Monday 25 Nov 2013

Monday Reading: Malachi 1:6-9

Key Verse: Malachi 1:6
“A son honours his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honour? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence? Says the Lord of hosts To you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?’

Devotion:
Have you looked back in your life and wondered why God has not kept up His side of the bargain? Yes that is the way that we tend to look at life sometimes, but it should not be! Just because we say we are doing things and because we tell others about all the things that we do, does not mean that we are actually doing the right stuff! Throughout history man has shown that he falls far short of the mark by offering work that is sub-standard. We offer up all sorts of excuses about running out of time and money and try to justify why we have cut things short or not done all that we ought to have done.

I know that I have cut things short by not proof reading these devotions every day so that what you get contains errors and mistakes. I praise God that you have not all written to me and complained about the mistakes! Instead many have offered very kind words and wonderful support. I thank you!

You see, when we start to lift up ourselves instead of lifting up God we start to ignore the cracks and the faults, brushing over them and hoping that God will brush over them too. God cannot do that because He is holy and He is omniscient – He knows everything! We cannot get away with offering half-hearted service to God because He knows what we are doing before we get there to do it. We cannot sit back and carry on doing what we have been doing and make cut backs thinking everything will be ok. If we do not continue moving forward and improving our relationship with God then we are not doing what God has asked us to do!

If we say that we are willing to come forward and do Gods work then we need to rush forward and pick up the tools to do the work. That does not mean we rush forward picking up any tools we can see and start hacking away to build something out of what we have lying around. We need to pick up what God gives us and make things according to His plan; that may mean waiting for the instruction and even waiting for someone else to build the ground work that we need to build our work upon. It has to be according to Gods plan and not our own plans!

Points to Ponder:
Do you like building things?

Are you building according to Gods plan?