Saturday 21 Apr 2012

Saturday Reading: Romans 9:25-29

Key Verse: Romans 9:26
26  And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

Devotion:
One of the most amazing things that we find in our bibles is the amount of things that have been written many years before they actually happened, and these are not just things that people wanted to happen but normally the opposite in that they were judgments coming from God upon the people. Rather than picking up on many of the more depressing prophesies I have chosen this one which foretells of the mercy of God toward all men rather than just the Jews.

The Jews were selected as the chosen people of God and He has taught the rest of the world through what has happened with them. If we ignore what has happened then we are going to find out the same hard way that God will make sure that things will happen the way He wants and not according to the will of man. The Jews had seen how much God could do for them and yet they still chose to try to follow other gods in the hopes that they would be more lenient and easier to live by; but God had made the covenant with them and He alone has all power of what will happen.

God’s judgment was that the Gentiles would be the ones that would now get the attention in that they would be focused on and they would get to hear God’s truth so that they could be saved. But God did not turn His back on the Jews because the few that chose to still listen to the truth would come through this and still believe in God. God continued to keep His original promise to the Jews that they would be the chosen people and that they would always be – it’s just that the main focus would now be on saving the rest of the world as well.

When we look back on all that God has promised us from the beginning of time and see just how much of that has already come true, we should be encouraged no end to know that the rest of those promises are going to happen just as the rest have. We should be able to look at them and know deep in our hearts that things will be the way that God has said... but still in our hearts we want things to happen according to our own ways and not to be dictated to us by an unseen God. The pride that man continues to have even after many cycles of being shown that that pride is wrong is just amazing; but we see it happen each and every day.

Points to Ponder:
Do you want things to happen your way?

Or are you going to trust God?