Tuesday,
February 28, 2023
So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
Hebrews 4:14-16
I’ve never really been into daredevil stuff. When I was young, I had little problem
walking away from one of those “step across this line” challenges. To this day, I’m not certain whether it was
fear or wisdom. In retrospect I’m
thinking it was probably fear and the grace of God; wisdom was not my strong
suit! The sole tussle I got involved
with was not by choice; one of my classmates jumped on my back during outside
recess. We were only third graders, so
it wasn’t exactly an epic struggle to the death. I can laugh about it now, but I still can
recall thinking when that boy wrestled me to the ground: Armageddon is here; I’m gonna die!
I can recall other fear-filled moments.
There was that time I was lost in the woods as a young boy, fearing I’d
get eaten by a lion. It was in the early
evening and the darkness approached. Of
course the only lion on Long Island was in a
zoo, but you never know…! There
was also that time when I had just turned sixteen, gotten my driver’s license,
and begged my Dad to let me drive his brand-new station wagon, his pride and
joy, over to my best friend, Gene’s house to show. I stayed too long, enjoying the newfound
freedom. In the dusk I never saw that
old Plymouth coming…he creamed the left side of Dad’s new car.
The thought of facing Dad, brought musings on how one could emigrate to Mars
or Jupiter. It wasn’t about boldly
going where no man had been; more like preserving life and limb. In the end, my Dad was kind, and the story
had a good ending. (Stay tuned for
tomorrow’s devotion, and I’ll share it there).
Close calls with death in the wood’s growing darkness, or a third-grade playground war, or
facing Dad with a marred rear fender panel cause us, even the youngest among
us, to think about consequences. That’s not
a bad thing. All of us need to have that
thought, at least on the back burner, if not closer at hand. Offending the laws of nature, or a playground
bully’s space, or facing a Father’s wrath really should enter our thoughts; it
is such that develop the wisdom of living a more righteous life, being a
blessing, rather than a boil on humanity’s skin.
And that brings up the main point about such thoughts:
Our Heavenly Father loves you more than his new station wagon!
And when that is firmly placed in your mind’s computer, your spiritual
hard-drive, there is every reason to believe what Paul wrote to the Hebrew
Christians about coming boldly into God’s very throne
room. For those who enter the presence
of God, fully-knowing their offenses, there is no condemnation from the Father,
only the mercy of forgiveness and restoration.
For You Today
There are about 2,500 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions
library. To dig deeper on
today’s topic, explore some of these:
Chester's Prayer and When It Hurts So Much
Title Image: Pixabay.com Images without citation are personal property
of the author, or in public domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
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