Thursday 2 Jan 2014

Thursday Reading: 1 John 5:18

Key Verse: 1 John 5:18
We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.

Devotion:
I have used these verses before but never looked at this single verse by itself; one which many would find hard to accept without it being explained and placed in context. Just because we are born again does not mean that we are never going to sin again because we are still the same sinful people that we were before we were born again; the difference being that we have been forgiven of that sin. So why should our bibles have words like this?

When we are born again, that new man is not a sinful man but one that is born of the spirit; but we still live inside this sinful body, the one that continues to find sin! It is the old nature that continues to sin and not the new born again nature. When we are born again we have the Holy Spirit come to dwell with us and the only way that can happen is if we do not have sin because God cannot abide sin. That mean the new creature is sinless but living in a sinful body; but the sinless part can have the Holy Spirit dwell within. With God the Spirit dwelling in that part of us we will effectively be keeping ourselves because of the Holy Spirit and not because of ourselves.

With the Holy Spirit in residence, the evil one cannot and will not touch us; we are safe for eternity! It is the eternal safety that we can praise God for and continue to glorify Him for what He has given us – that sinless part that is eternally safe because of Christ. What a Saviour!

I love to be able to study God’s Word so that I gain a deeper understanding because through that I am able to see how much more God loves us each and every day. Whilst we are wallowing in sin or have sin surrounding us we do find it hard to concentrate on anything God brings into our lives, but when we focus on God we can see Him for what He does within us! God continues to encourage us through Hiss Word, but only when we are willing to take it in – read it! When we leave it to one side we are pushing God to one side and allowing our focus to drift away from Him and toward just about anything and everything else!

Points to Ponder:
What are you focusing on?

Do you give your sinless part time in your life?