2021 Daily Devotion - Day 291

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It has been said, “The trouble comes when the New Year’s resolutions collide with the old year’s habits.”

This is so true. Often, we want to grow and be transformed, but we end up back in the same place. The Apostle Paul in Romans 7 describes the situation very well. He says, “The good I want to do I don’t do and I end up doing the very thing that I don’t want to do.” This is our condition. Martin Luther described it as “being simultaneously saint and sinner”. This battle is always going on. So, what do we do? We just keep on doing what God has asked us to do. We keep growing in faithfulness and dedication to His values as found in the scriptures. And we do it with the full knowledge that in Christ there is forgiveness.

The Apostle Paul, in writing to the church in Corinth in chapter six, talked about the immorality from which many of them came. But He reminded them as they leave those lifestyles, they are cleansed in Jesus. Here is how he put it:

1 Corinthians 6:11 ESV
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Pray with me:
Heavenly Father, through these early days of the new year, many are finding all of the promises they made to themselves and even to You have already been broken. But the good news is because of Jesus, we can be forgiven and start all over again. Help us to keep striving toward Your will for our lives, knowing because of Jesus, there is forgiveness when we fail and fall short. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Yours because of Him,
Pastor John R. Steward
Senior Pastor
Mount of Olives Church
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