Lent Devotional - Day 4

Read John 2:13-25

Today we see the holiness of Jesus; his set-apartedness. As people are doing what they usually do, Jesus moves differently. His heart is not set on earthly things, but on heavenly things. There are things we do to get by whether it is in the world or in the church. We make up rules and set up traditions that will often supersede God’s will and desire.

When it comes to your spiritual life, are you religious or relational? Is your spirituality defined more by do’s and don’ts or growing in love with Jesus?

As Jesus overturns the tables of the money changers and drives out the animals in the temple courts, we get a glimpse of God’s righteous judgement. Too often we mistake the grace of God in our lives as permission to live however we want and misunderstand his receiving us as we are with approval.

There is a right way to live and relate with God and with those around us. Have you ever given thought to whether you are truly living rightly and have strived to align your ways with God’s ways? Thanks to the grace of God, it is not too late to forsake our selfish, religious ways and turn back to Jesus to live a life of obedience.

Jesus referred to his body as the Temple and the Apostle Paul will later remind us that as Christians our bodies together build up the temple and so we ought to live with the set-apartedness that Jesus had: a life of holiness and obedience. Let us give up indulging ourselves and let us begin to obey every leading of the Holy Spirit.

Just as Jesus did not entrust himself to anybody, let us not live according to other people’s thoughts and judgement, but live to only please Jesus. Jesus, may only your will be done in my life today.