Sunday 9 Dec 2012

Sunday Reading: 1 John 5:13-17

Key Verse: 1 John 5:15
15  And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

Devotion:
With so much evidence it is only right that we should believe in God and believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He came to save us from our sins; and yet we are still given this as a choice we can make. The apostles, like us, may well have marvelled at how people can ignore the truth and cannot see that Jesus is the Son of God, but then we do have hind sight because we have come to know that truth.

It is a hard task to try and get people to believe the truth when they are surrounded by so much corruption and temptation, but then that is not our task. God has given us the task of taking His Word out to others, not trying to get them to believe it. If we are faithful to take His Word forward and present it in the best possible light that we can, then God is able to use what we have done to convict people and to allow them to understand the truth. Just because we are believers and they are not does not mean that God has not given them the ability to discern the truth, it just means that nobody has given them enough information yet!

When I first started running a youth group I would try to do my best to make my talk sound good but I very quickly learned that what I can do and what God can do are very different things. If I had relied on what I can do I would have lost my youth group a long time ago. Instead, I lift up my prayers to our awesome God and ask Him to give me the words to speak to my youth. I ask Him to help me to deliver His Word in the best possible light for them to understand it. I know many say that teenagers are the hardest nuts to crack because they are at the cusp of throwing everything away, but to me that is just part of the challenge that God has taken on through me. I love to tell the youth about my God that is able to do so much and they seem to like me telling them these truths because they keep coming back for more. I am certainly not one to count the souls won or lost; if I did that I probably should have given up a long time ago. Instead I count every youth that I am able to see as a potential vessel for God to work in; I just need to start filling them up!

We may find things hard to understand. We may find things difficult to accept. God has given us a direct line through which we can ask for help – so long as we ask in sincerity and with an open heart.

Points to Ponder:
How often do you ask God for help?

Do you keep in constant contact with God?