8/5/15: What Does God Say About You?

God speaks directly to and about certain people in the Bible. When God spoke to Ananias about witnessing to Saul (who would soon be known as Paul), He pronounced that Saul “is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel” Acts 9:15 (NKJ). God also refers to David as “a man after My own heart, who will do all My will” Acts 13:22. If we do a character study on Paul and David, we will find that neither man was perfect; yet, God had great things to say about both.

Job on the other hand is an Old Testament character who seemed to have it going on. In fact, God says of him “that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil” Job 1:8. More still, God was speaking to Satan about Job, and actually setting Job up as a test-dummy to be pitted against Satan’s onslaught. After hearing God’s estimation of Job, Satan challenged God twice that he could get Job to curse Him to His face (see Job 1:11 and 2:5). But even after Satan ripped Job of his wealth, killed all 10 of his children, and struck his body with a painful disease, Job never sinned in his attitude toward God. In fact, Job “fell to the ground and worshiped… did not sin nor charge God with wrong… [and] did not sin with his lips” Job 1:20, 22; 2:10.

So today, forget what everyone else has to say. Whether you know you are flawed like Saul (Paul) or David, or whether you are pretty good in the main like Job, what would God testify about you? Can He call you one of His chosen vessels and put you to work for Him? Are you a person whose heart is bent on doing God’s will above all else? Could God say that you are blameless, upright, a God-fearer, and one who shuns evil?

It’s all about the heart, your center, that which is deep down inside. Even though Jeremiah tells us that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,” you can pray along with David for God to “create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me” Jeremiah 17:9; Psalm 51:10.

God only has flawed people to love, and He loves you. Thanks to Jesus’ substitutionery death and His resurrection, God sees you through Jesus’ blood as pure and right. He has good things to say about you. Live in the light of God’s testimony.

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©2015 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

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