Today’s Blog: Our desire?
TODAY’S PROVERB: The desire of the righteous is only good, but the hope of the wicked only wrath. Proverbs 11:23, TLV
Do you only desire to do good? I think in theory, we all do. We want to do what is pleasing and honoring to our Heavenly Father. Yet, we all sin and fall short of the glory of GOD (Romans 3:23). In fact, our attempts to earn any level of righteousness is like — ahem — filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). In other words, we ain’t perfect — even when we try really hard.
Paul speaks for many of us when he says:
“For the good that I want, I do not do; but the evil that I do not want, this I practice . . . Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—it is through Messiah Yeshua our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself serve the Torah of God; but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin.”
PAUL, ROMANS 7:19, 24-25, TLV
I feel that passage after I’ve really messed up. Miserable. Oh yes. Grateful it is the Messiah’s righteousness that our Father sees.
Aren’t we glad that our Father wouldn’t leave us trying to earn our way? He sent His only Son, Jesus to rescue us. To atone for those sins — past, present, and future. Those of us grafted into the Jewish olive tree (Romans 11:16-24) will want to please and honor our Father by our behavior. Even when we don’t.
Those not grafted — those who refuse Yeshua’s atonement — their future is His wrath. All the good they might do is overshadowed by their pride. Their desire to follow their own path away from their Creator and Redeemer will lead them to a sad ending.
Knowing that should make us grateful for GOD’s grace and mercy. It should also motivate us to press in to share the Good News of His redemption through Yeshua’s sacrifice. Not only for salvation — which is wonderful enough — but for a life of meaning and purpose. And, an inherent desire to do good.
May our hope be for righteousness, my friends.
Proverbs 11:23 Tree of Life Version – TLV, #tlvbible, #tlvproverbs
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