Friday 11 Feb 2011

Friday Reading: Ecclesiastes 7:7-10

Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 7:10
10  Do not say, Why was it that the former days were better than these? For you do not ask wisely in regard to this.

Devotion:
How many times have you said something like “it was so much better a year ago”? There are many times when we look at what is happening in our lives and we think of how things used to be and we then dwell on the thoughts of how we may like it to be the same as it was... But the world moves on and we have to move with it – that does not mean that we have to give in to it or that we should go with the flow but rather that we have to change because the world around us changes. The more that we feel that things build up against us the more that we feel trapped and try to find a way out. The more that we cannot see any way out the more depressed or trapped we feel and the more we start to look back and wonder if it was better back then.

God always wants us to look forward and not to continually look back. When we come to know Him personally then we are changed for the better. Nothing before that can ever be looked upon as being good because we now know that it was not. Even when things are heaped up against us we must never imagine that it was better to be under sin than to be with Christ. He is the one that has promised us that He will never give us too much so that we cannot bear it. If we are thinking that then are we not trying to fight our own battles instead of giving them to Him? It is so easy to think that we can...

Anger is one of those things that rages within us and bursts out as soon as we don’t want it to. Anger is a force that we cannot always control because we give in to other things rather than focusing on what God would like us to see. God is trying to open our eyes to the world around us and some of it we probably do not want to see because it will upset us – but sometimes we do have to know the truth so that we can move forward with Him. He wants to guide us...

Points to Ponder:
What do you look back on most?

Are you actually letting Christ guide you?