Wednesday 28 Nov 2012

Wednesday Reading: Psalm 95:7-11

Key Verse: Psalm 95:8
8  Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

Devotion:
Christ wants us to listen. He wants us to obey. He wants us to be willing servants. He wants what is best for us! A shepherd is not going to do everything in his power to make the sheep’s lives a misery; instead he is going to do what he can to allow those sheep to live a good life – that way he will be able to get the most out of the sheep instead of having to fight with them every step of the way!

When I see how some teachers or leaders treat their students or workers I begin to wonder how they expect to get any work out of their workers! I then am reminded in so many ways of how wonderful God is to us and how much He continues to do for each one of us every day of our lives. It is little wonder then that we are reminded here not to harden our hearts against all of these facts.

But that is where we find out why we have been reminded; because just when we think that we have it all worked out we go off and find something else we like the sound of or something we don’t like the sound of and get trapped in our own desires once again. Right from the beginning of time we have seen how man wants things his own way and wants to be in control of his own destiny. He demands things and runs off in his own direction and then we wonder why things tend to go belly up!

When the Children of Israel were out in the desert they found that they had to rely on God for everything and whilst they did do that they found that things would go according to plan – because God was in charge! But as soon as they took it upon themselves to complain or demand their own ways things went astray. Instead of coming to God with an open heart and a willing soul, they turned hard and rejected His help. God does not want us to reject Him because He is busy trying to show us what is good for us. For forty long years God had to put up with the people answering back, demanding, doubting, wanting, coveting and all the rest of the doubtful and dubious things they got up to! But for those same forty years God continued to support them and watch over them! What grace! What mercy!

And the very special thing is that we continue to be shown that same grace and mercy as we run off in our own directions. God loves us more than we realise at times and He continues to try to show us that every day!

Points to Ponder:
How often do you argue with God’s ways?

How often do you see Him show you mercy?