Break Away From Your Sins

  “Break away from your sins by doing righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor...”

Daniel  4:27

Lord, this seems like a no-brainer!  Of course I want to break away from my sins.  Jesus' death on the cross gives me forgiveness and frees me from  the chains of sin.  Yet, my actions often show that, despite His complete victory on the cross,  I still often choose to continue in crummy behavioral ruts.   So, in this scripture, you've revealed two 'secret weapons' to use against sin in my life: 1) Do righteousness; 2) show mercy to the  poor.

First: do righteousness.  I had to look up what Daniel was getting at, Lord.  Matthew Henry, in his commentary, says that righteousness –in Nebuchadnezzar’s case – was this:  rendering to all their due, making amends for wrong done, and not triumphing over right with might. He had been cruel to the poor, to God’s poor.  Daniel was recommending the replacement principle – I need to not only pause a moment, identify the crummy things I do, and cease to do them, but also replace the bad behaviors with new good ones.

Second: show mercy to the poor.  Whew!  Now, this will take some work, Lord.  But I know there are lots of poor folks right here in my town.  Give me the desire and the persistence to connect with the poor by meeting their needs:  I could teach English as a second language, tutor kids, help in a food pantry, help build a house, work in a pregnancy distress center.  There a lots of choices.  Help me regularly show mercy to the poor.  I know that working with the needy somehow changes my heart.

These words in Daniel are both a chewing out and a promise, Lord Jesus.  You set me free, now give me the sense and the  power of the Holy Spirit to heed Daniel's words  and break away from my sins in order to stay free.