Daily Reading: Matthew 12
Scripture Focus: And it was restored, healthy like the other. (Matthew 12.13)
Devotional Thought: My friend, Dan, 'flips' houses. He buys run-down houses and restores them to homes. Another friend, Tom, buys and restores old cars, then sells them to provide transportation to others. Jesus is in the restoration business, too. He buys old, run-down lives, fixes them up, and puts them back into circulation!
In Matthew 12, Jesus met a man at church (in the synagogue) "with a withered hand." That in itself is a lesson to us that not everybody in church is in mint condition. The man didn't let his withered hand keep him away from the place of spiritual worship and learning. Some people let their sins or their faults keep them away from the church, away from God. "When I get my life straightened up, then I'll come to God." That is a lie from Satan! No person can straighten up their lives to the point that they can come to God. The man with a withered hand recognized that the very place he needed to be was in church!
Other people, will let the sins and faults of others keep them away from church, away from God. They reason, "Why should I go there? They are no better than me." That is the truth from Satan! It is true that the people in the church are no 'better' than those away from God. But, if we used that same logic, we would not go to the doctor or hospital, because the people there are just as sick - or sicker! - than we are.
But, Jesus has purchased us all with his blood, so that he can restore us to the image of God, make us healthy in spirit, and use us for his purposes.
Thanks be to God!
Prayer: Thank you, Jesus, for shedding your blood on the cross of Calvary. You have redeemed me and you are even now restoring me, so that I can rediscover the life I was always meant to live. Amen.
Psalm of the Day: Psalm 89.46-52
46 How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire? 47 Remember how short my time is! For what vanity you have created all the children of man! 48 What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah
49 Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David? 50 Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked, and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations, 51 with which your enemies mock, O Lord, with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed.
52 Blessed be the Lord forever! Amen and Amen.
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