Wednesday 26 Feb 2014

Wednesday Reading: Matthew 19:16-22

Key Verse: Matthew 19:19
“honour your father and mother,” and “love your neighbour as yourself.”

Devotion:
When this rich man came up to Jesus he did not get the answer he expected to hear. Many times we bring our questions or prayers to God and we want Him to answer them just the way that we want; this is not bringing your prayers to God but rather asking Him to have your will be done! The Lord’s Prayer does not have “my will be done” but “Your will be done” in it. That means that we should be asking things of God but expecting Him to have His own way so that he may get the glory and not us!

When Jesus gave this short list of commandments it was also significant that He chose these ones and not to list the commandments saying that we should love God above anything else. Jesus chose His words carefully so that the rich man could think about what he had in life. He probably had all manner of things and could but what he wanted, but what he did not have was Christ or God in his heart. Yes he was keeping the other commandments and living a good life, but that is not enough!

Christ calls us to believe in Him and to love Him above all others. That is not just because we need to return the love that He has shown us but to realise that it is God in whom we should trust for everything. Why should we say that we want to trust Him and then come forward and try to cover our own needs after He has promised to supply them? Why should we think that we can do anything more than God, create or Heaven and Earth?

Loving our families is a huge step forward in learning how to love God. We do not always agree with friends and family, and yet we choose to continue to love them. That is what Christ wants in our lives; we may not always agree with the way that He does things (though we should) but we should always love Him and realise how much He loves us. God has shown us more love through His simple actions than all of our friends and family put together; and yet we choose to ignore Him daily!

Points to Ponder:
Which commandments do you keep?

Do you also love people openly and honestly?