Day 101

I don't have an awful lot to say today (because I'm running a bit late), but I do want to say that today's reading was fantastic.

The passage from Joshua was about how one man can change the fate of an entire nation. One man stole from God's treasury and doomed thousands upon thousands. One man was able to lose favor in God's eyes for all of Israel... Because of his greed. But the best part of the story? God knows. And God is going to call out the guilty one.. Although the punishment is grotesque (burning to death), what you do will never go under the eyes of God.

It's like being on a diet, and you aren't able to eat certain things, but you do anyways. Others may not know, and you might deny it to yourself, but that doesn't change the fact that that food is in your body...

Then the prodigal son. Probably one of my favorite stories. And it's honestly because I identify with both brothers and their faults. I identity with the younger brother because there are definitely times that I wander, that I falter, that I stray away, that I abuse my inheritance of eternal life, that I am not appreciate of the things that I have... But when I come back, it's absolutely glorious.

And I also identify with the older brother because whenever I'm doing right- when I'm praying, talking to God, obeying his word, living my life for him... I stand on my own self-righteousness and are not humble before the Lord. I don't realize that I am both the older and younger brothers combined and so I get angry with those who do terrible things and then ask for forgiveness because I don't feel like they deserve it when here I am doing right.

But we all deserve it. And that's just a very hard concept to think about. We all deserve God's love and forgiveness. Jesus told us that we deserve it when he hung on that cross. Jesus told us we deserve it when he rose from the dead. God told us we deserve it when he created us from dust.

We deserve this life. We deserve this love. We deserve this forgiveness. But we owe it to ourselves to live humbly, live graciously, and walk by faith.

God bless,
Lauren