Hope For Today
Daily Encouragement for a Healing Heart from the Word of God
Deep pain and brokenness have a way of making Bible study difficult. To help bridge the gap and re-ignite our hunger for the Word of God, we’ve put together a daily devotional designed to help us all lean into God as we heal. May we seek Him daily!
Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love for I have put my trust in You. Show me the way I should go, for to You I entrust my life. Psalms 143:8 (NIV)
- Hope For Today
September 2 - Romans 4:4-8
When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners. David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who are declared righteous without working for it: "Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin."
It is so easy to get caught in the trap of self-righteousness, isn't it? Aren't we so prone to start to believe that our right standing with God has come as a result of our own good works? Or, perhaps it's subtler (<-that word sounds so wrong to me there, I want to say more subtle, but grammar girl assures me it's the right choice.) than that for some of us. Perhaps we know that our right standing is a gift from God, but we begin to think how lucky He is to have us. After all, we do so much for Him! But the Bible makes it clear. People are only counted as righteous because of their faith in God who forgives sinners. It is a gift, not something that can be earned. May we put away our self-righteousness, and instead rejoice in the free gift of salvation! May we be women after God's own heart, just as David was a man of the same. May our hearts cry out to God, as he did, "Oh WHAT JOY to know that my disobedience has been forgiven! I praise You God for that free gift that I did not deserve. There's nothing I could have done to earn it, but You, God, have put my many sins out of sight! I am overwhelmed by the privilege I have to stand before you with a clean slate, a perfect record! Your dearly loved daughter! I certainly don't deserve it. My sins are great, but You are greater! I am filled with unspeakable joy! Thank-you, Jesus, in Your Name, Amen!"
- Verse of the Day
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