My Dear friend, Pastor Brenton Franks Pastor of the Evangel Christian Center in Albuquerque, NM posted this excellent devotional yesterday.
The message that we continue to hear focuses on what people want and what they feel that they need. This includes sexual freedom (free love); drugs (legalization of marijuana); and supposed personal liberty (gay marriage). However, nothing apart from receiving God’s forgiveness and love will make you happy. You can acquire anything and everything and then end up the most lonely and hopeless of individuals. Just look at the life of Solomon…Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 “Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors. But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere. (NLT)
What we think will make us happy never does. There remains an emptiness that can only be filled by knowing Jesus Christ. Today, you may be very frustrated with your life or the direction that life is taking a friend or family member. Instead of despairing in what you see, take time to pray for yourself, your children, your family, or your friends. God is the One who convicts the soul of sin. It is not your job or mine to be a convicting agent.
Instead, we must speak the truth of God’s Word in confidence. We must remember that the Laws of God are irrefutable. Proverbs 13:15 “Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.” (KJV) Sin always has a payday, and that payday always brings pain remorse, guilt, and despair.
However, we must be ready to remind anyone and everyone that Jesus Christ came to bring life. Jesus said in John 10:10 “ The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (NKJ
