IDOK DEVOTION FOR FRIDAY, JULY 23, 2010

Today (Thursday) has been a play day for Jerry and me, so we may be brief.  You’ve heard that before … haven’t you? 🙂

He played golf this morning and I drove the cart … first time for us in five years.  I still think the cart is the best part!
I noticed right away though on the driving range, even before we got to the course, that it was easy for me to lose sight of the ball in flight if  I made my initial point of focus at the tee.
If I wanted to keep up with the ball and follow it to its destination, I needed to look in the projected direction trusting that Jerry would strike the ball.
And as all this was going on, thoughts were forming, and I wondered just what spiritual lesson I could get out of that for us.
It’s not forming well other than to say if we focus too tight on our immediate  ‘tee’ we will fall short of the next ‘green’.

Now for our real lesson today.

I John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Faithful and righteous — our words of focus today.

Faithful and righteous, are very important words for us when we confess our sins.

He is faithful.  He will not fail to forgive.
And why will He not fail to forgive?  Because He is righteous.
Written another way, He is RIGHT to forgive us when we repent. Right because JESUS paid the price for our sins.
And since JESUS paid the price and when we confess and accept His price, He has allowed Himself no other option than to forgive us.
He forgives us because of His own Right-ness.  He MUST forgive us.
It’s the only right thing to do.  We may feel unworthy and there are good reasons for that — we are, but He IS worthy and He is Right.
And you know what else that means?
Since He is right to forgive us, we are wrong to argue with Him about it.
We are wrong to continue to condemn ourselves after we have turned from our sin to JESUS for His forgiveness.
Let me be blunt: continuing to condemn ourselves after repentance is nothing short of P R I D E.
Who are we to tell JESUS He does not know what He is doing when He says: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.?

Did you catch it?  If we confess, He is Right to forgive us AND He even removes our un-right-ness from us and makes us right!

In Him we make par!!!

You’ll have a holy weekend. 

Father, thank You for this pleasant, relaxing day. My golf knowledge and terms are woefully lacking but I pray this lesson will be a bit entertaining and will seal in our hearts that in You, LORD JESUS, we are made right.  In You, we do not fall short.  In You, we are better than par. Thank You.

The hour is late and wisdom says rest, but before I do I pray for our IDOK Troops, for our List of Prayer Requests, for each IDOK, and for each Reader.  So many precious souls in this ministry.  I lift them all collectively and individually, bless them, Father, in Jesus’ Name.  Amen and amen.