ALL IN A MESS
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Opening Prayer
I look to your Word to teach me today, Lord. Thank you for using it to strengthen my faith and build greater vision in me to serve you.
Read ROMANS 1:18—32
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Romans
Romans 1
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Reflect
‘Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever’ (Psalm 107:1). Think of ten things to thank God for, and then do it!It seems that we human beings, apart from God, are ill-equipped to run our own lives.
Despite all the evidence (v. 20), we choose to ditch God and follow our own desires (v. 21). That ruinous decision works out in misplaced worship (vv. 23, 25), sexual deviance (vv. 26, 27) and relational and, ultimately, societal breakdown (vv. 29—31). Giving in to our desires offers no guarantee of holiness or happiness: quite the reverse.
Three times we are told that God’s displeasure (his wrath, v. 18) with this situation is expressed by allowing humans to make their own decisions and reap the consequences (vv. 24, 26, 28). Like the loving father in the story of the prodigal son, God allows his willful children to wander off and do their own thing.
Thankfully, his decision to allow people to go their own way is not his last word. His last word is the sending of his Son to deal with this human mess (1:1—17). The good news is that the Father longs to receive lost children home—and has done everything necessary to make their return possible.
Apply
Who do you know who has ‘wandered off’? Pray for those prodigals to return home and consider sending them a message to let them know you’re thinking of them.
Closing prayer
Father, thank you for your extravagant love that draws your children to you and never gives up on them. Please help me to stand firm in that truth as I lift up prodigals I know and love to you.
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