Sin Atoned

For Friday, March 10, 2006
Proverbs 16:6

By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for,
and by the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil.

Yes, you can have a second chance. You can put the past behind you. You can turn from being identified with sin to being a child of God. You can have the ending of Scrooge. All it takes is a change of the heart. And God joyfully provides such a change; his Son makes atonement for all your sins; his Spirit gives you a new heart.

So you may now live a life of steadfast love and faithfulness. You may now turn away from evil by the fear of the Lord. Have you sinned today? Of course you have. But do not despair. It is your love that you possess in Christ that God keeps record of; it is your turning to him in faithfulness - turning to him for refuge, for forgiveness - that he holds dear. It is the fear of the Lord that causes you to grieve over your sin and turn to God. Grieve over your sin, but rejoice in the steadfast love and faithfulness of God to forgive and to hold on to you.

And in your rejoicing, continue to show such love and faithfulness to God (we love because he first loved us) and to your brother and sister in the Lord (by this we are known as Christ's disciples) and to everyone (love your neighbor as yourself). By such a heart and by such action, your sins are more than atoned for - i. e. the good you do will overshadow the wrong, and you will be known not for hurts you have caused but for blessing you have given.

Be Assured

For Thursday, March 9, 2006
Proverbs 16:5

Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord;
be assured, he will not go unpunished.

Who is arrogant in heart? He is the one who is assured of himself. He is assured that his success is the result of his cleverness, his natural ability, his taking charge of his own life. He may even be assured that he has outwitted God and is able to act with impunity.

This proverb tells us that there is one thing we can of which we can be assured - and that is in God. God, the Judge, will carry out justice. He does not look on the wickedness with indifference; be assured, all who are unjust will not go unpunished. And Proverbs does equate arrogant in heart with wickedness and injustice. Arrogance by definition is a crime against others and certainly against God. It causes one to despise others without cause and to promote oneself over others without just cause. It robs a neighbor of the love that is demanded by God. It distorts truth and creates an idol out of oneself. It mocks God and robs him of his glory.

Or more truthfully, tries to rob God. Be assured, God will not be mocked, and no one can rob him of what belongs to him. Thus, God turns man's arrogance into opportunity to be further glorified. That glory is shown through God vindicating himself in justice, and through the marvelous act of redeeming. Be assured, the arrogant in heart will not go unpunished if they are not brought to repentance. Whether in this life and/or the next, full justice will be rendered. Pray for justice to come in this life and they be led to repentance and know God's glory through his redeeming power.

A Purpose

For Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Proverbs 16:4

The Lord has made everything for its purpose,
even the wicked for the day of trouble.

This proverb is for us to turn to when events like 9-11 occur. Such events cause us to ask, "Where was God?" "Why did this happen?" "Is God in control?" "Will the wicked get away with this?" This proverb says that the wicked get away with nothing. It says that even 9-11 was under the control of God and serves the purpose or purposes for which he, not the wicked, intended.

Such a teaching might seem discomforting. How could God be involved in such a monstrous event? Religious leaders were quick that year to disavow God’s involvement and cast him as a sympathetic onlooker. It is true that God is not the author of evil as James 1:13 teaches. But if God is merely a compassionate God who wishes bad things didn’t happen, if God was watching the airplanes heading into the buildings simply wishing they would miss, consider then the greater discomforting thought – we are on our own. I had no loved ones die on 9-11, but I have had loved ones die "before their time." And I tell you now that the comforting thought is that their deaths fit into God’s plans. That he is working all things out, including, especially including, all the bad, rotten stuff that goes on. He is working all things out for the purpose which he intended. The wicked are getting away with nothing. Whether they are acting in conscious defiance of God; whether they foolishly think they are pleasing God; whatever the case, they can do nothing but what he permits and what will serve his purpose.

That gives me comfort because the most despairing thought of all is not that good people suffer and die, but that they suffer and die for no reason; that ultimately there is no reason for why anything happens, good or bad. That in time no one is remembered; nothing serves any purpose. Keep in mind, that whatever happens (and we have no guarantee what may happen); keep in mind that The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.

Commit-Commend

For Tuesday, March 7, 2006
Proverbs 16:3

Commit your work to the Lord,
and your plans will be established.

Literally, the term for "commit" is "roll." We are to roll to the Lord what we do. The idea is similar to the expression "put in the hands of the Lord." I wonder if the term "commend" might not be better. We are to commend to the Lord what we do, placing in his hands the outcome of our actions, trusting him to preserve us, cause good to come forth, and he be glorified. It is to leave to God the results, trusting in his sovereign will.

To commend our ways requires that we have already commended ourselves to God. It may be helpful here to distinguish between committing ourselves and commending ourselves. We tend to mean by commit that we act out of our own power to do something for God. To commend ourselves to God is to give up trying to do for God and to turn to him to act for us. To commend ourselves is to recognize that even when we make commitments, we are doing so under the power of God to make and keep us committed.

This trust in God to act for us is not a blind trust. The Jews founded their trust on God’s deliverance from Egypt, preserving them in the wilderness, and leading them into the Promised Land. We establish our trust on Christ’s deliverance wrought on the cross. He delivered us, has preserved our souls, and has led us into his kingdom. Therefore, we trust him to continue to deliver, preserve, and ultimately glorify us.

If we commend to the Lord whatever we do, if we show peaceful trust, then plans have a way of falling into place. Doors have a way of opening up and the wrong doors closing. If our motivations are right, the plans take the right form and achieve the right results. I think that is the primary point of the proverb. One who has commended himself and his ways to the Lord generally finds that his plans succeed, because those plans themselves are in line with God’s will.

But understand that the very act of commending one’s ways to the Lord implies that we accept the times when our plans do not succeed. Indeed, it means that we are trusting God to alter our plans as necessary and even to bring needed chastisement. Commending our ways to the Lord means that we are trusting God, rather than ourselves, to know our hearts fully, to know our motivations and for him to act accordingly. To commend our ways to the Lord is to keep in mind that we and our ways belong to him and are to serve for his purposes and glory.

The Spirit Weighed

For Monday, March 6, 2006
Proverbs 16:2

All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
but the Lord weighs the spirit.

All our ways, even our sinful ways, seem right at the time. Our anger seems justifiable; our fudging of the truth seems reasonable; our pride feels more like concern for God's honor; our idolatry seems harmless.

But we are to remember, it is the Lord who weighs the spirit. And the Lord weighs with accurate scales. Such a reality should be sobering and a relief. It should be sobering that nothing, not even the sin that we don't see in ourselves, is missed by God. If we examine ourselves in light of that knowledge, we will see what we have unconsciously covered over. If we shed the defensiveness that makes us hypocrites even to ourselves and ask with sincerity "search me, o God," then the more clear we will see ourselves and honestly weigh our motives.

This truth is also a relief in that it removes the burden of having to cover up our sinful motives. The Lord weighs the spirit with perfect equity. We gain nothing but grief and burden trying to justify ourselves; we gain nothing trying to make our ignoble ways seem pure. The Lord knows all. But if we strive for honesty with ourselves and the Lord; if we yield willingly to him our spirits to be examined, knowing that he will find much sin; then all the more we can revel in his grace and mercy. For our hope lies not in what the scales reveal about our sinfulness, but what they reveal about the weightiness of God's grace and mercy, and about the justice rendered on the cross of Christ.