Thursday 4 May 2017

May 4: Hebrews 10:35-37

Key Verse: Hebrews 10:36
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

Devotion:
Unfortunately, as a Christian, we are not kept away from all things bad. We are not kept away from all temptations. We are not protected fully from our own selves! What you may well find is that being a Christian actually means you have to face up to things more often than others may do. Many people in the world will give up and pass over things which they do not agree with, but as Christians we try to do what is right. As Christians, we cannot simply give up and pass on to the next hurdle. What God would have us do is to have patience with what we are faced with and to endure things knowing that what we are facing here on earth is going to be nothing in comparison with what we will have in heaven! So what if we have to put up with a little roughness, so long as we are confident we will have a wonderful life in heaven as promised by God!

But, the one thing we can count on is that we will run out of patience at one time or another! No matter how hard we try by ourselves to be patient with people or with things, there is going to come a time when we do give up waiting. There is always a limit to how much we can take. But if we are willing to allow someone to help us, then we will often show much greater patience. We try to put up with things, we try to change things, we try to make things better; we do try! And yet we also fail. We are simply not strong enough to keep going by ourselves.

But, with God's grace, we are able to continue facing issues, we are able to continue in the face of discomfort, we are able to help shed a bit of His light – knowing that we will have our place in heaven where we will no longer have to face those issues! He has promised not to leave us. He has promised not to abandon us. All we need to is depend on those promises!

Points to Ponder:
How many bad things can you name here in your country?

How long will they last in comparison to everlasting life in heaven?