Friday Reading: 1 Peter 2:13-17
Key Verse: 1 Peter 2:16
16 as free, and not having freedom as a cover of evil, but as servants of God.
16 as free, and not having freedom as a cover of evil, but as servants of God.
Devotion:
A Christian must be honest. There is no other way to serve a just and honest God other than to be totally honest oneself. That honest has to be throughout you life and not just in what other people see of you. It is all well and good to be an honest person on the outside so that others will trust you with everything and even come to believe you, but if you are not being honest with God as well, then you have a problem that is eating at you from the inside and will eventually make itself known. Once again we can take our wonderful members of parliament to see this. They seem honest on the outside, but eventually their back-hand deals are exposed and we see them for what they are – mostly honest but willing to break the rules when it suits them!
A Christian must be honest. There is no other way to serve a just and honest God other than to be totally honest oneself. That honest has to be throughout you life and not just in what other people see of you. It is all well and good to be an honest person on the outside so that others will trust you with everything and even come to believe you, but if you are not being honest with God as well, then you have a problem that is eating at you from the inside and will eventually make itself known. Once again we can take our wonderful members of parliament to see this. They seem honest on the outside, but eventually their back-hand deals are exposed and we see them for what they are – mostly honest but willing to break the rules when it suits them!
If we fall into that trap as a Christian, then we are not any better than someone who is openly doing evil things – we are doing evil within our hearts! That is the place that Christ looks! It is no good our going round trying to be an example to others when we cannot be honest with God. Once we are open and honest we can then be that example to others – hiding things behind the scenes is nothing more than being a thief, taking peoples trust without asking them.
When we start our honesty with God, we will find that being honest with everyone else becomes second nature. That is when others will be able to see that we are honest, trustworthy and someone that they could listen to. That is when we can then give them the truth about God and allow them to get to know Him too.
We have to make sure that we do honour those to whom honour is due, but we have to make sure that we do fear God above others because He is our rightful King having created us and paid for our sin debt.
Points to Ponder:
How often are you forced to lie?
Would you have had to lie if you had been honest up front?
How often are you forced to lie?
Would you have had to lie if you had been honest up front?