Week
1 Abide and Rest
Day 5
Do
Not Be Ashamed
Don’t accept guilt. There is no shame in
enjoying enjoyable food. Do not be ashamed, and do not be afraid.
Beloved, food is not good or bad. Food is food.
When the Lord directs you to abstain for the
sake of your spirit, obey.
There will be feast days once more.
Walk with the Lord, and He will teach you how
to walk in freedom.
T
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We must remove our eyes from the
filth of our own sin and place them on Jesus, but that isn’t all we are to do.
Repentance calls for a cessation of sin, and it is no good looking at Jesus if
we don’t follow Him. We aren’t supposed to ignore the looming danger of the
consequences of disobedience, but we find the tools to cut the ropes that bind
us in our Savior’s hands and not our own. There is hope for us because, through
Christ, our efforts to break free from sin are backed by Holy Spirit power.
We often get caught up in an effort
to find the correct way to proceed in our efforts to turn from sin. Shall we count calories, or eat low carb, or
begin a walking program or…the choices are endless. What to do? I think we err when we desire a formula for
repentance. A mother whose toddler is about to fall over a cliff doesn’t care
if the child crawls, walks, or hops away from the edge, just so long as the
child moves to safety and within reach of her arms. As our Holy parent, God
simply wants us to turn from the sin and run to Him. There is no formula; there
is only the warmth of His embrace.
While there isn’t a checklist or
procedure, there are holy disciplines that will facilitate the Lord’s
transforming work rather than hinder it, and gratitude is one of these. When my
daughter’s baby son stopped breathing in the night and had to be resuscitated,
she did not use stress as an excuse to sin. Instead, she began a gratitude
journal. In the midst of sleepless nights and appointments with specialists, my
daughter did not rail out against God; she looked for reasons to come before Him with thanksgiving. This
simple practice brought her peace in the midst of a tumultuous time of her life
because it helped her focus on the ways God was taking care of her and her
beloved little boy.
An appropriate goal for the coming days is to increase intake of Scripture.
Don’t just read; meditate upon, memorize, ponder, and digest God’s word. Also,
consider beginning a gratitude journal of your own, but instead of listing
earthly blessings, record attributes of the Lord that will feed your heart’s
thankfulness for Him. It is good to be thankful for God’s gifts, but the
underlying knowledge that the treasures we can see and touch are temporary can
taint our thankfulness with sorrow or fear. By contrast, God is unchanging, and
thankfulness for Him can flow even through times when our life circumstances
bring more clouds than sun.
We have great freedom within the
parameters of obedience. There are as many ways of navigating our way to
freedom as there are beautifully precious and unique human beings, but there is
only one path, and His name is Jesus Christ.
Pray: Dear God, I’ve failed in so
many ways. I’ve made resolutions time and again and I’ve let myself, my loved
ones, and You down. But I look at Jesus and I see Him beckoning me to follow.
He is smiling and excited that I am coming along. Lord I accept Your
invitation. I love You. I will follow You.
Amen.
Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot
be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and
awe...
Hebrews 12:28
[i]
John Piper. Day 6: Read Your Bible More and More, 15 Days in the Word With John
Piper, Copyright ©2012 Desiring God Foundation. Find many free audio, video and
written resources by John Piper (including translations!) at www.desiringGod.org
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