Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: Romans 2 and Psalm 98

The way the New Living Translation renders v.4 is so beautiful:

⁴ Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?

God’s heart and His deepest desire is to love us into responding to Him with love and surrender. His love is incredibly tolerant, kind and patient and He constantly pursues us and invites us to open our lives up to His Lordship. Yet the decision is up to us. Only I can decide for me, and only you can decide for you; but decide we must!

Paul’s plea to the Romans and to us is to forget about looking at others with judgment and condemnation and actually to get serious about making an accurate judgment of ourselves. He invites us to recognise how badly we need to turn to God and receive His love and forgiveness – time and time again.

And when we do that, God’s promise to us is expressed so wonderfully in v. 7 and v. 10

He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers … and … there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who do good.

Life Application: Turn away from every known sin in your life today. Make a determination to seek the Lord with all your heart and to pursue His pleasure and delight with every moment of your life this day. Pursue good. Pursue God’s glory, His honour and the fulness of life He offers.