Sunday Reading: Philippians 4:10-13
Key Verse: Philippians 4:12
12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound. In everything and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
Devotion:
We are torn between how much we should do for ourselves, how much we should depend on God for and even how much we should allow or expect others to do for us. This is not something that we are going to make disappear overnight either because that is the way that we are made up. We do get a lot of joy and comfort from how much other people do for us, especially when they do it without being asked; but how much do we think about all that God does for us?
We spend most of our time being concerned about others feelings and about how we can best manage our own but do not spend enough time thinking about God’s expectations of us and how we can best manage those in our lives. Too many times we go ahead and do thing according to our wishes and then try and fit them into God’s ways so that we can please Him. Have we not got it backwards? Should we not be doing things for God and then finding out how they fit into our lives?
We can do anything for Christ when we are following His will because He will make sure that we can. When we ask Him for strength to do His will in our lives we get it! When we ask Him for strength to do our own will in our lives we don’t always seem to get it. Just maybe we are then going against His will, or maybe we have forgotten which way we should be aiming! We do need to depend on God because the more that we do the more we will be able to recognise His ways and the more we will be able to do for Him rather than for ourselves. It’s not so much a case of “what can I do for God” but rather “what can I do with God”. He wants to be active in our lives but we are the ones who have to allow Him in to be active.
Points to Ponder:
Who do you depend on in your life?
Are you allowing God to do things with you?
