Day 1525

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, May 20.

 

Whereas perfectionism will hamstring your ability to function in such an imperfect world, the desire to make progress on the journey to excellence enhances your capacity to serve the Lord wholeheartedly. Jeremiah 48 is a forty-seven-verse oracle of judgment against Moab, reminiscent of Isaiah 15-16. There are numerous names of locations, unknown to modern-day scholars, which stands as a testament of the thoroughness of God’s destroyer. God commanded the destroyer for Moab’s judgment in Jeremiah 48:8-10:

 

A destroyer will come to every city, so that no city will escape; the valley also will be ruined and the plateau will be destroyed, as the Lord has said. Give wings to Moab, for she will flee away; and her cities will become a desolation, without inhabitants in them. Cursed be the one who does the Lord’s work negligently, and cursed be the one who restrains his sword from blood.

 

God decreed a thorough destruction of Moab, warning the destroyer that it would be cursed for any negligence in accomplishing its task. Negligence is a legal term; it is the failure to behave with the level of care that a reasonable person would have exercised under the same circumstances. People become negligent when they lose focus on the importance of the task at hand, such as driving; therefore, we must train ourselves to have the mindset of excellence, doing our best to accomplish any given task. Paul coached God’s workers in Colossians 3:23-25, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.”

 

Seize the moment and strive for excellence in all that you, doing it unto the Lord.