Sunday 23 Dec 2012

Sunday Reading: Luke 2:1-5

Key Verse: Luke 2:4
4  And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

Devotion:
You have heard it said that nothing is impossible with our God; well I put it to you that there are many things which are not probable but God continues to accomplish them too. God had given word that Jesus was to be born in the city of David, in Bethlehem. How was that going to be accomplished when Mary and Joseph were not living there? Simple! God moved everyone back to their birth places to make sure that they were exactly where they should be for the birth of Christ!

We always put limits on what God can do or constraints around Him that we think He should be able to work within – God does not need nor want these measures. God wants us to trust in His ways and to leave the things of God to Him and not to be held within limits according to us. God allowed things to happen this way to show us that there are no limits as to what He will do or can do in order for His will to be done and His way to be had!

In our lives we impose limits on things because we want to make sure that things happen according to plan. We have budgets that we try to keep to (rightly so) and hours within which we work so that we are not totally exhausted at the end of the day. And yet we still seem to get things wrong and we still have to go back and fix things and set them right again. We are going to find that in our spiritual lives is we try to impose those same sort of constraints.

If we wanted to hire someone to do something for us the best way of getting the most out of them will not be to impose your ways every step of the way but to give them a certain amount of freedom to show what they can do. If we wanted someone to build something for us but insisted they work exactly as we do instead of as a builder, they probably would not get a lot of work done! If we want to be able to invite Christ into our lives and allow Him to work effectively, then we have to allow Him to work in His ways and according to His plan – only that way will we then see how effective He can be!

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you are an effective worker?

Are you limiting God to your ways of working?