Thursday 6 Feb 2014

Thursday Reading: Isaiah 57:15-21

Key Verse: Isaiah 57:21
“There is no peace,” Says my God, “for the wicked.”

Devotion:
God is with us all! That is a statement that must never be taken lightly because doing so means that we no longer believe that God is really with us. We sometimes water it down a bit to say that God sees everything or that God knows everything or that God is watching over us always; but the actual truth is that God is with and in every believer! Christ revealed this to us by telling us plainly that the Holy Spirit would indwell us from the time we first trusted in Christ and would never leave us.

The prophets had been given these words for us to think about many years before Christ came to earth and yet people would not grasp the scale of what was being said. Maybe it is similar to us nowadays believing that the Holy Spirit could never be with us personally because we are just not good enough or we have not done enough good things. Well, God does not look at the things we have done by the things of our heart.

When we say that God allows us to go through some pretty rough stuff in order to strengthen us for what may be ahead, it is not going to continue on forever; that would be counterproductive because we would become down-cast and feel utterly rejected. Instead God allows a certain amount of stuff in our lives to make us stronger; just the right amount to make us stop and think. He will never leave us so He makes sure that we do have good times and do get peace and live with joy.

But for those people who continually reject Christ, there is not going to be any real peace and joy to be held. They will not be able to rely of God supporting and guiding them from the inside as He does with us. They will not know the love and peace that He alone extends to His own children. Much like a parent taking care of their own children, but sending the other children home after play time; we too will face a life without God unless we know Him as our Lord and Father God. I am glad I know God!

Points to Ponder:
Do you tell others about God?

Are you helping others come to God’s family?