Friday 25 Oct 2013

Friday Reading: 1 John 2:15-17

Key Verse: 1 John 2:16
16 For all that is in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - is not of the Father but is of the world.

Devotion:
How often do you get caught up in the physical things around you and get side-tracked away from worshipping God? We are all guilty of doing this at some stage in our lives, whether it is simply going down to the beach instead of going into church because it’s such a lovely day, or sitting playing a game on the computer instead of reading your bible. We all get carried away by things around us; there is nothing new here because that is exactly how Satan tempted us in the beginning and continue to do so every day of our lives!

We live in this world and we will always have to put up with the evil one placing things in our paths that will tempt us away from a righteous relationship with Christ. But that does not mean that we have to give in and do with the flow like the rest of the world is; we do have a choice to turn our backs on the things of the world. It is not always going to be an easy choice because our friends and family will tell us that we can give in just this once… What we need to do is to follow The Holy Spirit whom God has given us as our guide in our everyday lives.

God is going to give us time off. God is going to give us good times. God is going to give us creature comforts. What we don’t need to be doing is making those things the focus of our lives because once we do that we focus on them more and more and on God less and less! That is how Satan is going to tempt us, but making those things look more and more important and the things of God will begin to fade if we are not careful.

We are the ones who allow the things of God to fade from our lives by not keeping them in the forefront of our lives. If you want a copper kettle to remain shiny then you have to take care of it regularly otherwise it will tarnish over time. If we expect God’s Word to grow in our lives while we ignore it, then we are sadly mistaken! We need to spend time in God’s Word and make that time profitable too!

Points to Ponder:
What is important in your life?

How prominent if God in your life?