Don't Think Too Highly of Yourself

Don’t be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones.
(Proverbs 3:7-8)

Meditation

Have you ever known someone who just happens to know literally everything? No matter the topic, they know all about it, have done it better than you, and are the world’s leading expert. The know-it-all is usually so smart they reject the built-in human need for God and why a healthy fear of the Almighty is good for them. They reason if God is to be feared he must be a creation of the human mind, just like the pagan gods who were petty and unjust. We don’t fear him because he’s petty and unjust, but just the opposite. He is so holy we cannot stand in his presence without the cleansing we receive from the blood of Jesus. He is so just he cannot allow unrepentant sin to go unpunished.
When we turn away from our sins, God will bless us in ways we cannot even fathom. God doesn’t always instantly and miraculously restore us to good physical health, but he will heal our hearts. Our hearts are sick with sin before we repent. He takes all of that away and makes us a new creation with a new attitude. That new attitude helps to keep us from engaging in behaviors that could be dangerous to our health. Before Jesus saved us, we were getting drunk or doing drugs, having sex outside the bonds of marriage, or busying ourselves in the quest for more possessions and power. That lifestyle would have led us down a path to disease and death. After we’re saved, we seek a better, more righteous ways to live. We’re living to serve the Lord, instead of ourselves.
However, as important as his healing hand is on our physical bodies, it’s his touch on our immortal souls that should matter the most to us. God created us with free will to choose either him and eternal life, or ourselves and ultimately death. At the end of our lives, God calls us up to heaven or sends us down to hell, but as for which direction we go, the decision is left to us. We can choose to remain in our rebellion or we can ask Jesus to save us. It’s totally up to us but we should remember our choice is eternal and there are no excuses for getting it wrong. No one is given the opportunity to explain away the reasons they chose to remain in their rebellion. We are either found guilty by reason of our sin, or innocent by the blood of Jesus.




Prayer Time

Heavenly Father, we bow down to your magnificence. You alone are worthy of our praise and adoration. Thank you for always hearing our prayers. Being fallible people, we are given to think, because we’re highly educated, we are pretty wise. We confuse the difference between being wise and being educated. We cannot be taught wisdom. It can only be granted by our creator. Overly educated people can tend to be haughty, thinking they’re too smart to need a savior. Their hearts become hardened and the words of salvation cannot penetrate. Lord, we lift up the people who haven’t given their lives to Jesus. Our hearts break for them so, please, soften their hearts and bring them to their knees. Convince them to turn from the evil in their hearts and ask for forgiveness. Help us to always be your light to show them the path to salvation. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen!

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