Do You Abuse Your Freedom?

Tuesday's Devotion (4-8-08)

"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)

We are free, but some of us (myself included at times,) take advantage of that freedom. Have you ever done something that was wrong because you knew God would forgive you anyway? This is taking advantage of his grace, it’s using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness. You might think that because you are saved, because you are forgiven you can get away with these things. That is not the case... You have to respect the Lord, you have to honor Him and obey Him. We cannot get away with purposely taking advantage of His grace and forgiveness in this horrible way. I don’t know how many times I’ve knew that something was a sin, but I did it anyway. What makes it worse is that I contemplated it, I thought to myself, "It’ll be alright, God will forgive me." Oh, that guilty feeling afterwards let me know that I didn’t get away with anything.

I’m just going to end today’s devotion on this note: Be a servant of God, His will be done and not our own. Honor, and love everyone. FEAR GOD, HONOR THE KING! If we truly fear God then we won’t attempt to take advantage of his grace and forgiveness. We should always ask and receive His forgiveness freely, but we should never do something that we know is wrong just because God will forgive us. I for one know that I’m not worthy of His loving-kindness.

On a side note: I get the feeling that a lot of people are turned off by my devotions because I admit my faults. They probably think, "Wow, this guy does this and that, but then he’s on here preaching about it?" I’ve said this several times, but I’ll say it for those who missed it... I admit my faults because I’m confident that everyone of us has faults no matter who we are. And I don’t want to make anyone feel condemned by covering up my own faults. I honestly wish that others would take up this practice, because whenever I listen to some ministers... I feel so condemned. They act so perfect, like they have never sinned. Although I know better, I still feel condemned. I don’t ever want anyone to feel condemned off of something I said. Because God can, does, and will forgive you of all your sins if you accept Jesus into your heart. Confess your sin to God and to one another... Because I’ve opened up about my problems before and others have said, "I’ve had that same problem in the past!" And when you’re struggling and you hear something like that it just lifts a heavy burden from your shoulders. It’s like, "It’s not just me!" Fellowship and free communication reveals the lies of Satan for what they really are, LIES!

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this message and for all things. Please forgive us of all our sins as we forgive all those who’ve sinned against us. Help us not to use our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness, let us do as you would have us to do. Thank you for your mercy and grace, and we’re sorry for the times we’ve attempted to abuse your grace. In Jesus name. A-men!

God bless!