Saturday Reading: 1 John 5:18-21
Key Verse: 1 John 5:20
20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and He has given us an understanding so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and the everlasting life.
Devotion:
It may sound a bit harsh to divide the world into two parties, for God and against God, but that is exactly what the case is. Those that believe in God belong to Him, whereas everyone else does not yet belong to God. I say not yet because it is my hope that all will come to know God, but sadly I know this is not going to be the case. True believers are of God, for God and with God. They will run their lives as best they can with God being the one they focus on. Those that do not wish to have God in their lives have their own gods whether they like it or not. Their gods may well be football or drinking or other things; that is what their lives revolve around. Everyone that is not supporting God’s cause must therefore be against His cause. If we are not for God then we are either ignoring Him or revolting against Him – both are working against Him.
When we start to focus our lives on God, we bring Him to the front of our thoughts. With Him in our daily thoughts, we are less likely to work against Him... What does that mean? Well, if we were walking along with a friend we would probably not do anything that we know would offend them. We would not go out of our way to do something that they would not like because we know it would upset them. When we walk with God, we tend to think of Him more often and hence do not do things that we know will offend Him. It is a life-changing fact.
Our problem is that we allow things to get into our lives because we see all the people around us doing things without regard to God. We are easily led astray and wander off doing things that we know God would not approve of. If someone did that to you, would you think that they had respect for you? We know what Christ has done for us. We know what we should be doing...
Points to Ponder:
Do you think your friends respect you?
How much respect do you show God?
