Friday 2 May 2014

May 2: Ezra 4:1-5

Key Verse: Ezra 4:5
and hired counsellors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Devotion:
One of the things that I have grown to accept in life is that when the world wants to get in on the action it will try all manner of things to impose on us! I have seen far too many groups, cliques, even countries muscle in on the work that we do as Christians just so that they can get the glory or get their own way. Sometimes we just have to stand up for ourselves and say NO!

God wants us to share our gifts with others, share the Gospel with others and share our love with others; but when we are abused by others, we should not have to accept everything that they throw at us. God has not put us on this world to be constantly abused by the world. Yes He does tell us that we will have people hate us and do all manner of things to us just because we stand up for Him, but it does not have to be constant when we do have a choice. If we do stand up, they will notice us more and begin to realise that we are serious about our God.

The problem comes when we get carried away and do things out of spite instead of following God’s commandments. Some will say that it is a fine line between doing what is right and wrong; I say that the line is very distinct, very clear and one that we blur because we want our own way at times. God has given us the bible so that we know what we should do and know what is expected of us. We need to stand up for God and make sure that people know God is God and not just something we do because we are bored, weak, cultish or any other excuse man comes up with!

In order for people to know God they have to see Him in us. We have to stand up for God and make sure people know we are standing up for Him and not for some poor excuse we come up with to get our own way or to stop the world from getting their own way. We have to accept the way that people are, accept the fact they will come up against us, accept we are different and live for God and not for any other excuse. Put aside the excuses today and live for God!

Points to Ponder:
Do you use excuses to get your own way?

Do you accept others as being different?