Sunday 20 Oct 2013

Sunday Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:16-19

Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Devotion:
The apostles learned not to trust in outward appearances or in works because we can all be fooled some of the time. God has been trying to tell us this for a whole lot longer and yet we still refuse to believe that we can be fooled so easily. We do not have the mind of Christ so we cannot know people from the inside but have to look from the outside; so what we also need to do is to rely on God for insight into what people are like.

When we get to know Christ, He get to work in our hearts and He changes us from the inside out. As He works within us, the outward person starts to change as well; people around us start to see us change from the outside as we learn from Christ how we should be on the inside. It is because of what Christ has done for each one of us that we know what He is like, His outward show of works describes what he is like on the inside, giving us a clearer view of the real God that we live with.

That same change starts to well up inside of us until it spills over and we change on the outside. Others then get to see this new creature that we become and are themselves encouraged to find out how we can change, pointing directly back to Christ and what He has done. It is pretty amazing how all things do actually work to the glory of our God!

God did not make any mistakes in setting up this whole process whereby we can help each other to be reconciled to Him through Christ. It is no small secret that God has given us His Word in this all so that we can follow His instructions. He gave us the ultimate example through what He did and through what He taught the apostles to do as well. We need to follow the example He has given us by showing what we too can do for Him every day we know Him!

Points to Ponder:
Do you know Christ?

Do you show others Christ through what you do?