We measure the details of our lives so much that we barely even notice.
We measure the ingredients we place in our food, the components we use to build our homes, the distances we travel and the time it takes to arrive at our destination. In the doctor's office, our weight, height, blood pressure, temperature and the chemistry of our blood are all measured.
The scriptures relate that God is interested in measurements, but in different areas than those which concern us much of the time. He provided very precise dimensions for the building of an ark, a tabernacle and temple, and each of those items present us with a message of eternal value.
Habakkuk 3:6 tells us God "stood and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting..."
Why would God measure the earth? Since He created this globe we call home, He intimately acquainted with its dimensions. He knows the depths of the seas, the height of the mountains and the length and breadth of the land. If we keep reading in Habakkuk 3, we find the answer is judgement.
Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger (Habakkuk 3:12).
Not only does God measure the state of the world, He also measures each of our lives and finds that none of us measure up to His standards...
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
No one is exempt from God's measuring stick. He told a heathen king, "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting" (Daniel 5:27).
We are all "found wanting." Some might say, "Well, I'm not so bad. I'm a pretty good person."
There's a problem with that assumption. God doesn't measure by our standards. He says, "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10).
In Romans 3:23, we're reminded that we have all sinned and all fall short of God's standards. No matter how many good works we try to pile up, we will never measure up to His standards.
God has measured our lives and found each of us wanting, each of us guilty and each of us deserving of His judgement. "For the wages of sin is death..." (Romans 6:23).
Thankfully, God measures His judgement with mercy. We are all sinners who have not measured up to God's standards of holiness, yet Romans 6:23 doesn't end with death. The verse continues. "...but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Most of us are very familiar with John 3:16, the wonderful verse that reveals God's love and mercy.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
When we place our faith in Christ alone for salvation, God sees us as covered by the blood Jesus shed for us. When He measures the lives of believers, the Father sees His Son's finished work on our behalf. Take a look at what Paul said to the believers in Corinth...
I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Corinthians 1:4-9).
This glorious and privileged position we have in Christ is not an excuse of license to sin. As Paul said in Romans 6, "God forbid."
Ephesians 1 & 2 expound on the blessings and position that is ours because of Christ and also provide us with a measuring stick for our lives as believers in Him. We have been made alive, seated in heavenly places with Christ AND given a responsibility to live like it.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).
As believers, God still measures our lives. In the context of the foundation upon which we have been build, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul writes, "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is... If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire" (1 Corinthians 3:13,15).
In light of God's standard of measurement, we need to ask ourselves a very important question:
How do we measure up?
{Daily Selah} is a mini-devotional, a pause to ponder about the Lord and how He wants us to live.
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