Saturday Reading: Matthew 9:16-17
Key Verse: Matthew 9:16
16 No one puts a piece of new cloth onto an old garment; for that which is put in to fill it up takes from the garment, and the tear is made worse.
Devotion:
If you happen to tear your favourite shirt you may well try to get it repaired rather than throwing it away and buying a new one, but trying to repair a good shirt that has nothing wrong is a bit pointless – unless you are adjusting it to fit properly. Likewise you would probably not put on your favourite shirt before climbing under the car to have a go at fixing it; that would be left for the proper overalls or old clothes! So what has this to do with God? Well we could look at our relationship in the same way as a shirt. When it is new and fresh it is best treated with care so that it will not get messed up before you can enjoy it. When we are young Christians we should be treating our relationship with Christ with respect and care too.
Likewise with the comparison with the wineskins. Granted we do not keep our wine in wineskins anymore but rather is bottle that we can seal properly. But would you take a freshly make drink of any kind and place it in a dirty, used bottle for keeping until later, or would you make sure that the bottle you were using was clean so that your drink would stay fresh too? So why then do we take our life with Christ and dump it into dirty bodies and expect something clean to come out of it?
When we place our faith and trust in Christ we are made clean because Christ forgives us of all our sins. That means that our bodies are clean of all that sin; no longer do we have all the left-overs and dregs left behind. God would not want to be with us if we were not made clean because He cannot abide sin. What we do from that point on is normally quite an uphill struggle because we are constantly fighting against our old ways which are ways of sin. We have a new spirit within us so why should we try and force all that old garbage back into the same body? The answer is, we shouldn’t. As time goes by we may feel like we are getting worn out, but Christ will continue to give us the strength by continuing to mend us and make us as good as new.
Points to Ponder:
Do you play in your best work clothes?
Do you expect Christ to work in your rags?
Key Verse: Matthew 9:16
16 No one puts a piece of new cloth onto an old garment; for that which is put in to fill it up takes from the garment, and the tear is made worse.
Devotion:
If you happen to tear your favourite shirt you may well try to get it repaired rather than throwing it away and buying a new one, but trying to repair a good shirt that has nothing wrong is a bit pointless – unless you are adjusting it to fit properly. Likewise you would probably not put on your favourite shirt before climbing under the car to have a go at fixing it; that would be left for the proper overalls or old clothes! So what has this to do with God? Well we could look at our relationship in the same way as a shirt. When it is new and fresh it is best treated with care so that it will not get messed up before you can enjoy it. When we are young Christians we should be treating our relationship with Christ with respect and care too.
Likewise with the comparison with the wineskins. Granted we do not keep our wine in wineskins anymore but rather is bottle that we can seal properly. But would you take a freshly make drink of any kind and place it in a dirty, used bottle for keeping until later, or would you make sure that the bottle you were using was clean so that your drink would stay fresh too? So why then do we take our life with Christ and dump it into dirty bodies and expect something clean to come out of it?
When we place our faith and trust in Christ we are made clean because Christ forgives us of all our sins. That means that our bodies are clean of all that sin; no longer do we have all the left-overs and dregs left behind. God would not want to be with us if we were not made clean because He cannot abide sin. What we do from that point on is normally quite an uphill struggle because we are constantly fighting against our old ways which are ways of sin. We have a new spirit within us so why should we try and force all that old garbage back into the same body? The answer is, we shouldn’t. As time goes by we may feel like we are getting worn out, but Christ will continue to give us the strength by continuing to mend us and make us as good as new.
Points to Ponder:
Do you play in your best work clothes?
Do you expect Christ to work in your rags?