Devotionals

Sin's Desolate Wilderness

by Cheryl Weber
04/24/19
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Have you ever done something to hurt someone? Perhaps someone you love? What was the condition of your relationship afterward? Needed an ax to cut the tension, didn’t you? It probably felt like the middle of a cold, lonely wilderness.

God loves us. A lot. And our sin really hurts him. It creates a desolate wasteland where we wander, separated from him and often from others. Long ago, God commanded the ancient Israelites to adopt a custom as a vivid picture of this principle. The high priest was to take a live goat and confess the sins of the people over it. Those sins would be transferred to the animal which would then be chased into the barren wilderness where it would wander alone and defenseless for the rest of its life.

This principle holds true not only personally but for our society. As our nation turns more and more away from God and his loving directives, our young people are becoming increasingly violent, suicidal, and entitled. Families are breaking apart and addiction rates are soaring along with a sense of purposelessness, emptiness, and rampant selfishness.

The Bible, however, tells us that yielding our hearts and lives to God in obedience brings peace, joy, fruitfulness, love for and unity with others, light, healing, and everlasting life.

We can never do enough good things to be acceptable in God’s sight. But just like that goat, Jesus took our sins upon himself on the cross so we could escape the punishment due us. When we turn away from the wrong we’ve done and trust in Christ and his sacrificial death, we leave our wilderness of sin. We receive his perfect righteousness and the eternal life, peace, and joy only he can give.

PRAYER:  Dear God, my life is a desolate wilderness because of my sins. I turn my back on them and turn to Jesus and trust him as my Savior. Amen.