in a moment when we drop our guard, humanity hits us squarely in the face.
When I was a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute we were required to take a boxing class. At the end of the semester we would fight several matches to show we had mastered the skills being taught, and were graded. I was doing very well in my matches and had won them all, but during my final fight I had to box a cadet that was quite a bit shorter than me. The fight was going along well until my mind wandered away to his height. In that brief instant he stepped forward and bloodied my nose. I would wipe the blood from my face with my glove and hit him... in the end both of our faces were covered in my blood. The coach called the match a draw, and I was very disappointed.
In a moment of inattention I had dropped my guard and it cost me the victory. This happens to us in faith as well. Our guard against sin drops, ever so briefly, and the old person we used to be steps forward and tags us right in the nose. The difference lies in the fact that during my VMI boxing match it didn't matter to the coach how many punches I connected with... all he remembered was the one that bloodied me... but to God, He doesn't see our blood, He sees the blood of Jesus, and forgives us completely... we fight on without the wound of sin.
So regardless of those moments when I find myself taking my eyes from the throne of God, I can rest in His forgiveness, and be thankful for His grace. In such moments Jesus will say "go and sin no more"... expecting me to remain pure, and unstained by my own blood, or the blood of the world I face. His sacrifice is sufficient.
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
James 1:27 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the grace that abounds in you. I thank you for the blood of Jesus, and your forgiveness when I slip away from you into the humanity that longs to control me. Lord, help my righteousness to win out over the humanity that I seek so desperately to suppress. Give me strength of character and an abundance of faith. Send me Aaron and Hur to hold my arms so that my guard will not drop and your victory will be sealed. Most Gracious Father, in those moments when my nose is bloodied, hear my plea for forgiveness, and witness the contrition in me as I humble myself before you. I claim victory in Jesus, and wear his blood, not mine, as a badge of honor.
Rich Forbes
“But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.”
Exodus 17:12 ESV