Reading your Bible for Today February 1

February 1: 2 Corinthians 7:9-11

KJV Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 7:10
10 For godly* sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

Devotion:
It is not nice to see someone grieved, for when you do, you want to be able to comfort them. If they are sad about something bad happening in their life, then you probably wish you could either change or remove it for them. But when others are remorseful over things which they have done wrong, then we have a different outlook on things. We begin to see that they are genuinely sorry about something which has gone wrong. When we see that genuine sorrow, we expect them to be forgiven; and if we are doing the forgiving, we forgive in the knowledge that they have learned from their mistake.

When we first admit to Christ we were sinners, we conclude that we were the ones who had done things wrong and Christ had paid for those sins. We realised He is real and we had made so many mistakes in our lives. It is God who opened our eyes so we could see we had been rotten and sinful which then made us grieve over the things we had done in our lives. Realising the truth and how it applies to our lives is something others can be happy about. Even though we seem sad at the time, it is a revelation when we see the truth and then we can walk in that truth from then on!

But when we get sad and sorry over things which happen in earthly circles, we have a problem. Not everyone is going to be forgiving, not everyone is going to forget. God says He will separate our sins from us as far as the East is from the West. But we (people) continue to carry round those memories of what we have done to others and what others have done to us. Grudges seem to be carried for a long time! The longer those grudges are carried, the more we are spiritually or emotionally pulled down by them. When we are sorry for the right reasons, it makes us change and think about how we can improve ourselves. With God's help, we can achieve many things.

Points to Ponder:
Are you carrying grudges around?

Isn't it about time you asked God to help you get rid of them?