Monday 29 Jan 2018

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January 29: Romans 16:17-20

Key Verse: Romans 16:18
For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.

Devotion:
Just when you thought you were good enough to avoid getting into those sticky situations when you have to decide between good and “not so good”, along comes a friend doing the “not do good” and you fall into line with them! We love to think that we would always be able to avoid falling into those traps, but when push comes to shove, we give in more times than we like to think we do.

Why should we have to continue putting up with that sort of nonsense when we can walk away from it and avoid it all together? We know they are not serving God when they do things for their own good and we know it is wrong. We know we should not be going there. We know they corrupt or tempt people who come close to them – so why do we go there? Sometimes we need a more simplistic view of the good and bad things in life – good is good and bad is bad; no in-betweens!

Serving worldly expectations, lusts and desires is only going to get people as far as the world. Serving God will allow us to be closer to Him. Worldly things will always persuade us away from spiritual things unless we are willing to ask Christ for help to strengthen us. We may know that things will get us into trouble, but there are times when we just can't seem to help it and we go with the flow. Those are the times when we are not depending on Christ in our lives – we are going it alone because it seems safe at the time.

If we are willing to stand firm in God's Word and follow His example, then we will be able to persuade others how His way is the right way. Through His Word, our bibles, we can see our own mistakes, faults and wrongs; we can then come to terms with the fact that we are living against God and do something about it! It is simple – we're either for God or against God.

Points to Ponder:
Do you ‘live to party’ or ‘live for Christ’?

Are you for God or against God?