TEXT: Nehemiah chapter 9
Closing out the old year and beginning a new year finds most of us making resolutions and promises for positive changes in the coming year. The Israelites of biblical times had their moments of repentance, too. And just like us it seemed to last only for a short while before the old ways slipped back into their routine.
Nehemiah 9 is a sober chapter. It begins with confession...in fact reading from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day, and another fourth of the day in confession and worshiping (v. 3). I'm not sure about you, but I would imagine this is more time in God's Word, confession, and worship than any of us have achieved in any day. If fact, to be honest, I wonder how many of us will actually get out our Bible and read an entire chapter of Nehemiah? Would any of us spend a fourth of the day in confession? That level of commitment would seem to keep us on track especially during rough times. Yet as soon as times grew peaceful and the people found rest complacency set in and the old familiar comfortable habits returned (v. 28).
God is a just God. He will not tolerate sin or wrong in any form or to any degree. Yet who can understand the depth of his grace and mercy for us? Time after time, over and over again, God waits to forgive his wayward ones. His desire is not that any should perish but that all might come to salvation through Jesus Christ his Son.
(2 Peter 3:9) He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.
Do not delay. Do not hesitate. Call upon the name of God today through Christ Jesus his Son and return to the waiting arms of your merciful God. He loves you and is waiting to forgive you. God is never more than a whispered prayer away.
The devotional A Forgiving God; Gracious and Merciful appeared first on Write From My Heart at writefrommyheartblog.blogspot.com
email: Dotty Willmon, writefrommyheartblog@gmail.com
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