Devotion for Thursday, August 25, 2022

“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance” (1 Peter 1:14)

As obedient children.  The promise of the Gospel is that we are given the power to become children of God.  Because we are born into a new family, do not live as one who is still conforming to the world.  Live as one seeking to be conformed to the life you will have in eternity.  Come and see that in Christ you have the only true hope and future worth living for.

The second part of this is that you are not to be ignorant.  Do not ignore the good news you are being told, as many seem to do.  So many hear the Gospel and like the idea of salvation, but do not want to live the life to which we are all called.  Live into the life of Jesus which is yours by grace through faith.  Move out of the old life and into the new life, taste and see that the Lord is always good, kind, merciful, and gracious.

Lord Jesus, You know that without You any of these thoughts would be impossible.  I am tugged by this world to stay in its fleshly desires.  I am afraid in my circumstances, and  I want things that do not matter.  I make commitments for the sake of goodness and then go back on them seconds later.  Help me, dear Lord, to move beyond these things so that I may live into the promise You give me through grace.  Amen.