Month: September 2022

Romans 12:9-10 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

Lord, I am tired—mentally, physically, emotionally—and when I get tired, I lose sight of the big picture, I lose my ability to be sincere, to cling to what is good, to be devoted in love, to honor others above myself.

Romans 12:11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

Lord, I am so deeply entrenched in my feelings right now—overwhelm and exhaustion. There is no spiritual fervor. Everything is a chore, a daunting, taxing, never ending chore. I do not want to live this way, but I’m having trouble implementing a solution. Please help me.

Romans 12:12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Lord, I claimed Romans 12:12 as my life verse in my youth, but somehow I have wandered far away from joy, patience, and faith in my day-to-day life. Thank You for the clarity to see that I am allowing my exhaustion and overwhelm to draw my attention away from You and Your desire for me to love sincerely. Forgive me. Help me to draw closer to You. Always. Amen.

Romans 12:13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality

Have a blessed day.

Romans 11:22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.

As I read these verses, in my current state of mind five weeks into the school year, the thought that occurred to me is: Jesus must be exhausted. There’s so much monitoring, so much regrading if you will, to see if mercy, re-grafting is deserved, to see if a different branch needs cutting off due to unbelief.

Romans 11:23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

That is my own exhausted humanity speaking. I am thankful that God doesn’t function as I do. He doesn’t need sleep. He doesn’t have a finite number of hours in His day. He doesn’t get tired or frustrated or fed up.

Romans 11:24 After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

Lord, I pray to You verses 33-36, the doxology: Oh, the depth of Your riches of wisdom and knowledge! How unsearchable are Your judgments, and Your paths beyond tracing out! Who has known Your mind? Who has been Your counselor? Who has ever given to You, that You should repay them? For from You and through You and for You are all things. To You be the glory forever! Amen.

Romans 11:25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in….

Have a blessed day.

Romans 10:1-2 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.

What strikes me about verses 1-3 is that the Israelites have zeal but it’s not based in knowledge, and since they did not know God’s righteousness, they established their own idea of righteousness, which pushed them even further from God.

Romans 10:3 Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

That sounds so incredibly, frighteningly human. “I want God’s righteousness, but I don’t understand it, so I will create rules that allow me to say (and feel): I have kept all these rules; therefore, I am righteous.” A human construct masquerading as a biblical truth, which brings the seeker no closer to the goal of righteousness.

Romans 10:10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

Lord, Humans sometimes do ridiculous things in the name of trying to draw closer to You. Forgive us. Thank You that You are accessible, that You desire relationship with us. Help me, daily, to believe with my heart and profess with my mouth and draw closer to You. Amen.

Romans 10:11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

Have a blessed day.

Romans 9:14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!

If I started talking about what I *deserve* because of my age, my seniority, my hard work, my positive attitude, etc, I’m hopeful that it wouldn’t take me long to realize I am seriously off-track. And, usually, it doesn’t take long down the path of “positive things that I deserve” to realize that there are a whole lot of negative things I deserve, too, because of my impatience, my anger, my pride, my shortsightedness, etc.

Romans 9:15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

Thankfully, God doesn’t treat me as my behavior *deserves.* In the grand scheme of life, there are far more times where my attitude tends negative before I reign it back to positive. His grace is a gift that I take for granted, and that needs to stop.

Romans 9:16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

Precious Savior, Thank You for Your mercy and grace. Help me to treat others with the same compassion, not because they deserve it, but because You extend such grace to me when I don’t. Amen.

Romans 9:17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

Have a blessed day.

Romans 8:14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

Years ago, when my sister began her first foray into adoption, I had fears about whether I could love an adopted child like I loved my biological son and nephews. Now, I realize those were just the normal doubts of whether I had enough love to cover one more. I had similar fears when I was pregnant with my second child: Was there enough love to go around? The answer is “Of course!” My adopted niece and nephew are loved just as much, just as completely. There is no division, no distinction. They are all family.

Romans 8:15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

This journey to understanding in my own life has helped me to understand adoption into God’s family better. Just like there is no distinction within the cousins—they are all cousins, all family, all deeply loved—there is no distinction in God’s family either. We are His, we are family, we are deeply loved.

