Thursday Reading: James 1:13-17
Key Verse: James 1:13
13 Let no one being tempted say, I am tempted from God. For God is not tempted by evils, and He tempts no one.
Devotion:
“But he made me do it Sir!” How many times have you tried that one? There are only so many times that you can use that excuse before people start to not believe you anymore. But isn’t it funny that when we are confronted by someone who does have authority and who’s authority we respect then we suddenly cave in and start telling the truth? God is not only a perfect teacher and guide but also one who’s authority we can never ignore because His authority is the ultimate authority. Yes He does allow us to get up to all sorts of things but when push comes to show we have to answer to Him!
He is never going to give us anything that will detract us from His work or from doing His will. Anything that does come our way that does that is not from Him. We live in a world where we are constantly looking out for what others are doing just in case we miss out on something! We don’t get to think much about how many things we let into our minds just from all of the possibilities that we observe each day – we just take it all in and store it up; but taking it in is what we have to watch out for...
When you walk past something that you desire, you are the one that is thinking about how good it is or would be if you could have that. God is not the one putting those thoughts in your head – you are. You are the one that then begins to think about ways in which it would be possible for you to have that object of desire. You are the one that comes up with all manner of things based on what you have observed in the past. We could turn round and say that we should get rid of all of those places that encourage lust and desire but then we would start thinking more of other things of desire. Much of our time of suffering is because we bring things on ourselves and we leave God out of it. Leaving God out of it means we no longer have the strength to combat it... that’s when we lose out...
Points to Ponder:
How easily are you distracted?
How easily are you distracted from reading God’s Word?
