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Daily Reading: 2nd Day of Lent

#DailyDevotion Need A Rest? Trust In Jesus.

2nd day of Lent Thursday

Read 1:20—2:3

Gen 1:31-2:3  And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.  (2:1)  Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  (2)  And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.  (3)  So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

 

When God had finished creating everything he declared it very good. Every day when he ended his work, it was good, but the whole thing together is very good. Kind of makes you wonder what happened sometimes doesn’t it. Believe it or not, it is still very good for St. Paul writes, 1Ti 4:4-5 “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,  (5)  for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.” God is not the author of evil. In fact evil has no existence of its own. It is an accident. It is like a dent on the car. My fender can exist without a dent, but the dent, unfortunately, cannot exist without my fender…and too often it does exist.

 

Now God rested from his work. It was the seventh day. Now does God need a rest? No. this rest is for our sakes. It is written, Heb 3:11 “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.'” It has been noted there is not an end to the Sabbath day in Genesis two. God’s rest is eternal. He intends for humanity to enter that rest. Hebrews tells us, Heb 4:1 “Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.”  And again, Heb 4:7  “… he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

 

We enter that rest in repentance of our lack of faith and trust in God. We confess that we have either set ourselves up as God sometimes or look to created things to play that part and have sinned against God. Even more so we look to Jesus who was tempted for our sake yet overcame the tempter. Jesus’ victory is our victory. So we look to Jesus as the one who atones for our sins and as the one who victorious over temptation as well.

 

God has a rest planned for you. Even now, with faith in Christ, we already begin to rest from our works and rest in the works of Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Heavenly Father, grant unto us such repentance and faith in your Son Jesus Christ that we may rest from our works and enter into your rest today and for eternity. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Rev. Guillaume J. S. Williams, Sr.

The Reverend Guillaume Williams is the Pastor of Hope Lutheran Chapel of Osage Beach, Missouri. His pastoral ministry with Hope began in 2005 where he preaches the Christ crucified.

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