Reading your Bible for Today March 17

Friday 17 Mar 2017

March 17: Habakkuk 3:16-19

Key Verse: Habakkuk 3:19
The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills.

Devotion:
We, as Christians, are probably going to face tough times just like those around us face tough times. We will come up against things which scare us, frighten us or even worry us right to the bone. But that is where we are different. There is no way we are going to be able to escape a bomb blast which goes off a few meters away from us, just like the people standing next to us. There is no way we will be able to escape a drought which expands over all the lands around us. I am not saying that God would not want us to survive a disaster if He knows we are going to do great things for him in the future... Being a Christian does not mean we are super-human or that we will get special physical protection throughout our lives.

Being a Christian is far more meaningful than the simple physical things in life. Yet it is those physical things in life which pre-occupy us most of the time. We are led by the physical, encouraged and discouraged by the physical and our emotions follow the physical as well. The reason for this is we are living in the physical, so that is no great surprise! But what we have is an inner joy which nothing on earth can take away from us; An inner peace which extends far beyond the physical discomfort we may suffer; An inner spirit which lifts us higher when we fall lower into the physical.

I like to think of it as a balance. The more we load our lives with the physical pleasures, the more it outweighs everything on the other side. Yet when the physical pleasures get lighter and sparser, the constant abundance of the Holy Spirit far outweighs the sparseness of everything physical in our lives. We can depend on the unchanging Spirit. We can depend on God. We can depend on His peace. We can depend on His love. Because He never changes....

Points to Ponder:
How much do you depend on physical things to make you happy?

How much do you really entrust to God for your comfort?