Reading your Bible for Today August 24

August 24: Isaiah 52:4-6

KJV Key Verse: Isaiah 52:6
6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.

Devotion:
How many times in your life are you given a 'second chance', a chance to make a difference, a chance to get it right? How many of those times have you messed things up by repeating what you had already done wrong? How many of those times have you not depended on God but taken things back into your own hands and found yourself coming up short again?

Too many times we do exactly that – we think we have been given a second chance and we go at it head-first thinking we can get it right this time if we only try a bit harder... But the problem is our past attempts are what are guiding us. We have seen how close we got the first time and we try to modify it slightly the next time so we can get closer. Sometimes God just wants us to let go of our past and to move on into a new opening which He has created for us. He gives us a second chance and wants us to take it the way He wants us to – not the way we want to!

When the people of Israel were given a second chance by being freed from Egypt, they brought with them all the ways of the Egyptians under whom they had been enslaved. They brought corruption into an otherwise clean slate. When they were to be freed from Babylon they were to leave all the bad things behind and to turn towards and trust in God. They had to break free from their past and run into the arms of Jesus, Trusting in Him alone!

When we are saved, God is giving us that same chance. We need to put behind us the world that we have been living in and live towards Christ. We have to move on in our lives. That does not mean ignoring everyone around us, but changing the way we live our own lives – change them to live for Him! It is God alone who can make all the difference.

Points to Ponder:
When you make a new friend do you expect them to change?

Christ made friends of sinners – we need to change!