Today's passage is Romans 1:20-23.
In my 38 years of "life experience," I have had many opportunities to experience getting busted. Thankfully, the bulk of these experiences are well in the past, but the memories and lessons learned live on even today. I can remember sooo many times, getting caught in a lie or situation that I knew was not acceptable to my parents, where I tried to plead ignorance (or stupidity) as my defense. So many of us are walking through life, living in whatever way we "feel" to be right, doing things on our own, and then we get "busted." Something goes wrong, a situation comes up that we (knowing that we shouldn't have been involved) put ourselves in some bad way. Maybe we've made poor choices with jobs, finances, relationships...whatever your situation is. And now, we get to the end of the rope. We find ourselves at that place of feeling out of options. What worked before, doing everything in our own power, just continues to make things worse. Here we are, before God, and we find ourselves trying to plead ignorance or stupidity before Him.
Paul picks up from yesterday's discussion and continues on that we are "without excuse" when it comes to not acknowledging God for who He is. Believe it or not, just about every painful situation you have ever found yourself in, or are finding yourself in right now, can be directly linked back to not acknowledging God for who He is and seeking His righteousness instead of our own desires. I know, this is a very bold, "churchy" feeling response, but God's Word says that it's true!
I love verse 22, as Paul shares that the recipients of his letter (and of those of us reading it today), found themselves "professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures." The "Pastor Joey" paraphrase also adds that "they traded for an image in the form of a large house (nicer than their neighbor's), a new car (more expensive than they can afford), and bigger toys (that their kids don't even play with) than all the other kids on the block!
Here is today's challenge: We know that we are without excuse in acknowledging God's power and nature today, so have you done it? Are you through trying to do things on your own? Are you ready to live in a truly wise manner by following the incorruptible God? Are there "corruptible" things or desires that you need to give up today?
Have a blessed day!
PJ
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