Day 3: The God Who Always Does Right
Bible passage: Psalm 103:8–12; 2 Corinthians 5:20–21; Romans 12:17–21
Always Right
Today is Sunday 31st of March 2019. Welcome to Day 3 of our 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. We have looked at God’s power and His holiness. Today we look at His righteousness.
To say that God is righteous is to say that He always does what is right. He does it every time, and He has no favourites. His righteousness is His holiness in action. Because He is pure, He must oppose everything that is evil.
That raises a hard question for us. If God always does what is right, what will He do with people who have done wrong?
The Righteous God
Not as We Deserve
David answers out of his own experience. The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He does not punish us for all our sins or deal with us as we deserve (Psalm 103:8–10).
Then David reaches for the largest measurement he can think of. “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” Psalm 103:12 (NLT)
How Can That Be Right?
A righteous God cannot simply look the other way. The answer is at the cross. Paul writes that God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).
God did not ignore our sin. He dealt with it in full, in the person of His Son. So when He forgives those who trust in Jesus, He is doing exactly what is right. His mercy and His righteousness meet at the cross.
Ambassadors
That is why Paul calls us Christ’s ambassadors, through whom God makes His appeal to the world: come back to God (2 Corinthians 5:20). People who have been made right with God carry that invitation to others.
Living It Out
Leave Room for God
Because God is righteous, we do not have to settle our own scores. Paul tells us never to pay back evil with more evil, and never to take revenge. We are to leave that to the righteous anger of God (Romans 12:17–19).
More than that, we are to feed our enemies when they are hungry and give them something to drink when they are thirsty. We are not to let evil conquer us. We are to conquer evil by doing good (Romans 12:20–21).
Only someone who trusts that God will put everything right can live like that.
Three Steps for Today
Give thanks. Praise God that He is slow to anger, and that in Christ you do not stand condemned.
Let Him examine you. Ask God to show you anything in your life that does not please Him.
Hand over a wrong. Is there someone you would like to see pay for what they did? Give that person and that hurt to God, and ask Him to show you one good thing you could do for them.
Prayer for Today:
Righteous Father, You always do what is right. Thank You that You have not dealt with me as my sins deserve, and that Jesus took my place. Thank You that I am made right with You through Him. I hand over to You the wrongs that have been done to me. Keep me from revenge, and teach me to overcome evil with good. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Keep going
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