Monday, August 24, 2015

Monday, August 24th: Psalms 116-118, 2 Corinthians 3 ~ Conrad

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan isPsalms 116-118, 2 Corinthians 3

In Psalm 116, the author indicates that God is our biggest asset available to us:
vs 1 - He hears our voice
vs 6 - He saves us from distress 

Verse 5 in Psalm 118 mentions the same idea - He hears us, He saves us.  

Who better than to put our trust in?  "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man." (vs 8)  This reminded me to place all my trust in God.  Not in myself.  Not in another person.  But in God alone.

The verse that stood out for me in our NT passage was verse 17:
17 Now the Lord[d] is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 

(It also reminded me of one of my favourite movies, Braveheart.  Where William Wallace is near death shouting out the word "freedom".)

We all want freedom.  When we were younger, we couldn't wait until we were 18 to begin experiencing some freedom.  When Pamela was in university, we couldn't wait for her freedom from days, evenings, and nights of studying.  While we're working, we look forward to freedom from that - retirement.  People take a warm getaway to experience some freedom from our nasty cold winters.  The desire for freedom is something we all experience.  When we achieve this freedom, we also find it to be short lived because it is not long after and we are looking for some other type of freedom.  

The freedom in the examples above are ones that we have control of, and we release the strings that hold us back.  True freedom, however, is found not in release from all restraint, but in submission to a new master - Jesus Christ.

Jesus delivered us from all bondage.  He set us free from sin and its guilt and punishment.  He set us free to experience the complete freedom that comes when the Spirit lives within us.  

I'm all for retiring early, but the long term complete freedom package that Christ offers is what I want to experience!


Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Psalms 119:1-88; 2 Corinthians 4

3 comments:

Nathan said...

The verse in Psalm 118:6 also stood out to me,

6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear.
What can man do to me?

Such a basic message, and seems to be easy to follow if we want true success. Yet, as we know, it's difficult to put our personal fears aside and truely believe and live this out. This is my continued prayer

Pamela said...

Great thoughts. I think that our search for freedom here on earth will be in vain because the only true freedom, as you mentioned, comes from God.

This verse stood out for me:

24 This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.

It's a simple reminder and I couldn't help but here the course in my head as I read it. How often do we ignore its truth. Each day is a gift and let's use it to honour him and not waste it away.

Tammy said...

The verse in Psalms that stood out to me was about the death of the saints being precious to God. It reminded me of something I heard recently that I hadn't thought of before - death is actually a blessing. As soon as sin entered the world, so did suffering and decay. Can you even imagine how horrible it would be to suffer with no death in sight to end the suffering and usher you into God's presence? Imagine how much evil people would do if they knew that nothing they did could kill you? Or getting a disease that would cause excruciating pain, but that you would never die from? Truly, God giving our bodies the "ability" to die is a blessing - to believers at least. For unbelievers, death is no release from pain and suffering - quite the opposite.