Daily Devotional – Sept 10, 2020

Yeah, it's been a rather drastic change in our weather around this parts of the

Midwest, cool middle of the week, looking forward to warmer days in the next couple of days,

I trust. Well, I hope your week's going well, getting a lot accomplished and just seeing the

Lord, answer prayer, meet needs, can look at ways every day that you can be grateful for what the

Lord has done. One little exercise that I do every morning is part of a little devotional journal that I use.

It has a section to name three things that you're thankful for, and just to go through that exercise every day really kind of helps us to learn to be grateful and to be thankful in all things and for all things.

So I commend that to you, if you don't already have a process like that in mind or in your practice, it's a good discipline to get into just to keep us thankful.

Well, I'm sure like you, I have several different kinds of shoes, strange topic, isn't it?

So the shoes I'm wearing today, just everyday casual shoes, they're not hiking shoes, they're not dress shoes.

I have the dress shoes for Sunday, I wear a suit and tie and leather floor shine dress shoes to go with my suit.

But for everyday wear, a more casual pair of shoes, they're heavy, they're kind of clunky and so forth.

And then when I go hiking, I have hiking boots. Again, they're kind of heavy, but when you look at the size and how big those boots are, they're fairly lightweight.

But those shoes aren't made for running. I have another pair of shoes that I use for walking.

I try to get a couple of miles of walking in every day. And those are,

I mean, they weigh almost nothing. They're so lightweight and running shoes or good walking shoes will be that way.

They'll be lightweight because you want to move quickly and keep on your feet and keep your feet moving.

So of course, the heavier your shoes are, the slower you are to make progress in your walking.

Well, let me ask you this. What kind of shoes are you wearing when it comes to your obedience, your obedience to the

Lord? An old Puritan by the name of Thomas Adams made a comment.

He said, true obedience hath no lead at its heels, hath no lead at its heels.

Lead, of course, a very heavy thing. If you're wanting to run a sprint or a marathon, either one, you don't want a pair of shoes that has a bunch of lead in its heels.

You want those lightweight track shoes that are going to be like nothing is on your feet so that you can run as fast as you possibly can.

Well, Adams points out that true obedience, true obedience doesn't have any lead in its heels.

In other words, it is quick to obey. It's quick to get at it. Now, a lot of people are pretty quick to disobey, but one of the things the

Lord says in Proverbs, what is it, 6, 16 to 18, the writer of Proverbs, he says, there's six things that the

Lord hates, seven are an abomination to him. By the way, let me mention this. You see that a few times in Proverbs.

There's six things but seven. There's six things the Lord hates, he hates seven. It's not that the writer was like, oh yeah,

I forgot one. It's kind of a poetic way, if you want to use it that way, of saying there's a completeness of this list.

These seven things are an abomination to the Lord. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, like an abortionist, a heart that devises wicked plans, and then this, feet that make haste to run to evil.

Got no lead in the heels running to evil. Now, if you're a child of God and you're sensitive to the working of your spirit, you've got lead in your heels when it comes to running to disobedience.

You're not eager to do it. You may be tempted and you may be drawn in a particular way, but you feel this tug.

You feel this pull that's trying to keep you from it. You're not running to it like you have a lightweight pair of track shoes on, but the wicked, they run.

Those that are an abomination to the Lord, they make haste to run to evil.

Well, I think Adams is making a good point in reflecting on that same concept or that same imagery to say that those who are truly obedient, they will have no lead in their heels.

They'll make haste to run to that obedience. You've heard the phrase, get the lead out, right?

Somebody's just very sluggish about what they're doing. Maybe an employee working on the line or doing a job where he needs to be at it.

He needs to be diligent at it. He's just slovenly about it. He's slow and cumbersome.

He's just not getting at it. The boss comes to him and says, hey, come on, get the lead out, get the lead out, get moving.

Maybe a track coach will tell one of his runners that same idea. He's running, but the coach knows he can go so much faster.

He says, hey, get the lead out. This is what Adams is talking about. Get the lead out of your heels and get at it.

Get the lead out of your heels when you're running to obedience. True obedience doesn't have any lead in its heels.

Psalmist captured this in Psalm 119 when he said this, I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments.

When it comes to your obedience to the Lord, what kind of shoes do you have on?

I think about this, for example, in a wide variety of categories, but after all, I'm a pastor of a church.

I think in terms of church things and many other things, too. We're approaching the

Lord's day. The scripture says, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together, but are you quick to obey that or do you have lead in your heels on Sunday morning?

What about your giving, your stewardship, financial stewardship to the

Lord's work? Are you as eager to plop down your tithe in the offering box as you are to,

I don't know, drop 30, 40 bucks for dinner out somewhere?

The point is simply this, true obedience, it doesn't lag.

True obedience doesn't have lead in its heels. It gets at it. It gets at it.

It hastes to obey. As you reflect on that, if you sense your heels are weighed down by some lead, well, get the lead out.

Get the lead out. I trust the Lord will give you a good Thursday and the rest of the day will go well, whether you're seeing this at 7 .30

in the morning or six o 'clock at night. Whenever you're watching, I just trust the

Lord gives you a good day. Let's pray and ask him to do that and help us to get the lead out of our heels.

Father, those of us who know Christ, we want to obey. That is in our hearts.

Too often, the devil will throw some lead in our shoes and we'll be slow at it.

I pray that by your grace and your Spirit's help, we'll get the lead out and be swift to obey, be truly obedient.

And this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Have a good rest of your day. God bless you.