Thursday 24 July 2014

July 24: John 20:11-18

Key Verse: John 20:14
Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus.

Devotion:
How many times in your life have you felt so distressed or worried about something that you have not seen what was right in front of your face? We all get to a stage when there is too much going on in our lives or too much to think about and we forget or do not see the important things anymore. Mary was so distressed about the fact that Jesus’ body was no longer in the tomb that she was not thinking about what she had been taught, what she had heard and what she knew.

Because the world around us is full of distractions and stuff that happens we tend to focus on what we fear and what we see rather than what we know. The Bible tells us of all that we need to know and we should be believing all of it because it is what God has given us; and yet we look at what happens in front of our eyes and we disregard God’s promises because we can’t see them! Just because we cannot see them does not make them unreal or impossible. God has promised and so it is!

Mary had to hear her master say her name before she realised who it was standing next to her. Christ continues to walk with us in our lives and to continue carrying our burdens. If we take our eyes off of Him and focus on the burdens instead then we are going to want to carry those burdens instead of giving them to Christ. Jesus has already told us that He wants us to carry His burden which is light and not our own which is heavy; trust and obey!

Jesus told Mary not to cling to Him but to go and tell the disciples that He was alive again. There are going to be times when we want to cling Christ or to others for comfort when in fact what we should be doing is taking the promises that He has already given us and telling others about them. We don’t necessarily have to go onto the street corners and tell every passer-by, God may be asking us to go into our own church and tell someone who already knows Him. Maybe we just have to comfort someone else who is struggling. Maybe we just have to encourage someone else who has lost sight because of the distractions.

Points to Ponder:
Do you tell others about what Christ has done for you?

Are you Christ’s witness?