Monday 24 Sep 2012

Monday Reading: Genesis 11:1-4

Key Verse: Genesis 11:4
4  And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

Devotion:
Time and time again man continues to show that he has got a great capacity for learning and retaining knowledge – but just as he has this great capacity, he also has a seemingly endless supply of excuses to forget things that just don’t agree with him at the time! We are all guilty of this at some time or another and it continues to be a common theme throughout history. Right from the days of Cain and Abel through to modern society, we strive to be better and yet we also make more and more excuses so that we don’t have to do everything according to the original rules.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are many laws that have been changed for the good and many more that still have to be corrected or changed – but those are man’s laws, the laws that he has created to try and get his own way and bring glory to himself. God’s laws are the original and only laws that we should have to keep; if we did manage in some way to keep God’s laws then we should not find ourselves wanting in ways of the law. Instead we have corrupted things so much over time that we continue to have to refine our laws to try and make things right once again. We even have people making a living out of bending the rules and re-defining them!

There are many things that will make us think of new laws or new rules – most of them centre around us not getting our own way! As soon as things seem to go against what we want in our lives or what we think we can get away with, then we look at ways of changing things so that we can get back to what we want. God, on the other hand, has always promoted the love for others instead of the love for oneself because it is the selfish ways that break down society and break down everything that God is trying to build up for us.

Promoting ourselves is not going to help to build up anything other than strive and vain glory. As soon as we focus on ourselves we lose focus on everything else around us – including God. Back at this time the people were looking for something new; whilst there is nothing wrong with looking for new things, they lost focus on God and started to try and lift themselves up… That is one thing that we will always find a bit difficult… to lift ourselves up whilst we are trying to support ourselves – it just does not make sense!

Points to Ponder:
What new things do you seek?

Are you breaking away from God’s ways?