New Years Day 2013

New Year’s Day Reading: 1 Corinthians 5:1-8

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 5:7
7  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:

Devotion:
The apostle had heard of things happening in the church at Corinth that disturbed him because they were so contrary to the law and to Christian ways, and yet men were boasting of their ways instead of being sorry for what they were doing. It is also amazing how easily we give in to temptation and how we may even boast of the things we have been tempted of. I have learned not to boast of the things that I have done wrong in my past because I know that it may lead someone else into temptation, instead I try to encourage people in the ways of God and in His laws.

The problem is not so much that we have sin in our lives but the fact that we give into it and then talk about it, opening others to that same sin. Yes we do have to admit to our sins and we do have to confess them, but we do not have to boast about those sins because God calls us to commit them to Him and not to the rest of the world. I can bet that there will be many people today looking back at what they have done over the past few days and wondering how they are going to clean up the mess they have caused… just because they allowed themselves to go overboard with celebrations or with temptations.

We live in a world where we are surrounded by temptation because so much of the world does not follow Christ and His teachings. As such we need to be strengthened by His Word against such things because they do stand around us. But because of the way that we live and the way that we commune with others and live amongst our neighbours, we do have to have a bit of a clean-up ourselves now and again.

We can look at all the things that we have let into our lives and we can realise that we should not have let some of those things in. If we try to hide those things under something else we may well find that the effects of that hidden thing seep through into our lives and corrupt more things. Maybe what we need to do is to completely throw out the old and start with a new.

Points to Ponder:
Are you hiding things in the closet?

Are you going to make a new start this year?