June 22, 2022

Passage Read: Hosea 12 - Joel 1
Meditation Verse: Hosea 14:9

Thought

The righteous shall walk in the ways of Jehovah, but transgressors will stumble in them. Those who truly believe the Lord will have little trouble walking in His ways. They will recognize what ways are the Lord's and will do them. But the wicked, the sinners, will have trouble walking in God's ways. They will continually trip up and fall. They won't know them all, but even what they know will be hard for them to walk in.

Application

So the ways of the Lord should not be so difficult to follow, if I truly am saved and made righteous. But if I am still a sinner, then His ways will be difficult to walk in, I'll stumble and start and stop and have trouble identifying His ways. I'll actually want to find ways to avoid or set aside what He commands so I don't have to try and walk in them. So to identify as a sinner after "believing in" the Lord is a dangerous thing, because it keeps me in the mindset of one who cannot walk in the Lord's ways well at all. It keeps me defeated, instead of recognizing the victory over sin I have in Christ and being empowered to walk in God's ways. I have been made righteous and to walk in the ways of the Lord is not too difficult for me.