Spend time in prayer and silence with God, asking Him to meet with you and speak to you.
Bible Reading
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
– Romans 1:18-23
Devotion
Here Paul begins to give us a graphic picture of the Roman world in the first century. He begins by declaring, “The wrath of God is being revealed.” This is God’s constant and insistent displeasure with evil. God does not change with cultural standards. God is merciful, not because He is lenient with the sinner, but because Christ died. The Gospel has not changed God’s attitude toward sin. The Gospel has made it possible to accept the sinner. The sinner must have either the righteousness or the wrath of God. Both are revealed from heaven. Paul goes on to reveal how God has revealed Himself through His creation so that man is without excuse. We cannot claim ignorance because God’s eternal qualities are clearly seen from what has been made. Despite this revelation, some people would choose to reject God’s revelation and worship created things instead. Paul says, “their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” What is clear in Paul’s time is that man was moving away from God. The sin of idolatry was alive and well in Paul’s day and thrives even today. As a society, we have become more sophisticated in our worship of things and continue to move further and further away from God.
The Big Question
Have you allowed the cultural standards of the day to influence your thinking on what is right and wrong? Has your thinking become futile and your heart darkened to the truth of God’s Word? Have you replaced God on the throne of your heart with something else? How does it make you feel to know you are accepted by God because of Christ and not because of your own personal performance?
Conclude your time in prayer and silence, reflecting on what God revealed to you today.