June 10, 2013
SCRIPTURE: Matthew 27:1-5
OBSERVATIONS/APPLICATION
”He felt deep shame and sadness for what he had done.”
My experience is that this is how one feels after doing something foolish, immoral.
Someone once told me that the Devil speaks in two voices: he entices with sweetness and accuses with shame.
In the midst of temptation, the desired object is so appealing, but afterwards it becomes repulsive… imagine greedy Judas throwing away 30 pieces of gold!!!
How did Adam and Eve feel about the forbidden fruit before they ate it… and after?
From sweetness to shame, from delight to despair.
The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23); this does not just mean that God punishes sinners with death, but that the shame and despair naturally results in death.
Judas’ shame and sadness lead to the death of hope, of joy, of purpose, of reason for living, of self… and all this leads him to take his own life.
I sense the Lord urging me to see the ways my sins or attitudes or behaviors are killing me.
Not just physical death, but how they kill my hope, my joy, my relationships, my purpose, my love, my experience of life.
Judas is an example for all of us for what happens when we feed our sinful desires.
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, like Judas, I have sinned. And its killing me. Keep me from the despair of Judas, may my sorrow lead me to repentance.