Monday 15 Apr 2013

Monday Reading: Romans 9:22-24

Key Verse: Romans 9:22
22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

Devotion:
You do not have to dig too deep to see how many things you do wrong; in fact we often think that things find us out rather than us going looking for trouble. Now when we look at these things we may well be discouraged into thinking that God is going to turn His back on us because we have strayed so far by sinning so much. But that is simply not the case – we will never be able to “out sin” the mercy of God!

This letter to the Romans has so many truths in it that we often turn to it when we want to be able to show others how they can get to know God. It is that thought of mercy and forgiveness that overcomes sin that runs through these words and should be ringing loud bells in our heads. Yes God is a just God and cannot abide sin; but His mercy extends further than our sin. Yes God does show His wrath o those who do not listen; but He showers His love on those who turn to Him.

We may feel like we are not good enough to do anything for God because of the sin in our lives, but we can still be used of God for His glory if we are willing to listen to Him and to obey His Word. We like to talk about God’s love because there is always a feel good factor involved when we talk about love but we also need to remember that God has promised to punish those who refuse to believe in Him. In other words God has already poured out His judgement on the people; we just have to choose which side of the fence we want to stand on. We cannot jump from one side of the fence to the other side continually because once we are in God’s keep we are safe for eternity. Yes we may well stand at the fence and act like the people on the other side, but we are still safe in God’s grip.

God wants us to be able to be shaped by His Word and by His love so that we can be used more by Him and less by Satan. Yes, we are used by Satan as soon as we give in to the things of the world! The evil one is very canny and will use whatever and whoever he can to draw all people away from God just so that he can have his way. God wants us to stand firm in His Word and resist those earthly and evil ways so that we can be used by His. He has shown us His amazing mercy so that we can come back and be used… we just need to come back…

Points to Ponder:
Do you want to act like others?

Are they acting for God?