Tuesday 23 Nov 2021

November 23: Luke 21:5-11

Key Verse: Luke 21:9
When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.

Devotion:
When we look at the splendour of the temples, statues and various other things built as some sort of offering to God, we need to remember they are man-made and nothing more. No matter how much time we spend building something and dedicating it to God, it is still a man-made object. Over time these buildings and objects are going to break down and fall – but our God will continue to stand firm as our God throughout time!

I love going into churches and seeing what people have done to dedicate those places to God; how much time and effort they have put in to remember how much God means to them… but sometimes we forget who we are doing things for and we start to look for recognition from people instead of from God. When that happens, we will see our objects of self praise brought down, ignored and forgotten over time; maybe not in our life-time, but over time it happens.

We lose our way and follow the ways of the world as we get more and more tied up with gaining praise and recognition for ourselves instead of bringing all the glory to God. We lose focus on the object of our praise. Over time we get caught up in arguments which escalate to wars and eventually some end up nation fighting nation. Jesus was reminding us here that these things will happen over time because of the wicked ways we have in our hearts.

These things need to happen at time so we can refocus on God. But if we get too tied up in the wicked ways, we lose focus on God altogether – this is when He no longer gets the glory and we seek it ourselves instead. Who can we blame for the evil we let in but ourselves!

Points to Ponder:
Do you fear the end times are coming because of all the wars?

Will you simply turn back to worshipping God instead of mankind?