Read Psalm 2:7–12
Unfortunately, we have grown accustomed to shrugging off lapses in moral character, manifested in secret and deceptive lifestyles. We are frequently told that trying to find people who value honesty and model responsibility, who promote fairness, accountability, loyalty, respect for others, and who hold to strong, upright convictions is not at all realistic.
“Such people don’t exist...we need to stop requiring personal purity,” they are told. Or, as one misguided soul said during a presidential campaign, “We’re voting for a president, not the pope.”
The level of disregard for moral standards in our culture has become shocking. Kids rejecting their God-ordained gender and being encouraged to do so, young adults choosing cohabitation instead of marriage, citing convenience and financial flexibility, and on and on it goes.
But Scripture gives us a stern warning regarding the consequences of such indifference to God’s holy standards:
The king proclaims the LORD’s decree: “The LORD said to me, ‘You are my son. Today I have become your Father. Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the whole earth as your possession. You will break them with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots.’” Now then, you kings, act wisely! Be warned, you rulers of the earth! Serve the LORD with reverent fear, and rejoice with trembling. Submit to God’s royal son, or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities—for his anger flares up in an instant. But what joy for all who take refuge in him! (Psalm 2:7–12)
Though speaking primarily to leaders of nations, God intends to warn all of us. We are wise to pay heed to such strong appeals from heaven. Better to turn in obedience and reverence back to Him than face the consequences of His judgment. Is it time to rethink your plans and priorities today?
Devotional content taken from Good Morning, Lord...Can We Talk? by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2018. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.
The full devotional can be purchased at https://www.tyndale.com/p/good-morning-lord-can-we-talk/9781414380681.
