Reading your Bible for Today March 13

March 13: Proverbs 20:9-10

KJV Key Verse: Proverbs 20:9
9 Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?

Devotion:
What a legacy mankind has built for himself. You do not have to listen to much media through television, radio or the internet to be confronted by the deceit which is in the world today. The deceit that seems to run from the person next to us right up through governments and nobility. Mankind really has done a good job on himself! The only person who could initially say he was without sin (apart from Jesus Christ) was Adam; but even he turned towards sin though a simple temptation.

You may say it is not our fault because we have a sin nature which we cannot fight. Whilst that is true, we each of us do have our choices we can make. The one choice is that we do give in and go with the flow, and the other choice is that we bring in outside help to get us through our temptations. The Holy Spirit is more than willing to guide us through our temptations, to steer us clear of them as well; but we have to be willing to listen and learn. It is not through anything we can do that we will be cleansed from our sin, but through what Christ has already done for us. We are the ones who need to realise that!

Our deceitfulness is one of our properties which is going to follow us wherever we go and one which is hard to fight. Even when we are Christians who try to obey God, we continue to be faced with and tempted by sin; we continue to give in and deceit is just one of those traps we fall into. We may think we need to apportion the things we have according to who is more worthy in our lives. We may think special people should get more. But why should others get less just because they are not deemed as special in our lives by us. Each of us are created equal by God and that is why Christ said we should love our neighbour as ourselves. If we do not, we are not only deceiving them, but doing it in front of The Holy Spirit, in front of God.

We may not be able to get it right all the time, but we do need to pay attention and at least try!

Points to Ponder:
How much do you withhold from those not in your circle of friends?

How much do you withhold from God?