Thursday Reading: John 10:10-11
Key Verse: John 10:10
10 The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Devotion:
You don’t have to look too far to realise just what a bunch of thieves we are. I’m not apportioning blame on any individual nor reminding anyone of what they have done by themselves but rather reminding us as a nation, as a people, that we are thieves. When it comes down to it that is what we do during war times. We invade, maybe plunder and carry away something from that land as our own. Is that not the definition of a thief? Taking something without asking... We can use all the excuses we like but when we do examine ourselves we find that that is what we are like on the inside, that is the way that we are. Our lives are built up around such things and around that sort of idea that the strong will be able to take from the weak.
But it’s not just the physical that we steal because we also steal the spiritual! When we do something that upsets someone else or when we do not do something that we should be doing we are taking away spiritual joy from someone else without asking. We are stealing their spiritual joy. God has given each of us a spirit by which we can commune with His Spirit. It is not something physical that we can put our hands on but we sure do know about it when something goes wrong!
God wants each of us to have joy in our lives. Not just physical joy but spiritual joy too. He wants us to be able to bask in the sunshine that is His to give to each of us. He wants us to be able to have that joy in abundance. He came so that we might find that joy because we are being released from the trappings of sin. We are being released from the burdens of sin. He is giving us a way through which we can attain our spiritual joy in abundance. He is the way. He is the life. If we want to be able to get the most out of our lives then we have to make sure that we have the right ingredients to start with. We have to make sure that we have Christ in our lives and to make sure that He is the centre of our lives too.
Points to Ponder:
Have you been spiritually robbed lately?
Are you a thief in the night or are you following Christ?
