Tuesday after the Tenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on August 23, 2022 by under
Scripture: Jeremiah 7:1-7 (NKJV)
7:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’ ” 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’
5 “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, 7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.”
Devotion
God tells us through His prophet that we sinners and hypocrites need to amend our ways and our doings. As we hear often in the Church, we are only saved by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. Our ways and our doings do not save us or contribute to that salvation in any way. But our ways and our deeds show forth what He is doing inside of us by the power of His Spirit.
If we resist His Spirit, our ways will be careless and turned in on our own wills. But if we are faithful, even when our ways are rather crooked and stumbling, He creates humility in us that seeks the good, straight, and righteous correction. Faith makes us repent, rather than deflect with pretenses about “the Temple” or our appearance of pious works. The humble servant understands that true worship comes from the commands of God, not from our will. We have no right to say to the Lord, “These efforts, these works, these outward things ought to be good enough for you, therefore you should judge me as righteous…”
We are called to “hear the Word of the Lord.” That means He is the one who teaches us. He is the one who judges rightly. He is the one who warns us about our sins, but He also is the one who makes us righteous in His Son Christ Jesus. His Word and His ways are profoundly gracious!
Prayer: O God, Who declarest Thine Almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of Thy grace, that we, running the way of Thy commandments, may obtain Thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of Thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
