Yes, I know...I missed a day. I'm going through a slightly hard time right now, and prayer would be appreciated. But I'm not going down without a fight, so I'm writing about yesterday's devotional first, and then I'll post again later with today's.
Yesterday talked about the passage where Jesus washes His disciples' feet. The more I think about it, the more awestruck I am. We're talking about God here doing the most demeaning of tasks. It was necessary, however, if Jesus was to make a point. If He can do the lowliest of tasks, then we have absolutely no excuse. We are to be servants to others, with no regard for ourselves.
Ecclesiastes is hard to read, since Solomon is the writer and he's the second-wisest guy ever to walk the earth (the first being Jesus, naturally). Things tend to float over my head when I read this book. The end of chapter 11 really grabbed me, though. Solomon advises the young to start living for God now: "Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment." So there it is. The whole "Jesus died for me, so I can do whatever I want and be forgiven later" argument doesn't work. Sometimes I forget this, which is sad, because it's important. We may be forgiven, but we are not free from judgment.
Solomon sums up everything in one sentence at the end: "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." Yay for simplicity! If we do that, we should be fine. And Jesus makes that even easier: if we live for Him and fear Him, then the following of the commandments will naturally follow.
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