Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Daily Devotions for Week 6 of Sermon on the Mount Wed

Week 6 Day 3 Devotions
Righteousness That Surpasses That of the
Pharisees
Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD,
until he comes and showers righteousness on you.
Hosea 10:12

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus concludes his teaching on the Law and the Prophets with an exhortation to those listening, and therefore to us, to have a righteousness which exceeds that of the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law. We are called to pursue righteousness and to seek holiness in our lives and in the verse before us today we find some tips on how to go about this. 

“Sow for yourselves righteousness:” Go about doing good, look out for opportunities to do good deeds. Feed the hungry, give the thirsty something to drink, clothe the naked, welcome strangers, visit the sick and those in prison. Do these things, or some of them at least…… TODAY. 

Let's take a closer look at the first one, feeding the hungry. Don't feel you have to go out and solve the problem of poverty in your area today, just make a few sandwiches and give them to a hungry person that you come across. Sowing righteousness can be that easy, and notice what follows; “Reap the fruit of unfailing love:” One translation has: “you will reap a crop of my love.” 

The picture we have is one of sowing little seeds (our little acts of righteousness) and reaping a great crop (God's unfailing love). That is a great return on investment! “And break up your unplowed ground:” These words remind us of the hard soil in the parable of the soils. It often happens when we start ministering to the people mentioned above that our own hardness of heart gets in the way and these words encourage us to break any hardness that may have crept in.

“For it is time to seek the LORD:” There is a sense in which you are seeking the Lord right now through finding the time to do this devotion, but of course there are many other ways of seeking the Lord as well. Carry on,……. “Until he comes and showers righteousness on you.” Isn't this a beautiful picture? Sow righteousness into the world around you until God showers His righteousness on you. Can you see how suddenly, somewhere along the line, we no longer have a righteousness of our own? His righteousness becomes our righteousness and in this way our righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law.

Praise the Lord!