Saturday 31 Mar 2012

Saturday Reading: Galatians 6:1-5

Key Verse: Galatians 6:2
2  Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Devotion:
There is always going to be a point at which you start asking question and a further point at which you start to refuse to do things and maybe a further point after which you actively rebel about things. But just how far are you going to be able to be pushed before you start to turn? Each of us will set our own limits and each of us will have different criteria by which we set those limits – but how many time do we consider God’s ways when we set limits in our lives?

If we are honest then we will say that we just set the limits and then think about things afterwards. If we are honest we may well say that we set our limits based on how others treat us to begin with. And then we may well be one of those mellow people who just carry on and wait for things to go wrong before challenging anything. Unfortunately for me I fit into that last category and I do normally wait until things go wrong before asking for help – but when I see things going wrong in other people’s live I like to be able to step in and offer my help toward them before it all goes pear shaped for them.

To me, this is just another part of the love that God has shown me. He has shown me on many occasions that He is willing to help me out before things go wrong and not to demand any recompense from me for fixing things. Imagine having a mechanic that would offer to fix your car before it went wrong just because he heard something as you drove past – and then for him to not ask for any money for fixing it! Life would be a bit hard for that mechanic because he may well not earn any money to cover his own expenses!

But God continue to show us that that is the sort of attitude that we should have towards others – that we should offer them our love before it is required and that we should not demand anything back in return. If everyone was to aim at that sort of love toward each other – this world would be so much better off than it is now. I somehow think that that is what God had in mind when He created us – but how the evil one has ruined things by throwing temptation in our path. It is now that we need to turn back to God and ask Him for help in sharing the burdens that we now carry because of our mistakes that we have chosen. Even though the evil one is the one who showed us those wrongful paths, we still made the choice to follow them instead of sticking with God’s perfect plan.

Points to Ponder:
Do you offer to lighten other peoples burdens?

Are you willing to share your burdens with Christ?