Romans 8:16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

Lord, Thank You that we belong to You, adopted to sonship. Thank You for the right to call You Abba, Father. Thank You that we are brothers and sisters in Christ—deeply loved, fully family. Help us to live boldly as Your children. Amen.

Romans 8:17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Have a blessed day. I love you.

Romans 7:21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

Commentary helped me to make sense of this section and it ties quite closely to yesterday’s reflection. It is because of the law that we recognize what we should not do, but our fleshy humanity lacks the strength to save ourselves. We need a Savior, Jesus, to save us from the evil we know we should not do. Recognizing that we cannot save ourselves is a crucial step.

Romans 7:22-23 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.

I know I should not crave validation from others. I know I should not be prideful or boastful, angry or arrogant. And yet, as much as I want to not do these things, I’m in the middle of them before I know it. And I know *I* can’t stop. I can only turn to Jesus for help and keep trying. And that’s the right move. Acknowledging my helplessness, turning to my Savior, and continuing to try.

Romans 7:24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

Precious Savior, Thank You for understanding that I cannot save myself. Thank You for helping me understand the same. Thank You for the power of admitting my weakness, the power of turning the situation over to You, the power in continuing to try again. Amen.

Romans 7:25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Have a blessed day.

Romans 6:6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—

I’m not going to lie—this chapter gives me a lot of trouble for a lot of reasons. I know “good Christian people” who are still neck-deep in sin. I know “good Christian people” who are so judgmental and narrow minded but fail to see how it leads them to sin. It’s truly difficult for me to reconcile.

Romans 6:7 …because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

More than that, *I* have died to sin and been reborn in Christ, and yet I struggle daily with pride, anger, frustration, overwhelm, etc—all sins that separate me from my Savior. Yet I don’t think that makes me a failure. It makes me human. And I keep trying.

Romans 6:10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

Lord, In 2 Cor 12, Paul prays three times for You to remove the thorn from his side. But You say to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Help me, like Paul in 2 Cor 12, to boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. Your grace is all I need. Amen

Romans 6:11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Have a blessed day.

Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Peace with God, grace in which we stand, these words are soothing to my soul this morning. What did I do to deserve His peace and grace? Absolutely nothing but be His creation. This is His gift, and I am eternally grateful.

Romans 5:3-4 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Glorying in suffering is a harder pill to swallow. No one enjoys suffering. But I do know first hand that suffering opens my heart to God in a way that can’t happen when life is smooth sailing. That definitely gives me hope.

Romans 5:5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Lord, Thank You. Truly. Amen.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Have a blessed day.

Romans 4:4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation.

I am a hard worker. You tell me what needs doing—give me the parameters, the rules—and get out of the way, because I’ve got this. Tell me what an A looks like, and I can give you A-level work, no problem. That ability, those traits have served me well academically.

Romans 4:5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

But Paul’s point is that faith isn’t a problem to be solved, it isn’t a report to be written or a set of rules to be followed. Faith must involve the heart. It is a gift, one that can never be earned, one that can never be deserved. Rule-following won’t get you there. Sunday school attendance won’t do it. Faith in God alone, faith in His gift of grace and His right to bestow it to whom He sees fit, is the only way.

Romans 4:14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless….

Lord, I’ve struggled for years with the term “human being” because I feel the need to do, to perform, to prove instead of just to be. Thank You for the gift of Your grace, that I can’t earn it, that I can’t justify my receiving of it. Help me just to be thankful for it and to tell others of Your glory. Amen.

Romans 4:16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

Have a blessed day.

Romans 3:5 But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.)

Humans are frighteningly good at coming up with justifications. Paul, in this chapter, is going through several human justifications about righteousness and faith. As you can see by reading through the verses here, there are some real doozies.

Romans 3:6 Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world?

But Paul tells us in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ….” There is one justification—faith in Christ, nothing else. At our hearts, we know that, but Paul cuts to the quick with his argument.

Romans 3:7 Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?”

Lord, Forgive me when I try to justify myself, my actions, my mistakes and missteps. I am nothing without You. Draw me closer, always. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Amen.

Romans 3:8 Why not say—as some slanderously claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is just!

Have a blessed day.