April 6: Psalms 133 1

Key Verse: Psalms 133 1
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity!

Devotion:
Too many times in our lives we find we have disagreements between ourselves and others – particularly in the family. I know when I was young I used to fight with my brother almost all the time. The silliest of things would cause a rift and argument which would end up with both of us being in a bad mood for some time. To what gain... well, not a lot! When I look back on that time and think of all the fun we could have had... if only we had been sensible like everyone was trying to tell us!

In every church there is going to be disagreements too. Whether people will be able to see through those problems will be entirely up to each of them. Many of us will act very differently when we come across something we do not like or do not agree with. We will hold that position against another, or allow it to fester deep inside of us until it burst out and we end up doing something totally out of character.

I don't think we will ever be able to stop people from disagreeing with each other, but the one thing we should never disagree on is God's Word. The Bible is written very explicitly. It has everything in it we need to know. It is not vague. It does not have any untruths in it. It is the perfect book by which we can find out all we need to know about God and ourselves. Because it is a perfect book, we should be standing by it all the time. Jesus did, because He knew it was the inspired Word of God. Anyone who goes against it is therefore going against God.

The Bible should be the one thing which pulls us all together. It should be the truth we stand up for above all. We can never hope to not sin whilst we are here on earth, but we can find out how we should be living our lives so that we are less likely to sin. Through living according to God's Word, we should be able to stand up to anyone. But by living up to God's Word, we must also accept that many will not agree with us – provoking them otherwise is not wise. Just because we cannot fully agree how to translate the bible should not stop us talking about it.

Points to Ponder:
How do you react when people tell you you are wrong?

How do you react when God's Word shows you you are wrong?