Prayer
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 54:4.
Lord, You are my help.
You are the One who sustains me, O God.
Speak Your words of life to me today.
Amen.
Reading
Having issued His prophetic warnings to the religious leaders of Jerusalem, without any apparent response, Jesus wept bitterly. This shows the depth of His love for the very people whose sins He had just been rebuking. Despite how angry Jesus sounds in Matthew 23, these verses show us that His passion about their sins was born of love and a deep longing for them to repent and return to the LORD.
His is the cry of a heartbroken father over his rebellious children. His is the cry of a mother longing to gather her runaway children into the safety and compassionate care of her loving arms. When the Lord rebukes some sin in our lives it is always out of love, a deep longing for relationship, and a genuine concern for our wellbeing,
As David Guzik writes: “When we sin, God does not hate us; He genuinely sorrows for us, knowing that in every way our sin and rebellion only destroys our life.”
And so we are confronted with the reality that the problem is never that the Lord does not want to save and transform someone’s life. The problem lies with our willingness to surrender to Him and to cooperate with His saving grace.
Now, while this is sobering news, it is also deeply encouraging. This means that whenever we genuinely surrender to Jesus, He is ready and willing to save and transform us. By this stage the religious leaders had already begun to plot to get rid of Him, and yet Jesus still reached out to them, longing to see them turn back from this destructive path.
It is never too late. No matter how lukewarm or apathetic we have become towards Jesus, or how long we have been stuck in some seemingly “harmless” habitual sin, or how deeply we have sunk into the self-destructive darkness of greed, pride, cruelty or immorality, His offer of salvation and deliverance remains. So let’s search our hearts again today, and let us return wholeheartedly to the loving embrace of our Saviour, Jesus.
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn one or more of these declarations over and over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will be open to His correction.
- I will respond with repentance.
- I will run to Him for His saving grace every day.
Lord Jesus, may Your Spirit purify me of everything that holds me back from running into the embrace of Your love. Amen.
Dave's Diary 
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