Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Steps Up
Jesus Carries Up the Steps Up To Life
Grateful, Abundant Life
Jeremiah 30:12-16-17
For thus says the Lord: Your hurt is incurable, your wound is grievous. There is no one to uphold your cause, no medicine for your wound, no healing for you. All your lovers have forgotten you; they care nothing for you; for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy, the punishment of a merciless foe, because your guilt is great, because your sins are so numerous. Why do you cry out over your hurt? Your pain is incurable. Because your guilt is great, because your sins are so numerous, I have done these things to you.
Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured, and all your foes, every one of them, shall go into captivity; those who plunder you shall be plundered, and all who prey on you I will make a prey. For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, says the Lord, because they have called you an outcast: ‘It is Zion; no one cares for her!’
1 Peter 2:24
He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
Words of Grace For Today
If we spent everyday counting our sins …
we would have no time for anything else.
If God spent any time counting our sins and letting us pay for them,
we would have no time for anything else.
God’s attitude towards us and our sins is made clear in Jeremiah’s words with one word: therefore.
It seems to be unexpected. It would not be the way we are with those who sin beyond count in such despicable ways.
Yet this therefore is for God the way God is. The way God is for us.
For God sees our incurable countless sins and …
and therefore God defeats our foes that do us woe. We who were called outcasts, are called most blessed.
God turns our sins into opportunities for us to learn of God’s mercy. Jesus’ story is God bearing our sins on the cross, so that we can live free, healed, and even righteous.
For that we can be grateful.