Reading your Bible for Today Febuary 14

February 14: Matthew 12:31-34

KJV Key Verse: Matthew 12:33
33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.

Devotion:
Standing fast on our faith means we do have knowledge that Christ has forgiven us of all of our sins. We know this because we have brought them to Him in our own humble ways. We know we are safe and secure because He has already shown us His forgiving nature by giving His own life up on the cross for our sins. That does not, unfortunately, mean we do stop sinning! We do continue to sin and we need to bring those before Christ too. No matter what we get up to, He is a witness to it all and needs for us to show that we are sorry by bringing them to Him.

The only sin which He will never forgive is the sin that is never brought to Him through unbelief. If someone has chosen to not believe in Him, they have chosen not to bring forward their sins before Him. They have verbally chosen their own short life over His. He gave His life to cover our sins, but if we continue to kick off that covering, how can we be covered?

We are going to face all manner of people saying strange things to us all the time. Some of those things are going to hurt us; but Christ wants each of us to forgive those who do say things against us. He wants us to do that to show others there is hope even for those who do evil. He wants us to be examples who will encourage others to seek out that final step of forgiveness from Him.

If we are going to rebel against things, fight against those who say things against us and continue to act in a non-Christian manner, then we should expect others to see us as non-Christian! There is no way we can act like the rest of the world whilst trying to do the right thing. We are the ones who will lose out by falling into temptation. Saying the right things and doing the wrong things does not set any example that anyone wants to follow!

Points to Ponder:
Do those around you know you as a Christian?

Do you humble yourself before God daily?