Sunday 9 Sep 2012

Sunday Reading: Acts 17:22-23

Key Verse: Acts 17:23
23  For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

Devotion:
How many times have you found yourself getting so involved with something that you forget to do the task that you should have been doing or that you first set out to do; whether it is simply getting side-tracked from the task in hand or whether you set out to do something you should not be, the result is broadly the same – you don’t do what you should be doing! When Paul looked at the people around him he saw a whole lot of action but none of it happening in the right ways or in the right direction. The same can be said about modern society – we are all willing to get involved with something but not always in the right thing!

God continues to make sure that we have ready access to His Word so that we will have a better chance at understanding what it is that He wants us to be doing in our lives. It is not a guessing game that we have to find out by trial and error but rather it should be us listening to His instructions so that we will do it right in the beginning.

Our biggest problem is not going to be the fact that nobody is telling us the right way but that we are listening to everything but the right way. We bring so much into our lives that the righteous ways are squeezed out and our lives are filled with the garbage that we do not need. It is not just going to be bad things or naughty things but those things that God knows will take us away from a life with Him. It is not a small thing that God has given us a commandment that says we should keep Him as our only God, because as soon as we lift up something or someone else in stead of Him, we are demoting God from being God.

Paul was dismayed that the people of Athens were lifting up all manner of things as gods and were not recognising God as God. Instead they had inscriptions to “The Unknown God” just in case they had missed out something or someone. They were trying to cover all bases rather than seeking the truth. If we were given a task of filling a cup with water we would not use a sprinkler system to spray everything in sight but rather place the cup under a tap or other source of water where we could fill it directly. We need to make sure that we are close to God so that we can get a ready and direct supply from Him.

Points to Ponder:
Do you try to cover all bases or direct your efforts?

Are you directing your worship to God?