Thursday 28 Feb 2013

Thursday Reading: John 5:39-40

Key Verse: John 5:40
40  And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.

Devotion:
The more that we read from God’s Word the more that we will understand, or should understand; because if we allow ourselves to try and work things out in our own minds we will quickly become bogged down in the scriptures. We must never forget that this is God’s Word that He has given us and that the wisdom and knowledge that it took to write this is far greater than anything we can attain to.

We do need His constant guidance to lead us through the bible, even when we have others showing us what to read and where to go, we still need God to show us the meaning of His Word. When Christ promised us the Holy Spirit it was not just so that we would have a constant companion while He was back in Heaven but so that we would have a constant and perfect Teacher that would always be with us and always be able to explain His Word. I may be able to open the scriptures to you, but it is the Holy Spirit who will give you the understanding that you need.

And with that understanding must come the revelation that even though we can have it all explained to us, unless we make that move and come to Christ, we have achieved nothing. As Christ was explaining in these words, we may think we have everything because we understand that Christ will give us eternal life and that He has promised us that eternal life… but unless we do as is explained to us in the word we are not going to obtain that life. John 3:16 tells us that we need to believe so that we can have that life, and not just believe it because it is written down, but to believe it in our hearts.

God does not just want us to be lawyers that will understand the scriptures and be able to use the words to explain the law; He wants us to believe those same scriptures in our hearts. An instruction manual is very good if we follow it. But if we only follow it once and then believe we can do things better the next time, we will find out that we fall short the hard way. Instead God has given us the best way forward by giving us the scriptures and He wants us to take these words in our heart and trust in them so that we learn to trust in Him wholly and fully.

Points to Ponder:
Do you like following instructions?

Are you taking God’s Word to heart?