Monday 11 Aug 2014

August 11: Luke 12:22-28

Key Verse: Luke 12:23
Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.

Devotion:
How hard is it for you to read a few verses like these that talk about giving up everything so that you can focus on working for and with God? How much are you willing to give up in your life just so that your walk with God can be closer and fuller? It can be very hard to accept that God wants you to do something when your whole life is surrounded by so many of the luxuries of modern life or the things that we all think are normal nowadays. Modern living is very different between the western world and third world countries, and yet we don’t always remember that.

Christ would like us to remember that we are all human beings and that we should all be trying to love each other as neighbours; and yet the world is full of wars and fighting. We are remembering what happened 100 years ago in World War 1, but still the world continues on in fighting and people keep on wanting more worldly content. Christ did not come to earth as a world leader but came as a carpenter’s son, giving that all up to carry out His ministry when God required it.

When asked, the disciples gave up their lives to follow Christ. But when we look back on their reactions to His death we find that they seemed to have second thoughts and were about to return to their old lives to continue on. What God wanted was for them to continue on as apostles for Christ telling people about the wonderful Gospel story.

We may not be asked personally to give up everything like the disciples, but we are asked by Christ to take account of what we do in our lives. If we are going to be living for the world then we will struggle to live for Christ. If we are going to focus on earthly riches and earthly ways then that is what we will get as a reward, earthly riches. But when we boldly step forward for Christ we will receive blessings from Him that go so much further. The world will not understand what we receive because the world cannot see what we receive; but do not give up hope in Christ!

Points to Ponder:
How do you measure your life’s worth?

Do you rely on Christ?