R³ Devotional - Day 248

What is it like to be on the wrong side of God?  These three chapters do a great job of spelling it out for us.  Ammonites, Moabites, the people of Sier, Edomites, the Philistines, and Tyre all, according to this judgment against them, were against God and His chosen people.  They were not going to escape this because there was not repentance and turning to Him.  Their choice was to honor other gods, and do things that flew in the face of our Creator.  Chapter 27 lets us know just how “extravagant” and meaningful Tyre was in their time, and yet God in his righteous judgment would bring them down at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar (king of Babylon).

Real Life Principles:  What side of the fence are you walking on?  Are you honoring the commandments of God or are you working against Him?  We heard it directly from the Son of God that, “no one comes to the Father except through me.”  The world tells you that is harsh and excluding, however the Creator of this world is the one who established it.  He also, being the Creator, holds judgment over His creation.  I choose to follow Him, and not be judged as the nations and peoples we read about today were!

Relevant Life Applications:  Are you working for Him or against Him, for Him or for yourself?  If He created this world and all that is in it, then set up the parameters of how to draw near to Him, why should we not live our lives in Faith in who He is and what He has done for us?   And what has He done for us?  Being all knowing, He knew we could never be near Him without the sacrifice of Jesus. The Father laid down His Son, who responded in full obedience, to give us access back to our Creator!  Our life application is to recognize this and put our faith and trust in Him.

Being Ready with Life Action Steps: We cannot know if His creation, His will, and His plans without understanding who He is.  Where do we find this information?  The answer is in His Word.  Get in His word daily, and don’t just read it, study it.  Every time we get in His word we should pray for the Holy Spirit to reveal Him to us as we read.  Get into a body of believers (Church) that teach God’s word as it is written, join their studies, fellowship and worship with them and lean on the Biblical wisdom of the believers there who have walked with God in faith for a long time and studied His word deeply.  Ask questions and check the answers against God’s Word.  Choose Him for who He is and what He has done for us.  It’s clearly laid out in the Gospel…He gave us way to reconcile with Him…choose Him!