Tuesday 6 May 2014

May 6: Luke 11:27-28

Key Verse: Luke 11:28
But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

Devotion:
One thing I like hearing is when parents get praised for bringing up their children because of the child’s behaviour and temperament. But one little thing that is not acknowledged as much as it should be; the child has been listening to the parents! Just as God continues to give us the best possible advice and continues to show us exactly what we should and should not do, we can be good or bad because we choose to do so. Jesus reminded the lady who remarked at how good Mary had been to bring up such a good man as He that it is up to each of us to listen to and obey God.

We have the same choice open to us to obey God to the uttermost just as Christ did. Our problem is that we have already gone astray and tainted our lives with sin so we are fighting a battle against what we have done already. Christ laid down His life for us so that our slate can be wiped clean, but we still have to make the active choice to follow Him and leave our sin behind. That is not as easy as it seems.

We are surrounded by sin and because we have already gone down that path, going down that path a second time does not sound as bad anymore. What should be happening is that we should be realising just how much worse it is for us to go down that path a second time because we know the price Christ paid already!

One thing we must not do is continually beat ourselves up for falling into the sin path because the more we worry about it the more we are not actually giving it all to Jesus. He requires that we lay down everything at His feet so that we can leave it all behind, but as long as we continue to carry the burden with us we continue to not lay down everything for Him to carry. For as long as we try to do it ourselves we continue to fall into the same traps as we give in to sin once again. Christ has paid for our sin debt fully, we do not have to continue to try and pick it up and carry it; leave it behind at the feet of our Saviour.

Points to Ponder:
Do you try to work out your sins?

Are you fully trusting Jesus?