A weekday morning devotional series written by Aaron Marcarelli and hosted by Chad McBeam
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”
Matthew 7:21-23 NASB2020
This is a sobering scripture. First we see Jesus is declaring that He is the messiah. He does this through His language. He says my Father and He says, He, Jesus will be the one doing the judging, He says “many will say to me, on that day Lord, Lord”. Then they will explain how they did this and that “for God” when in reality they did it for themselves or so people would look at them or so they would feel better about themselves or that they would have forgiveness for some penance they had done. Once again we must not be fooled by false prophets Jesus explains this again to His disciples in chapter 24 saying “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘He is over here,’ do not believe him. For false christs and false prophets will arise and will provide great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance. So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
Matthew 24:23-27 NASB2020
Obviously Jesus wants us to follow Him and those that teach from His words. But we must serve Him for the right reasons. We must always seek the Holy Spirit. We must not serve Him for selfish reasons or vain conceit. If we do serve Him for those reasons Jesus will say to us that He never knew us. This is why forgiveness, reconciliation and the daily seeking of God’s Will through the power of The Holy Spirit is so vitally important in our following of Christ.
Lord we thank you and praise you for your perfect love. Help us to truly seek you and your will for us each and every day. Thank you for you forgiveness and your perfect love. We pray that your Holy Spirit guides all our choices to seek you as you have called us to do. In Jesus Name Amen…
Shalom Shalom blessings Press In And Press On!