All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:6 (NKJV)
Thought for today: During my teenage years, one of my cousins smashed his father's car into a tree. When I asked him what happened, he told me that the tree just suddenly jumped out in front of him. Well, trees generally don't ambulate, so perhaps he was not paying attention when he steered into the tree.
We are all, by nature, inclined to be headed for a crash, it is called sin. At a macro level, we cannot be looked upon by a holy God because of our inherent sin nature. Without our Savior and His great sacrifice for us, that crash would be a long dive into hell and an awful eternal life. At the micro level, we all have a propensity to sin and the consequences of sin can leave our lives like the front end of my uncle's car: mashed, mangled and in need of a major repair.
Have you thought about what is inside of your mind today? When I think about my thoughts some days I could just cry. Christ knows even the deepest, darkest thought that rattles around in your brain. You know, the one that you could never tell another living soul about. He knows about the secret sins that have left their mark on your thought life. Yet, Jesus still loves you so much and was willing to make such a sacrifice so that you could be set free from the bondage of sin.
So, you feel the urge to sin deep down in your spirit, to go your own way, regardless of whether it is God's way or not. How do you stop the wreck from happening? 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to bring every thought into captivity of Christ. Like my cousin, if we are not paying attention, filtering our thoughts against God's Word, we can easily head for a wreck. Ask the One upon whom our iniquities were laid to help you to live in obedience to Him and the Word. If you have never asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, then receiving God's free gift of forgiveness and salvation is a first step. If you have received Him as your Savior but let Him take a back seat in your mind, my prayer is that you would bring Him to His rightful place. For if you truly believe that Jesus is your Lord, then He must be the Lord of all of you: body, mind and soul.
