Tuesday Reading: Ephesians 5:1-2
Key Verse: Ephesians 5:1
1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
Devotion:
I do like using scripture from the various letters in the New Testament because they are real letters that went out to real people and as such we, real people, can most easily relate to what they have in them. Now it is a very hard thing to live up to the position of someone else whether it is an older brother or sister or even your parents; it is a hard thing to live up to the reputation of someone who has gone before you. So when we are told that we should be living up to the reputation of God or Christ, we find it impossible!
Christ has already shown that it is possible so we cannot turn round and say that it is impossible; but, for us, it is not possible because we live in sin and we break so many laws along the way. It is not possible for us by our own selves because we are nowhere near strong enough to lift up anything, never mind ourselves. It is impossible for us because we are not Holy and Just like God but sinners and unclean like every other man is.
When we are told to come to God as dear children it is not the child that is so innocent, because once you have had children yourselves you begin to realise just how easy it is to spot them when they do anything amiss. It is, rather, the innocence that they stand for because they are not yet fully corrupted by this world that we live in. They still have some innocence within them – even when we fail to find it within ourselves because of the barriers we are putting up around ourselves.
Children need adults to look after them until they can become as adults and learn to live by themselves. We, on the other hand, remain as children until we die; we need our Heavenly Father at all times and we continue to need Him right through our lives. We need that guidance, strength and compassion that only our true Father can show us. Our earthly fathers can love us more than we realise, but they can only love us until such a time as one of us dies, then our earthly link dissolves and we need someone that is not limited by time and life on earth. That can only be God. And when we stop to think about all that He has done for us we then begin to see just how much of a Father He is to us. We begin to realise just how much love He has already poured into the relationship and how much we need to do from our side to respect that love.
Points to Ponder:
Do you know what a father should do?
Do you know how much God has already done for you?
Tuesday 3 Jul 2012
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