Tuesday 24 Apr 2012

Tuesday Reading: Philippians 4:8-9

Key Verse: Philippians 4:8
8  Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Devotion:
One thing many of us are guilty of is that we tend to think more about the things that go wrong and less about the things that go right! If things have gone the way that they should or if we have enjoyed ourselves then we go with the flow and continue enjoying them; but when things go wrong we tend to get bogged down in what has gone wrong and we start to lose focus on how we can do things right or how we can still be enjoying our walk with Christ. Yes it is hard! You are not alone!

It is far easier to read something like this and to apply it to other people rather than to think about our own situations and apply it into our own lives – after all that would be like admitting defeat in some way. But admitting things and moving on has got to be part of our lives. When Christ said that we should bring our sins to Him He did not say that we must bring them to Him and continue to be caught up in our guilt for the rest of our lives. Instead He has promised us that He is willing to forgive us of those sins and to separate us from those sins. In other words He wants us to move on from that point, to turn away from them and to move on with Him.

The best way that I know of moving on from a ‘gutter point’ or low point in my life is to spend time alone with God and I do that by reading His Word. The more that I can do that the more encouragement I get and the more I am able to focus on the good things in my life with Him. As this verse quite plainly states, we need to look on the good part and to think more about them. If we are focusing on those good points then we will find that it is much easier to aim for those points and to keep them in our lives. If we are purely focused on what has gone wrong we will be trapped in what has gone wrong and may not be able to see a way out.

The more that we are focused on the world and what is going wrong in it the more we get despondent about how bad things are. We must not ignore that part of life otherwise we will find that we never seem to learn from what goes wrong; but we can live a much better life by trying to achieve God’s will in our lives rather than trying to avoid our mistakes or misgivings. Living with Christ gives us the right focal point and the right aims so that we can focus on what He has to offer rather than what the world has to offer.

Points to Ponder:
What do you focus on most in life?

How much time do you give to Christ?