“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
Luke 15:7, ESV
In these words of Jesus, we find the promise given to us as our Lord reveals to us His promise of salvation. The greatest lie we ever tell ourselves is that we are good, but it is only through the salvation that Jesus Christ gives us that there is any goodness that is found within us. When we realize our need for our Savior and humble our hearts, we find the greatest joy and contentment that can be found. God finds no pleasure in the condemnation of any and He is not sitting in Heaven looking for every failure and shortcoming. Sin is a part of our fallen nature, but in Christ, we can know the forgiveness that restores us and cleanses us. We can do nothing to make ourselves righteous, but when we are washed in the righteousness of Christ, we find life. Our Lord gave Himself so that we could be covered in His redemptive covering and be joined with Him for eternity. We are not made right in our religiosity, but in our faith in the one, true God that has been revealed to us in Christ Jesus and seeking to be obedient to His Call in our lives.
Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.