Today's Bible Reading: NEHEMIAH 11:1-12:26, 1 CHRONICLES 9:1-34
Nehemiah 12:24
And the chiefs of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers who stood opposite them, to praise and to give thanks, according to the commandment of David the man of God, watch by watch.
We at times are intrigued by what others might say about us after our passing. We might wonder what eulogy they will offer or what opinions about us they might express. We might even be intrigued by the memories they might convey. We hope they will share credible comments and substantive statements. We presume they will speak of the legacy of a life well lived and celebrate our contributions to our family, friends and others.
But even more concerning, is what the Lord will say about our life. Will He proclaim, “Well done my good a faithful servant”? Will He affirm that we were well pleasing to Him? Will He speak of our substantial kingdom service or our firmness of our faith? Will He tell of our undying devotion and our triumph through trials? Or will the focus be on our failures, our fallings and our habitual sins? We shouldn’t strive for accolades over accusation, but often we do. We often find ourselves weighing our works in His balance. We all want the Almighty’s approval. We even at times have worked for rewards and reached for spiritual recognition. It seems we are living as if karma was the criteria and as if failure will forfeit His favor and disqualify us as disciples.
The text gives us great encouragement in our quandary. It designates specific duties in the temple. It tells of the individuals assigned to minister and serve in God’s house. With great detail their duties are discussed. Singers, security, bakers, perfumers are all commissioned for Lord’s service. But the point of interest in this text is the statement about David. David had died over five hundred years prior to these Biblical events. The statement that the writer chose to sum up his life was the phrase “the man of God”. Did they forget what he had done in his life? He was a womanizer, adulterer, murderer, and a really bad parent. He was a believer behaving badly. If anyone did not deserve this title it would have been him. Yet over and over again throughout scripture this phrase is used to eulogize David.
Maybe this phrase is more to encourage us. We like David are a composite of spiritual faithfulness and spiritual failures. But, David’s failures didn’t define him, his faith did. And likewise our spiritual failures don’t define us, our faith does. We are not one and done disciples. We are not marked by our mistakes. Heavens assessment is different. The world and even the church may dredge up and define us by our defeats. They may discard us as disciples. But heaven sees us in our Savior. It is in Christ we find favor. We are defined by His life, His death and His resurrection. We are accepted in Him. We are saved by His sacrifice and secure through His resurrection. Like David, we will falter and fail and like David it is not in our goodness, but by His grace that we find favor with God. We are not defined by disobedience but by divine declaration. We are men and women of God through faith in Jesus. That’s God’s eternal assessment. That’s your epitaph.
Today thank God that He doesn’t define us by your failures, but our faith. Thank Him that we are defined and declared righteous by our relationship with Christ. Praise Him that He doesn’t see our faults, but our faith in Him. Ask Him to help you to live free from your shortcomings and strong in the Savior.
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