What is your greatest need? Psalm 50 and Matthew 9 both speak of the need for forgiveness. Psalm 50 begins by reminding us how great God is, He is the mighty One, He is in charge of the whole world. The tragedy is that people everywhere don’t treat Him as if this is true. In the Psalm they thought they could buy God off with a few sacrifices. If you ever think that you are doing God a favour by going to church or giving, or taking a sacrament, you are mistaken. God says He owns everything and has no need of anything, what He wants is your heart. He wants you to see your need of Him and call on Him.
What He hates is when we go through religious motions but really don’t care what He says in His Word. In Psalm 50 God warns against the religious hypocrisy of making covenant promises while not listening to God’s Word. Saying one thing, but doing another. Saying that you follow Jesus while doing things He hates. In Psalm 50:16-21 they are making promises while undermining marriage, stealing and speaking evil. They think they are getting away with it because God didn’t do anything. But God warns them:
“Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you.” (v21)
No wonder when they brought the paralysed man to Jesus, the first thing Jesus did was to forgive His sins (Matthew 9). Sin is so serious that it is better to be forgiven and not able to walk, than able to walk but unforgiven. Jesus deals with the most serious problem first, but what really annoys the religious this time is that Jesus is doing something that only God can do. They haven’t realised that Jesus is the Son of God and through His pleasing sacrifice, the only way back to God. The only way for us to be blameless, for our sins to be covered. He has died so that we can have new hearts that want to go God’s way.
Please don’t just go through the religious motions, do not be satisfied until God gives you a new heart.
Light and Momentary Troubles 
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