Reading your Bible for today February 8

February 8: Romans 9:14-21

KJV Key Verse: Romans 9:16
16 So then it is not of him that willeth , nor of him that runneth , but of God that sheweth mercy .

Devotion:
Whatever God does must be just. We look at ourselves and we find fault. We look at God and we cannot find fault. If we think we do find fault, then we are comparing what we think with what God knows. God is the one who is in control of this planet; He is the one who is in charge of things and not us. Just like a pot cannot tell the potter how to make itself or how to form itself, we cannot tell God what to do with us. Unlike the pot, though, God has given us choice so we can make our choices after He has created us.

We are initially created in His image and then we make bad choices. We are the ones who bring sin with us and allow sin to take control of our lives. God can use each one of us for His glory and that is His choice too. He was the one who chose to use Pharaoh for His glory by continuing to allow him to have a heart set against God. Pharaoh was the one who was being treated like a God by his own people because he demanded it and yet God was still able to use his as a symbol by which all of mankind would be able to remember God’s wrath and power.

God is the one who chooses to show His grace to us. We certainly do not deserve it and yet He is still willing to show us grace and mercy through everything He does do for us. As the scripture says, it is not the one who is willing, nor the one doing the running around, but God Himself who is able to show the mercy and grace. Since He is the only one, we need to show our thanks and respect to Him alone in our lives... Yet we are the ones who make the bad choices in our lives which lead to further choices and finally to self-destruction. The potter will make vessels from the same clay; those vessels will be used for good or bad through our choices of how we use them. God created us all in His image and we make the choices about how we turn out in our lives. If we are willing and able to listen to the truth, we will be able to make the right choices and turn out the way God wanted us to – but if we continually ignore that truth we don’t have much hope at randomly choosing the right path!

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you have made bad choices?

Are you looking forward to making the right choices with God now?