Twelfth Day of Christmas
Posted on January 5, 2019 by under
Scripture: Isaiah 12:1-6 (NKJV)
12:1 And in that day you will say:
“O LORD, I will praise You; Though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me. 2 Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; ‘For YAH, the LORD, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.'” 3 Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
4 And in that day you will say:
“Praise the LORD, call upon His name; Declare His deeds among the peoples, make mention that His name is exalted. 5 Sing to the LORD, for He has done excellent things; This is known in all the earth. 6 Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst!”
Devotion
“O LORD, I will praise You; though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.”
Our current culture teaches the wicked notion of emotional self-justification. People despise being told they are wrong, and they claim that their own feelings must be respected before they will even consider listening to those who have the responsibility of correcting them. To make matters worse, false teachers enable such wickedness by proclaiming phony grace from a god that accepts and justifies people who refuse to repent of their sin.
The one true God has every right to be angry with us. All of us have sinned and turned to our own wicked ways (see Isaiah 53:6). But He blesses us with His Word to call us to faithful repentance! Even while He was angry with us, He comes to us to help us! His Word and Holy Spirit create faith in us so that we can repent and believe in the forgiveness that comes by His grace in Christ. His anger is turned away because our sins are paid for by His Son. We are not comforted because He comes to us on our terms, respecting our vain desires for “emotional safety;” we are comforted because He speaks the truth to us and gives us the strength of His Spirit to believe it.
We pray: O Lord God, who hast made Thine Only-Begotten Son the Savior of mankind and didst give Him the name of Jesus, mercifully grant that we who worship His name on Earth may joyfully behold Him in Heaven; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
