Monday 24 Feb 2020

February 24: John 7:6-9

Key Verse: John 7:7
The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil.

Devotion:
Have you noticed how you support the ‘bad’ person in some movies, or how you go against the good person because they are spoiling all the fun? There are so many times in our lives where we go against what we think we should because it makes sense for us to do so or it seems to please more people to do so…

This does not make these things right and should not mean we support those things – but what do the people around us see when we go against what is right or support the bad people? They see us rebelling against what is right and they may well turn away from righteousness in order to support you or to go the same way they see you going. This is nothing new, we are followers of people and we like to fit in with the crowd so we can be part of the crowd – a certain amount of anonymity in our lives gives us peace.

Jesus was nothing like that – but He knew when to stay away from the crowd because of what they would have planned against Him. He knew it would eventually come to this, but He also knew the time was not right. We don’t tend to get such insights in our lives and we blunder forward bouncing between things, hoping to make it through to the other end. The world will probably not hate us for doing this or for being whom we are; unless we stand up for Christ in everything we do.

When we stand up for God and follow His will in our lives, we may well find there are a lot of people who do not like what we are doing because it either throws light onto the dark things they are involved in, or it allows others to see you as righteous and not them. The world wants to envelop people and gather everyone together so we can all hide behind each other! God wants us to stand out from the crowd and make a difference – just wait for God’s timing and don’t turn away!

Points to Ponder:
Do you like hiding behind others?

Will you stand up front and be the example?