A WORD FOR TODAY, May 27, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, May 27, 2025
“So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12-13, WEB
I like to play a number of games on the Internet. I wake up in the morning to several word good games that I claim help stimulate my brain, enhance my memory, and help me focus during the day. I like these games because they are limited, there is one round and so I can be sure I’ll be able to play for just a few minutes and be done. It is so tempting to get into a game that goes on and on forever, especially since I am a bit competitive. I have worked toward high scores on games because I want to be the winner. One game I used to play had weekly high scores and an all-time high score. I had the all-time high for a long time and joked with one friend how I would always stay ahead of her. I had another friend who was even more competitive than me. When I beat her high score, she beat mine within hours.
I used to spend so much time playing one game that I ran out of levels. I began to go back and replay levels to raise my score, especially if I discovered that my friends had higher scores. I realized one day that I was wasting too much of my time chasing after something that didn’t really matter. That’s when I decided to play only games without unlimited levels, keeping my game time to a minimum. Unfortunately, I have recently found a new game that I love. This one has levels, and for a long time I was able to limit myself to just ten levels at each sitting. There is a side game where players race for the highest total. In the beginning you could choose to play the extra game, but now you are automatically enrolled. It is so tempting to just keep playing to win that side game, and I do. The game told me today that I’ve won first place six times. This means I play that game too much!
They say records are made to be broken and it happens all the time. Basketball players that are still considered the best in their sport have lost their records to younger players. Peggy Fleming was one of the best ice skaters of all time, but she would never have even considered doing some of the flips, jumps and spins of today’s competitors. Runners are faster than their predecessors. The previous records give new competitors a goal and they work to beat it. Everyone wants to be the best.
Sadly, we don’t just want to beat our neighbors at video games or sports; we even want to better our God. Oh, we know we are not better than God; we act humble and meek before God’s throne. Yet, we often do the very things that show our hearts on the matter. We try to be good. We believe the good works we do are enough to make us right before God. We credit ourselves with our humility, confident at His feet that He will find us good enough because we are kneeling before Him. It seems as if that humility is a sign of our righteousness to us. Yet the very fact that we humbly approach the throne of grace without trembling is a sign of our own conceit. We will never be good enough; even the best of us cannot approach God without fear.
John Calvin wrote, “This is the truth. Awakened consciences, when the have to do with God’s judgment, recognize [God’s mercy] as the only safe haven in which they can securely breathe. For if the stars, which seem so very bright at night, lose their brilliance in the sight of the sun, what do we think will happen even to the rarest innocence of man when it is compared to God's purity?”
I learned some time ago that I need to choose games that do not tempt me away from the things that are a waste of time. I have to allow that there will always be someone who will get the better score or set the better record but no matter how we try, we will never be better than God. No matter how good we are, no matter how faithful we are to God’s Word, no matter how gracious we are to our neighbors, no matter how innocent we appear before the throne of grace, we will never be good enough. When we do face God's judgment, let us not do so with self-righteous humility but with fear and trembling. God loves us and works in and through us for His glory, and when we trust in Him we will win in a way that really matters: experiencing God’s peace through His mercy.
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