Friday 14 Sep 2012

Friday Reading: Romans 8:35-39

Key Verse: Romans 8:36
36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Devotion:
If anyone has tried to convince you that being a Christian is going to be an easy life then they have lied to you. For as long as we stand up for Christ we are going to have people standing up against us. Just as we have jealous people who stand up against us when something good happens to us or when we are able to do something good, we are going to have jealous people who try to slander us or try to trip us up in some manner just because we look like we have got something good going. In other words, the more we work toward Christ the more we should expect to have people working against us.

But never be afraid of that issue because Christ has already promised us that He is the one standing before God the Father giving an account for us so that we may be with Him eternally. Christ will also make sure that there is no temptation placed before us that He personally knows we cannot deal with. We may well feel like we are at the end of our tether and that we cannot cope with anything more, but Christ knows that we can take what He is allowing into our lives. He knows that as soon as we depend on Him we will be able to achieve so much more. Just maybe He is allowing something into our lives so that we depend on Him just that little bit more than we care to – then we shall be able to see the real power of God!

When God was leading the Children of Israel through the desert He stretched them to the limit to make sure that they had no choice but to depend fully on Him. Through that act He was able to show them just how awesome He really is by giving them water in the desert, food where there was none and keeping them fit and well where so many others had died before.

So when we are faced with people who seem to hate us for no reason, you can bet that there is a very big reason why they have gone down that route – that reason is that we are working toward a life with Christ. We may well find people close to us that seem to work against us instead of with us – just maybe Christ is trying to show us that we need His strength to work for Him and that we cannot cope by ourselves.

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you are strong enough?

Is God allowing you to see you need help?