Reading your Bible for today July 31

July 31: 1 Chronicles 28:8-9

KJV Key Verse: 1 Chronicles 28:9
9 And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.

Devotion:
During king David's last sickness, there were many priests and Levites gathered in Jerusalem. His instructions to them were to ensure they continued to follow God's commandments, but more importantly, to keep them in the forefront of their minds. If we are going to follow any rules in our lives, then we have to make sure we keep those rules in our minds so we continually think about them. That way, when faced with a situation which contradicts one of those rules, we will be more likely to do the right thing. But if we put those rules in the back of our minds, we may well only remember them after we have become involved with doing the wrong thing!

His reminder to Solomon was that God knows what is in our thoughts. He is a discerner of our souls and spirits rather than what we look like. He wants to see us thinking about the right things because He knows it is one of the things in our lives that we find hardest to control. God knows if we do get carried away in our thoughts, then we are more likely to forget about His rules and forget about holding Him first in our lives.

When we start to hold earthly things first in our lives, then we start to act more like the “earthly people”. We start to do more things that they do and live more like them, blocking God even more out of our lives. If we are Christians and we start to act like that, then imagine what other people are going to start thinking about us. Imagine what other people are going to start thinking about our relationship with Christ... If they see we are willing to treat God lightly, then they will know we are likely to treat them lightly as well – because that is the way we are living. This is what God has to face through our thoughts every day!

Points to Ponder:
Do you treat everyone differently in your life?

What do you think God thinks of your actions?