Thursday Reading: Acts 8 5-13
 
Key Verse: Acts 8 9
9  But a certain man called Simon had long been conjuring in the city, and amazing the nation of Samaria, claiming himself to be some great one.

 

Devotion:
It is amazing to watch some ‘magicians’ do their work, but in reality most of them are illusionists rather than magicians. But when we are faced with someone who does seem to do things that defy any rational explanation we are made uncomfortable. These sort of people will demand a great audience and even gain great respect because they can do things others cannot.

 

When Philip was preaching Christ in Samaria, he was faced with all sorts of things which he was able to work against because of his dependence on the Word of God. The apostles were given the ability to heal and do great things in the name of Christ – but only in the name of Christ. The people in Samaria were faced with two ‘powers’. Firstly the power they had come to know, that of Simon the conjurer. They were so amazed by his abilities that they even thought that Simon had the power of God; until, that is, they were faced with the power of God delivered through Philip. It was then easy to make the comparison and find out the truth.

 

When we are faced with situations that amaze or confuse us, we need to make a direct comparison with God’s Word to find out whether what we see is true or not. We cannot say whether a piece of paper is truly white until we hold it up against another that is white – we can then see the small imperfections. When we hold up things in our life to Christ’s Word, we will then see the things that are right and the things that are wrong. This is something we have to continually do because we will get sidetracked slowly and our impressions will fade – unless we make sure that we read our bibles regularly to ensure that we keep up with God’s Word.

 

Points to Ponder:
How often have you been fooled by something new in your life?

 

How often do you compare things with the truth?