The Law As A Fence

# 157 - Today's Du-votional comes from: 1Sa 12:14,15, "If you fear the LORD and serve Him and obey His voice, and do not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the LORD your God. 15 "However, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then the hand of the LORD will be against you, as it was against your fathers. (1 Sam 12:14,15) It's not that bad to have a king rule over you. It still boils down to our own personal relationship with God. If we are willing to fear, love, serve, and obey Him, we have no need to fear judgment from God. But if we choose to rebel against His rule, His hand will be against us in judgment, king or not. Let me use the open hand of God illustration again. When you and I, by the grace of God, put our faith in Christ, we are placed in the open hand of God. He does not hold us with a clenched fist. As long as we remain in His hand no one can pluck us away. Though God's hand is open, He has placed His commands like a fence around the outer edges of His hand. This fence is designed to slow us down, to protect us, and help keep us from straying away from Him. It is a grace to have such a fence, but the fence is not grace. It can't save us. We were saved the moment we put on Christ through faith. And now these commands or fence, matter to us because of our love for Him. It is now our Holy Spirit given desire to please the Father, to live in accordance with His holy will. But if we habitually ignore them, we show a disdain for His rule in our lives. We are basically saying, that we don't like living in the confines of His hand and we place ourselves in danger of leaving His protection. By now, you should know, that these commands are impossible to keep with our own strength, but God wants you and I to remain in His hand so much, that He has given us the Holy Spirit (the Helper) to help us live according to His will, and to lead us to confession and forgiveness when we fall short.