CORAM DEO MONDAYS with MARISA A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Ps. 51:17 The only condition of God’s people before He delivered them from Egyptian bondage and set them on a path of abundance was that they cried out to Him in a broken state: “And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God.” (Ex. 2:23) No matter what keeps us from freedom today, the bottom line condition for deliverance remains the same: we need to call to God with a broken and contrite heart. How do we know we are in bondage? When something in our life makes us less free to live fully for God. Again, we are never as free as Christ died to make us; therefore, we need to be aware of our continual need to fall on His grace daily, just like we did when we first received Christ: “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” (Col. 2:6) Did we do anything but simply call upon Him and trust in His sacrifice for our salvation? Then that is what we need to do day by day as we work out the freedom from our salvation. But is that really how we respond when we stumble? Do we fall away from grace or do we fall on grace? Do we immediately cry out to God like that? Or do we ignore it, hoping He didn’t notice because it wasn’t that bad anyway? Do we strong-arm the situation? Like “good” Pharisees, do we defend and excuse ourselves with lawyer-like zeal and point our finger elsewhere saying, “I have done everything flawlessly?” But God cannot be deceived or mocked or manipulated. In order to remain in coram Deo fellowship—in the light before His face—we must throw off every dark cloak of self-deception until we are in a state of transparent brokenness: “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 Jn. 1:5-8) Adapted from the Coram Deo Secret marisarickerson/coram-deo.html
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 16:00:01 +0000
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