Daily Verse: Titus 2:11-12

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,

 

Our world today prescribes to the idea of “Whatever makes you happy”. If there is something that makes you happy, the go for it…you deserve to be happy and live your life the way YOU want to live it. It’s a logical, easily adoptable and defendable way of life. But when you compare this worldly idea to the instruction found in God’s Word, there are many glaring inconsistencies.  There are many ways of living that the world promotes and encourages, but as followers of Jesus Christ, we are instructed to simply say “No” to.  At times, living by God’s instruction can seem illogical, inconvenient, and difficult…in fact it might even get expensive and cause us to lose some relationships that we currently value. But when we step back and look at the bigger picture…when we see where we are now and where we expect to be tomorrow…we see the incredible sacrifice that was made on our behalf. We see the Almighty God coming down to earth in the form of man, taking an incredible, unjustified beating, then dying on the cross…not for HIS benefit, but for OURS. God had the ability to pull a “Noah’s Ark” type scenario, wipe the world clean, and start over. Yet he did not…instead he took the punishment upon himself so that WE might benefit. We don’t seek to do good because we have a God that stands above us with a hammer in hand, waiting to smack us on the dome when we make a mistake. Rather we seek to do good because we have this deep passion and desire to please the Lord…to serve the Lord that has placed every good thing right in our laps and promises to bring us into his heaven when it’s all said and done here on earth. Verses 13-14 seem to capture it well: “while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” May we be eager to do good today, eager to please the Lord, and eager to stand against the sin that fills this world. To God be the glory!