Thursday 31 Jul 2014

July 31: John 18:10-11

Key Verse: John 18:10
Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.

Devotion:
Sometimes it is very hard not to react to things when someone does something wrong against you or against a friend. But our reactions are not always biblical because they are by definition a reaction and not an action. I have lived a life away from God more than I have lived a life working with God and because of that my reactions are not always what I would like them to be. I have to work hard at making sure that my mind is set on Christ so that before I do react I take a second or two to think what I am going to do. That is enough time for God to guide me!

Don’t ever think that God cannot or does not have time enough to change you and to change your ways. All you have to do is to be willing to allow Him that second to change you. Peter wanted to get his own way just as we do in our lives. He drew the sword and hit out before allowing Christ time to change his mind. Immediately Christ had to do things in order to fix what Peter had broken… Are you going to be the one who is always forcing God to fix what you break in your life or will you allow Him to make a change before you break things?

When Peter asked Christ to call him out onto the water he had no problem listening out for that call because that would mean he got something out of it! But when he could not see that he would get anything out of the current situation, quite the opposite in fact, he lashed out in the way he knew. Sword play is typically all about reactions to make sure you are able to defend yourself and to be able to hit out at the right time when someone else’s defence is down. That is not what the kingdom of heaven is all about!

God wants us to know what we are going into so that our beliefs will show rather than out habits and actions. God wants us to think before we talk so that we say what is right and not the first thing that comes into our heads. Yes you can train yourself to say the right thing at the right time just as you can train yourself to fight with swords or anything else; but that does not make it the right thing to do. We need time to develop our relationship with Christ so that we can come out on His side and not fighting for ourselves!

Points to Ponder:
Do you fight for yourself?

Or do you allow Christ to guide you first?