Daily Devotion August 4

August 4: Romans 8:1-8

KJV Key Verse: Romans 8:8
8 So then they that are in the flesh can not please God.

Devotion:
I wonder what the Romans must have thought about this letter to them? How would you react if you were told that the life you are leading does not match up with the life God wants you to live and things look pretty bleak for you unless you change? Sometimes the truth is hard to accept because we have been living in a world for so long we don’t know anything different. That is the most dangerous time because we have grown comfortable with the things around us and feel no need to change.

God does not give up on us but continues to bring people through our lives who make a difference and who show us the others side of life once again. I know I have many people in my life both past and present who have shown me many facets of life with and without God. I thank God for the people He has brought through my life who have no concept of living a life with Christ and who have inadvertently shown me what life without Christ would be like… and I don’t like the look of it!

There have been a few times in my life where I have been about as far from God as I would ever like to be and looking back on those times scares me. There have been times when I have never felt so safe in His arms and I long for every day to be more like those. But the truth is that we live lives in our own ways. We live every day with Christ but we do not always make sure we know He is there. We live with Him and yet choose to ignore Him.

Let us take on board the words written to the Romans, no matter how depressing we may find them, and think about how we can change our lives to be more in line with the lives Christ would have us to live with Him. If we leave God out of our lives we cannot really please Him; we may bring a wry smile to His face as we do something good without knowing it, but to really make Him happy we need to make sure He is the centre of our lives.

Points to Ponder:
Can you make someone happy by ignoring them?

Are you ignoring God?