Free or Enslaved?

Wednesday's Devotion (1-31-07)

"As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king." 1 Peter 2:16-17 (KJV)

You know there are a lot of people who do wrongly, and they justify it with, "God loves me, and He'll forgive me." They have this attitude that God's forgiveness is a free ticket for them to be sinners, for them to get away with anything and everything. In other words, they're trying to take advantage of God's mercy. Guess what? That attitude will NOT land you a spot in Heaven. God will not be mocked, and He will not be taken advantage of. He's not a robot, God has a heart and that heart just like yours... Can be broken. When you have that kind of attitude, you are breaking God's heart. You are hurting Him more than you could ever know, more than any of us could ever know.

God looks on the heart of man. What that means is that when you come to Him for forgiveness, you had better be sincere about it! Don't come to Him tonight and ask for forgiveness, if you plan on doing the same sin again tomorrow. That's an insult to the Lord. He knows your heart, and He knows whether or not you're planning to do it again. Notice that I said, "planning." I said that because things happen... You might not be planning to do something again, you might just find yourself doing it. Maybe because you have a weakness or addiction. That's not the same as planning something out. That's weakness and what you need to do is pray for God to strengthen you in that area of your life. But if you're purposely doing things because you think God is going to forgive you, then you are simply insulting Him and trying to take advantage of Him. If you're doing that, then you will face SERIOUS consequences. The bottom line is that if you're trying to take advantage of God because you think you are free, then you really are not free at all. Instead, you like the rest of the world are a slave to your own sin. God's mercy is there to free us from our sin, not to further enslave us to it.

God bless