April 3rd, 21

Paul compares our life to a letter. It's a new letter. God has written us a new letter, and it is imprinted on our hearts. God's old letter, the law could not be transferred to our hearts. That old letter was good, Paul says. Paul says that it was glorious. But it pales in comparison to the new letter. The old was meant to pass away. The old was temporary, until the new arrived. And this new letter was not written on tablets of stone with human hands. It was written by God through His Spirit on to our hearts. And this spirit written letter sets us free! how about that, the new letter of your life reads this. "You are loved, you are free. You are his." 

Paul wants you to know the contents. Your identity is found in this letter and oh, how we need to know the contents well. People have been trying to write their own life letter since the beginning of time, like Micah we read about today. He's going to create his own, he made his own carved images, his own idol. Those were the days when everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And those days have never really ended. They continue on to this day, Micah and his mother, and the carved image  he followed, and the altar, all crafted and written as it were, with their own hands. It was all about them. These things really had nothing to do with God. 

We are even told that Moses son, Jonathan, became the priest who oversaw these religious icons, these idols. And this story gets lived out time and time again. All through history, men and women have been trying to, to write their own letter apart from God. But it never works. It never really satisfies it never sets us free. And it never really gives us the life that we long for. No matter how we try. The letter proves incapable of bringing any change in our life. It doesn't set us free. In fact, it seems to blind us even more. It makes things more complicated. We find ourselves exhausted and discouraged and lost and bored when we make this letter about us, but God's letter is written on our hearts. And it gives us confidence before God because you stand free, forgiven, loved before God and that gives the confidence that your heart is longing for.

So receive that today. received the good news today. Something that was taken out of your hands. And written by his,  he's completed it all. He has put the period at the end of the sentence. He has set you free. So live today in the confidence that comes from the new thing that God has written on your heart. You are loved. You are free. And you are his.

You are loved!