CONTAGIOUS
Get Ready: Draw on God's Strength & Prepare to Move Forward with Courage - Day 6
We spent most of 2020 stuck at home because of some crazy new thing called COVID that apparently was very contagious. Health authorities and elected officials advised us to quarantine to save our lives. At first, I found it silly, and I just wanted to get back to my normal life. But when I found out that two of my dear friends from high school ended up hospitalized in an intensive Care Unit fighting for their lives, suddenly I understood the gravity of the situation.
The narrative account about Joshua, Rahab, and the fall of Jericho reveals the severe consequences of sin for those who fail to heed God’s commands to live set apart from the sin-saturated corrupting influences. God remembered Rahab because she chose to turn from contagion all around her to seek God’s mercy. The people of the doomed city, however, persisted in seeking their own pleasure and resisted God’s authority.
Rahab understood the gravity of the situation. Her sin was leading to her destruction. Her very life was at stake, and she sought the only true remedy. Apart from God, she knew she could not save herself.
All of us live devoted to either the righteousness of God or the destructiveness of sin. The people of Jericho devoted their lives to sin and chose destruction. God remembered the kindness that a repentant woman showed to the Israelite spies, and her life was mercifully spared. Had another soul in Jericho followed her lead, more families would have been spared.
We determine our destiny by how we respond to God’s commands. Today we can choose life or death. May we continue to run toward Him for our salvation and live set apart from the contagious influences of sin surrounding us. When we take God at His Word and obey His Word, we can rest secure that the God of compassion will not forget us.
FUEL FOR THOUGHT:
“God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.” (Hebrews 6:10, NIV)