But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Unworthiness. That's the subject of this devotion.

As near as I can tell, no father has ever felt there was a man good enough to marry his daughter. Every suitor is unworthy.

Of course, most of us don't get as carried away with our feelings, as did the 56-year-old woman from the Russian city of Yaroslavl.

When her daughter was taking a flight to Morocco to marry her fiancé, the mother made a phone call to the authorities saying her daughter was going to blow up the plane.

The plane was stopped; the daughter was questioned, cleared, and sent on her way. The story ends with the daughter flying to Morocco and the mother being arrested for making a false terrorist threat.

Now if a mother can feel that strongly about a potential son-in-law, how do you think the Lord ought to feel about us?

Consider how our actions, our words, our thoughts and our hearts all gave every indication we didn't like Him, disrespected Him and wanted no contact with Him.

Even so, the Lord didn't wait for us to clean up our act. He didn't wait until we were worthy of Him before He loved us. Indeed, while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us.

Of course, if the Lord had waited for us to make those changes, He would be waiting still. Luther was quite right when he said, "we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ our Lord or come to Him."

Looking at His wandering, sinful children the Lord acted unilaterally and sent His Son to be our Savior. Throughout His entire life, Jesus did the Father's will and accomplished all that was necessary to save us.

Now, because of the Savior's sacrifice and His third-day resurrection from the dead, all who believe in Him as Savior are justified and declared free of sin.

Because of Jesus, we are forgiven, which is what God wanted to see all along.

THE PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father, for sending Your Son to accomplish all that I, a sinner, could not, I give thanks. Now may I, Your forgiven child, try to live my life as a faithful follower of the Christ. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

In Christ I remain His servant and yours,

Today's Bible Readings: Ezekiel 40-41    2 Peter 3

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