Reading your Bible for today May 6

May 6: Matthew 18:15-16

KJV Key Verse: Matthew 18:15
15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

Devotion:
One of the hardest things to do can sometimes be telling a friend they have offended you in some way. The last thing you probably want to do is to upset your friend. The last thing they may want to do is to offend you – but if they have done so and have not realised it, then you should raise the issue. If you do not, they may continue to do whatever they are doing without knowing it is offending you. Equally, when a friend comes to you saying they disagree with something you are doing or have said, then that is the time to sit and listen and not to blow up and shout about it as we often do!

If people were willing to discuss issues openly with each other all the time, then we would all be able to work out our issues before they got out of hand. What we normally do is to bottle them up inside of us where they slowly work at our feelings, breaking down what love we used to share. Much worse than that, when we are upset, we are more likely to say something to someone else about the issue. That is going to upset our friend more than us confronting them alone!

If you want to know you are going to be safe when someone is not with you then you have to know you can trust them to tell you what is going wrong when it is going wrong. This implies you have a truthful relationship between yourselves; with that truth grows trust and a deeper friendship. Whatever goes wrong should be able to be openly discussed.

God wants us to do exactly that! When we have any issues in our life, He wants us to make sure we do take it to Him. He continues to remind us of His awesome power and wants us to be able to share our burdens with Him. He wants us to be able to take our problems to Him as well as to be honest with Him more than we would with a friend. If we are able to take our trespasses to Him openly, without fear of repercussion, then our friendship with Him is going to deepen further still!

Points to Ponder:
How open are you with your friends?

Do you still try to hide things from God?