Daily Devotion January 10

January 10: 1 Corinthians 4:6-10

KJV Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 4:7
For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive ? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory , as if thou hadst not received it?

Devotion:
What do we have that has not been given to us by God? Nothing! Everything that surrounds us has been allowed by God. That is an incredibly difficult thing to accept as we remember all the bad things that have happened over the past few weeks. Here we have been trying to enjoy the time off for Christmas and New Year and instead we have had to remember some pretty horrible things that have happened. Why does God allow this? Why should we have to endure this all?

How do we differ from the people who have done things wrong? How do we differ from terrorists or overly religious people? We differ in our acceptance that Jesus Christ is Lord. We differ in our belief that God has allowed things into our lives. We differ in our faith that we serve a living, risen Saviour. Do we have to boast about how bad we have it or how we have had to do without? Do we have to boast about the atrocities we have had to face? No, we don’t have to, but we choose to!

Just like there are people in this world that choose to be overtly extremist and make things happen that appal us, there are people in this world that have faith in something so incredible others find it hard to believe. We believe in a God who allowed His own Son to die for us. We believe in a God that allowed His Son to be nailed to a cross. Do you not think others will find that difficult to accept? We should not try and make people feel guilty because we go without when we are choosing to follow our God. We should not make people feel bad just because we accept that bad things happen.

We should be lifting each other up and praising our God; not for allowing all those bad things into our lives so we can boast about how bad it is, but praise Him for allowing us to remember humility before an Awesome God! Don’t put God down because other people abuse Him or us, lift God up so they can see they too have a chance with this God we know and love.

Points to Ponder:
Do you complain to God?

Do you praise God?