The Normal Christian Life: A Journey Through Romans
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
My Prayer Today
Heavenly Father, On this Valentine’s Day, I thank You for the gift of love that You offer us first and foremost, before our parents, our spouses, our children—before anyone! I thank You that while romantic love is part of an overall commitment between a man and a woman in marriage, that the greater love is the “agape” the self-sacrificing love demonstrated most clearly by Jesus through His life here on earth, and most clearly of all through His death on the cross in our places. As a result of that agape, I may know not only Your love, abut also Your eternal life as well. I pray, Heavenly Father, that as I reflect on Your word in Romans 1:25a, that You will fill me with Your Holy Spirit that I may believe the truth about You—and that I may believe it 24/7. Keep me from the deceitful schemes of the devil, and keep me ever in Your truth, that You may be glorified in my thoughts, words and actions. Lord, I ask that You will use me as an instrument of Your love and truth today and always, and that everyone I meet may be better off because of the interaction with me, since Your love is being lived out in and through me. I pray all these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
God’s Word Today—Romans 1:24-27
24So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they worshiped the things God made but not the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever. Amen.
26That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27And the men, instead of having normal sexual relationships with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men and, as a result, suffered within themselves the penalty they so richly deserved.
Reflecting on God’s Word
Why do you think that folks choose to deliberately believe lies, rather than believing the truth about God?
What do you think is the most helpful way to move from choosing to believe lies, to choosing to believe God’s truth?
A Deeper Exploration of God’s Word
As you read Romans 1:25a look at the remainder of the Scripture. What are the consequences of believing lies rather than the truth of God?
Why do you think that Paul tells us that these folks “deliberately” chose lies even though they knew the truth of God?
Understanding God’s Purpose for Us
Today’s Scripture shows us more of what God’s purpose IS NOT than what it is. By reading what God’s purpose is NOT for our lives in Romans 1:25a, what do we find out about what His purpose for our lives is?
Applying God’s Word to Our Purpose
This may be tough, but stop for a couple of minutes and think about any “lies” about God or His word that you have been believing. Write them down. Take some time and ask God to empower You by the Holy Spirit to eliminate these lies from Your thinking and to replace them with His grace and truth.
Thoughts - Choosing to Believe Lies...
Why would anyone deliberately choose to believe lies, instead of the truth about God? We find many reasons to do that, don’t we? Sometimes believing the truth about God means that we will have to admit some uncomplimentary truths about ourselves. The “light” of God shows up all the darkness in our lives. We don’t always want to see ourselves for who we are. Just today I had a conversation with a member of the community who asked me some hard questions about my motivation for being involved with an activity in the community. I didn’t like what he was saying—partially because some of what he was saying wasn’t true, and partially because some of it WAS true. Jesus said that when we know the truth it will set us free. That’s true, but many times it hurts like crazy before it sets us free!
Another reason we choose not to believe the truth about God is then we would have to acknowledge Him as God and His word as truth. What do I mean by that? Well, as long as we think we know more than God, we don’t have to listen to Him or His word. As long as we are our own ultimate authority, what God says or calls us to do is unimportant. Only when we acknowledge God for who He is, and receive His word as truth do we become “slaves of Jesus Christ,” as Paul reminded us back in Romans 1:1. It’s always easier on the surface to be a master than a slave. Giving the orders always sounds better than taking them. If the truth about God is intuitively obvious to the most casual observer as we pointed out a couple of weeks ago, then LIVING that truth is not always so easy or obvious. Fallen human nature rebels against God, and until we ask Jesus Christ to be the Savior and Lord of our lives that nature will continually reject the truth, and seek to be first in life. So the “antidote” to choosing to believe lies is to receive Jesus—who is the Way, the TRUTH, and the Life into our lives as Savior and Lord. Once He takes over, we start to see changes—one of the key changes is we start wanting to know and to LIVE the truth. It doesn’t happen in an instant for most of us, but id DOES happen, and when we once start living in the truth, choosing to believe lies will become less and less and option for us!
This Week’s Memory Verse:
They traded the truth about God for a lie. Romans 1:25a