Aren’t You That Person Who...
Tuesday's Devotion (3-25-08)
"Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right." Proverbs 20:11 (KJV)
If you have a record of being "trouble," then even when you change and give yourself to Christ... Expect people to judge you from your past experiences. Let’s use a child at school for example, if he’s a menace one year then when he comes back the next year the school is going to be expecting him to cause trouble, even if he claims change. In other words, we can’t just claim change we have to prove change in our lives. Even when we do prove it, we are still going to be persecuted for our past, but that’s not our problem if we have gotten our present life in order. So what if you used to be a menace to society? If you are in right standing with God NOW then the past is just that... the past! If people want to judge you for that then that’s their problem.
I know that this verse really had nothing to do with the topic, but it’s what came to my mind today. But it kind of did have a little to do with it... We are known by our works. If I do good for people then people are going to know me by that, but if I do people wrong then I’ll be known by that. Often people don’t know us by our names, they’ll call us "Hey, there’s that guy who helped my friend!" Or, "Hey, there’s that guy that stole my car!" They know us by our works, whether they be pure works or bad works. And even if we change people are going to judge us by our past. It’s up to us to demonstrate true change.
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this message and for all things. Please forgive us of all our sins as we forgive all those who’ve sinned against us. Please help us to demonstrate true change in our lives. Don’t let the present us be confused with the past us. May people be able to tell that Jesus is in our hearts. In Jesus name. A-men!
God bless!