Wednesday 11 Jul 2018

July 11: Psalm 73:21-26

Key Verse: Psalm 73:24
You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

Devotion:
Do animals listen to you? I’m not talking about your dog which has been with you for many years but, let’s say, a deer in the forest… Wild animals do not listen to requests from humans but rather go about their business in whatever way they think best. We do not know what goes on in their minds, but we can observe them and wonder at their movements and intentions. Place a wild animal in a new home and it is totally lost; it will have to spend time finding its way and getting to know its surroundings.

We are much like that on earth. We have been placed here and we have to get to know our surroundings. We have our family and friends who will do their best to teach us the right ways and lead us until we can find our own way. But that does not necessarily mean we know where we are going. If we get dropped off many miles from home in the countryside (without a satnav), we may well struggle to get home – even more so if we do not have transport. We will be surrounded by things we do not recognise and maybe people we do not know. Unless we have a good idea of where we should be heading, it may well take us a long time to start going in the right direction!

We need guidance in our lives. We need direction. We need to know we have a goal to seek and that we have a reason to be. Without these we are as lost as a wild animal in a new park. We have learned we can sustain ourselves through God, but unless we are willing to follow His guidance, we may well be walking off in the wrong direction when we start! We may find we live to be a lot older than all our friends and even family, proving we do not have a reliance on anything here. Rather we have to rely on God and His guidance. We need to seek His counsel. That means we need to find out what He wants in our lives. Before that we obviously need to find Him. As I look back in my life I can see so many things which happened that were guiding me back to Christ and yet I ignored too many of them. Don’t ignore instruction otherwise you will not be able to find God’s direction in your life!

Points to Ponder:
Do you constantly ignore instructions and rules?

How much of God’s instruction are you ignoring?