Monday 17 Sep 2012

Monday Reading: Romans 11:22-25

Key Verse: Romans 11:22
22  Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

Devotion:
The more that we do study all that God has done with men from around the world the more we should realise that God deals with people in a very Just and Holy manner; after all God is Holy. The more that we are able to study God’s Word the more we will see the contrasting ways in which He deals with people who follow Him and those who reject Him. It cannot be said that God has not given us enough warning that He would deal harshly with us if we reject Him because He has upheld that from the very beginning. Adam and Eve had to face the music after they had chosen to reject God’s laws. Why should we be any different?

God has given us a choice as to whether we want to follow His law or whether we want to flout the law by choosing to go against it whenever we want. God has given us the rules so that we do know where we stand with Him. Just as a good parent will give their children good and firm boundaries for them to understand and follow, so does God give us good and firm boundaries to stick to; we are then the ones who have the choice as to what we do with those boundaries.

If we take the analogy back to the analogy of us being branches within a vine then we can expect to face what a branch would face if they rejected the nutrients. A branch should not reject anything that is given to it, but if it were able to then it would simply die because it would not have any source of goodness. When we cut off our supply of goodness from God then we are cutting of the very bread that we need to survive in this world. Yes we could live a while on earthly things but when that comes to an end we are left with nothing.

God wants us to have a long and eternal supply of goodness that He is supplying to us all the time; all we need do is choose to actively take in that goodness so that we can grow with Him. But that supply of goodness was first focused on the Jews as being God’s chosen people. When they come back to Him they are coming back as the chosen people. When we come to Christ we are being grafted in as outsiders. Once we are in and enjoying our relationship with Christ, nothing will take us out of that relationship other than us rejecting what He gives us.

Points to Ponder:
What do you seek from your relationship with Christ?

Are you rejecting His ways or His Word?