Tuesday 17 Sep 2013

Tuesday Reading: Matthew 5:33-36

Key Verse: Matthew 5:34
34  But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:

Devotion:
Have you ever thought about what you are doing when you swear on your life? This life that you are using, that you are saying that you could give up just to prove a point belongs to our Creator! It is not ours to dish out and throw around otherwise we bring God into our oath and when we do that we have to be perfect… which we are not!

When Jesus confronted people with what He said it was to make sure that we listen to the perfect will of God as well as realising that all that He does is perfect. No matter how good we think we are there is nothing that we shall ever be able to do that is perfect – but when Christ is behind us and guiding us then we have a hope that goes beyond our abilities. It is not that Christ will make sure that we are perfect but rather that He will take away our sins and present us to His Father as if we were perfect. We are the ones who have the choice as to whether we come to Him and ask for forgiveness or whether we go our own way and make our own plans.

We cannot change ourselves but have to wait on God to change us from the inside out. We grow because God has deemed it so. We get old because we live in time, which God has created for us. We make mistakes because we have this sin nature which we have inherited from Adam as we continue to grow older. Christ died for us so that we may have redemption from our sin debt that we owe but we have to make that conscious choice to admit our faults to our Redeemer and ask for forgiveness. He is willing and Just to forgive us of those sins because He knows us from the inside out.

So rather than taking the Lord’s name in vain, using vain swearing, using vain oaths, telling lies and the other things we fall short on, try to make a difference by standing up for God at all times, depending on Him more than normal, trusting Him every step of the way and making a difference in other people’s lives instead of focusing on our own.

Points to Ponder:
How do you upset God?

Are you really glorifying God?