Sunday Reading: Isaiah 38:16-19
Key Verse: Isaiah 38:18
18 For the grave cannot praise You, death cannot rejoice in You; they who go down into the pit cannot hope for Your truth.
Devotion:
Something else we may overlook time and time again is the simple fact that once you die it is too late to change your mind! Boy what a truth that is... So often we like to put things off thinking that it will be better tomorrow or will be better if we make sure before we do anything, but the truth will not change over time. We can manipulate things around us so that we think that things have changed but the truth that was there in the beginning will still be there in the end! That does not mean that we need rush into everything because we first have to recognise that truth, but as soon as we do recognise that truth we need to act on it. Putting things off is just another way of giving the evil one another chance to spoil what God has given you.
The greatest truth is that God was gracious enough to reach down into the pit that we dug for ourselves and offer us a hand to lift us up out of that pit. Not only that but He then cast all of our sins behind Him so that we no longer have anything that will pull us back into that pit. If we are the ones that then jump back into the pit then we are the ones who have been stupid and we are the ones who are turning from Christ. That hand that He offers will not always be there because there will be a time when we can no longer reach up to grasp that hand – that would be when we die. So if we have not grasped onto His hand before we die, we lose out forever.
We don’t have to act on instinct. We don’t have to act on what others say. We don’t have to act on what everyone else is doing. What we need to act on is God’s Word. That is the truth by which we can find out what Christ offers us and how He alone can save us. It’s is God’s Word that we go to learn about in church and God’s Word that should be being fed to us in church. Anything else will just be roots and ropes that others dangle down to us thinking that they can save us when it is only Christ who can really save us from our pits.
Points to Ponder:
Who do you look to for strength?
Are you holding on to God’s Word?
