Daniel 9:14 The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all He does; yet we have not obeyed Him.

As many have noticed, it is very significant that Daniel, a personally righteous man, confessed the sins of his unrighteous nation. He did not get in a huff because he had to suffer along with everyone else. The incident recorded in Luke 13:1-5 comes to mind. When told of people who had met with disaster, Jesus mentioned another disaster and said, “Unless you repent, you too will all perish.” We forget the holiness of God to our peril! The Bible is very clear that we are all sinners, and the wages of sin are death. (Romans 6:23) The nature of our sin is important to recognize. The NIV just says, “We have not obeyed Him,” but the Japanese expression is a bit more illuminating: “We have not listened and obeyed.” Much of the time we aren’t even listening to God! We are so prone to think we are right, when we don’t even check in with the absolute standard of rightness and righteousness. That’s why it’s so important to start each day with prayer and reading the Bible. Even with that, we often don’t get it right, so grace is absolutely essential. Often we say we only want what we deserve, but we really don’t, because apart from Christ, we deserve eternal destruction! Until we understand that, we can’t understand just how amazing God’s grace really is.

This is the story of my life. As I am reminded fairly frequently, God had to tap me on the shoulder and get me to turn around and look in a spiritual mirror before I could recognize what a mess of sin and pride I really was. It was devastating! I wish I could say that it cured me forever of failing to listen to and obey God, but that’s hardly the case. I have my share of problems, but I have no grounds to complain about them. Rather, I am to look at the overwhelming weight of blessings and marvel at God’s grace. I wish I remembered that more consistently! As I deal with others who are caught up in their problems, as they perceive them, I am not to put them down for failing to acknowledge God, but rather gently help them lift their eyes to Him. I am not to run around condemning, but I should not be afraid to point out that someone’s situation is the result of their own actions. That doesn’t mean it’s inescapable, but it does call for repentance. Without repentance, we can’t appreciate the grace of God.

Father, there are lots of little things that fight to irritate me. Help me put them all into perspective, recognizing that I deserve far worse than I get. As the saying goes, help me maintain an “attitude of gratitude” at all times, so that resentment won’t block my ears from what You are saying to me. Thank You. Praise God!