As I read these words from David, the shepherd-king, I recall the words in the book of Numbers that I read just a few minutes prior. Those chapters were talking about the different sacrifices to be offered to the Lord, daily, weekly, monthly, and those special sacrifices throughout the year.

Israel had to really keep track of the calendar so as to get to the altar at the right time with the right sacrifice.

It would seem that focusing on the calendar came to distract them from the other things they were to be focused on.

God gave them detailed instructions about who and how they were to worship, and how they were to treat one another. It seems that the focus on sacrifices fostered the concept that if the sacrifice was going to be made anyway, whatever a person does doesn’t really matter. The blood would cover it.

David corrects that thought, saying that God would prefer we act according to His will over offering the sacrifices.

If we’re only going to do one, let it be doing right.

We can’t look down our noses at those folks, Believer, because we do the same thing now. We may not be committing the “big” sins, but we all have our little ones. I’m not sure why we call them “little” because they were laid on Jesus on the cross along with the big ones, but I digress. Because we see them as inconsequential, we don’t worry about them.

I shared that story about my neighbor because she needs prayer. Lord knows, she REALLY needs prayer.
No. You gossiped because it was juicy and felt good to tell someone else how that woman has fallen.

Yeah, I had an extra helping. It wasn’t all that great, but I needed to get full and that’s what was there.
No. You were gluttonous, trying to fill deep, unmet needs with food.

I didn’t have a pen like that at home, so I brought that one home from work. They have a ton of them there.
No. You stole because you thought that little thing didn’t matter.

We justify our sins because we know the Savior has died for them all. We know that the blood covers all of them.

This choice requires sacrifice of self. It requires that we think before acting. It requires that we make hard choices and choose Him and His choices for us every time. Thankfully, when we miss that mark, He forgives!

The point is, we should be constantly aiming for that mark of doing right in all situations. That’s what God wants from us.

Shall we give that a try today? Slow down enough to recognize there is a choice, then choose to do right according to God.

Coffee, Bible, Journal.

A little extra…

I gotta tell y’all, this one beat me up today. See, I don’t share these with you because God said, You tell them people they’re doing wrong. No, no, no. God says Faye, I’ve got something to tell you.

And so, I have to make course corrections before I can even share these things with you. I had a pastor once who told me that he got hit by all the branches before he got to where he could share the twigs with people.

Yeah. There are things that we do that are against God’s law and we don’t really think it’s a big deal.

Our culture has wound its way into us enough that that’s how we look at it, but it’s time that we start looking at his word.

It’s time that we start believing what he says and it’s time that we start accepting what he says is wrong.

James tells us that to know the right thing to do and not do it is sin. Ouch!

Yeah. So, you know, it’s time that we clean ourselves up a bit. And the way we do that, according to 1 John 1:9, is to confess.

All that means is telling God, “You are right, Lord, I have done wrong. What this was, was wrong, and I am sorry.” And he will take you and clean you up and set you back into the place of right standing with him.

It’s a pretty good deal.

But the best thing that we could do would be to choose to be obedient to Him to start with, choose to do the right thing, that just thing, in every circumstance. We don’t get to do that it’s like a checklist. It’s not going to be, “Okay, I did this today, and I did this today. Oh, and I did this today that’s not even on the list. Yes!”

No. This is all about that relationship with Christ. When we move noonday shadow close to him.

We hear his voice. When we get to know him and know his word we get to hear his heartbeat.

And when we hear his heartbeat, making the choice to do right and to be just isn’t that hard.

Are you ready to move closer to him today?

He promised if you would seek him he would be found.

We can do this. You can do this. I know you can. I believe in you. Better than that, Almighty God believes in you.

He is for you. He is your biggest cheerleader.

And he provides the way for you to walk this faithwalk with him.

 To view the video of this devotion and others, subscribe to my YouTube Channel. (Today’s will be available later today.)