A Word from You

Read: Romans 4
“For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression” Romans 4:15

Examine:
In the time before Christ the Jewish leaders built the law as their means to obtaining God. Their faith was not faith. It was a contract. They fulfilled their part and by law that would give them justification to demand something from God. This was never God’s intention for the law, for the law cannot bring righteousness. The purpose of the law was to prove our inability to live holy before God and to prepare us for the promise of God to justify us by faith in Christ.

Apply:
There is no scoreboard. There are no tally marks. There is no behavior chart. It is finished. Done. Completed. God calls me righteous. He calls me son. He has adopted me and given me an inheritance among the saints. There is no longer any wrath held against me. I am free. I am holy. I am righteous. There is nothing I did to deserve this and nothing I can do will undo it. God spoke it and so it is what He said it is.

Pray:
I have heard it said that faith preaches easy but it walks hard. This is a statement that I have learned to accept as being profoundly true. Faith demands that I move past what is seen and hold fast to what is unseen. My eyes still see my sin. My thoughts still see room to doubt. My instinct still sees trouble. In all of this, the only safe harbor is Your Word and Your Truth.

The trouble I find is that I can easily accept the promise of my eternity and my salvation by faith in Jesus, but I struggle to figure out how to merge faith with the day-to-day. There are times when I really do not feel like I have a promise from you regarding specific things I face. When I do not have a promise from You specific to a situation, I struggle to know where to place my faith and in what outcome to believe.

Right now my life and all its circumstances are completely built on faith. I cannot do anything about anything on my plate right now. It is all beyond my control and beyond my abilities. My only motive is a compulsion to serve You and be a part of Your ministry on this earth.

A ship cannot hold course if there is no rudder. It tosses back and forth with the waves and is driven mindlessly by the wind. That same is true of me. I feel like I understand the ship I have been given and know the desired destination; but the rudder has not yet been installed. Consequently I am left feeling unable to hold a course. In all things I acknowledge that Your mighty hand holds all things together. I thank You for Your sovereignty and presence in my life. You word says we have not because we ask not. I ask You for a word specific to the decisions I am having to make. A word from You is incomparably greater than any plan I could ever think of drafting.