Friday 17 Oct 2014

October 17: Acts 17:16-21

Key Verse: Acts 9:21
For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

Devotion:
I could just imagine the picture that is being painted here, all the people come to learn something new as they listen to the philosophers, and the philosophers listen in return to see if they can glean something new as well. They were now consumed in the consumption of information, much like we are doing today but in a very different and digital manner! Mankind has this thirst for information so that he can become wiser as he grows older.

But sometimes we do just have to admit that there is a higher power and that God is the one who does know it all and control it all. Why should we want to reach such high posts after He has told us that He wants to look after us? Why do we seek even more information when God has limited what we take in to make sure we take it in properly? Our thirst for knowledge and wisdom can outgrow our ability to take it in properly and we then start to make up our own plans with the information that is coming in.

When we study our bibles we could study the same passage over and over again and seemingly take in new information each time we do so. This is because our brains not only take in a deeper understanding of the words we read but they begin to link in events and information from other places to make a better picture. This is the goal of many computer scientists, to be able to create a computer that can link information together properly – and they are getting closer as time goes by.

What we must not do is to allow that quest for information to take over our lives and block God out of the decision making process. God wants to help us understand the information we take in because without His infinite understanding, we may well build up the wrong picture from all the pieces we have and come up with something that is not actually reality!

Points to Ponder:
Do you like puzzles?

Will you allow God to help you?