**Daily Devotional** **March 18** *16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. 17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. - James 4:16-17 (KJV)* This verse follows where James was telling us that when we make plans on our own, not following God’s leading, we are trying to be our own God (James 4:13-15). When we do this, we not only tend to mess up our own lives, but our independent attitude is evil. When we think we are doing our own thing, and not following anyone else, we are deceiving ourselves, as then we are following the devil. The devil loves to see us be our own boss, as then he is in control of our lives, as he is the god of this world. This is leaning on our own understanding, and goes against what God tells us (Proverbs 3:5-6). Sin is not only the transgression of the law of God (1 John 3:4), but it is the failure of doing what we know we should do. This definition of sin certainly makes us all guilty of breaking the commandments of God, as none of us always do what we should be doing. How many times have we felt we should share the Gospel with someone, and failed to do so? Do you treat your mate, with the same unconditional love that Jesus has toward us? We do not ever do all that we should be doing, and we know it in our hearts. Being better than the next person, is not being good enough in God’s eyes. Our self-righteousness will never get us to Heaven, and God sees our own righteousness as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Praise God that Jesus came and brought us eternal life (John 17:3) so that we can have His righteousness and appear holy before our God! Devotional by Pastor Joe W. Green, www.infinite-faith.com