Friday, November 24, 2006

Daily Devotions - 11.24.06 - Jeremiah 17:9 NLT

The World’s Advice vs. God’s Advice…

I’m sure you spent your Thanksgiving Day with family eating, talking, joking, planning Christmas, catching up on what’s been going on in each others lives and watching movies. In talking to each other about what’s been going on, we can’t help but get advice… many times unsolicited; nonetheless, we receive it and give it.

It seems like current events and sports are areas that we talk most about. Current events aren’t so positive, as the news only highlights murders, accidents, disasters and what celebrity has adopted a child and who’s divorced who to be with someone else; disaster and gossip. Sports are ok, but I think people know more about sports than they know about the more important things in life. They know the history and statistics of their favorite sports figures and even have screen savers, posters and books on them. With current events and sports or anything else, we get opinions of what people think about them and relate them to life.

The problem is that both the people in the news and the people discussing the news have the wrong perspective on what life is about, and how to go about living our lives.

This Thanksgiving Day my kids were watching Star Wars (I don’t know what episode), and there was a seen where Obi-Wan Kenobi was training Luke Skywalker but Luke wasn’t doing so well. Kenobi stopped the training and told Luke to “follow his feelings and to go with his heart”. As the movie continued, we saw Luke improve in his training and it was confirmed (in the movie) that this was the right advice.

Like the movie, much of the advice of the world, friends and family alike, will tell us to go with our feelings; to go with whatever makes us feel good; and, to “go with our hearts”.

As Christians, we are not blind in our faith, for God’s Word is very clear as to His laws of sowing and reaping; what’s right and what’s wrong; what to do and what not to do… for our benefit and to glorify our Father in Heaven. We should know what is right and what is wrong, according to God’s Word and not the world’s view.

My unsolicited advice to you is to consistently follow God’s Word, regardless of feelings and never “instinctively” do as your heart tells you to do, but make sure you confirm and follow the facts of the Bible.

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” – Jeremiah 17:9 NLT

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