March 3: John 2:13-22
Key Verse: John 2:22
After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
Devotion:
When Jesus entered the temple on this day He was dismayed by the people who were no longer treating the temple with the respect He thought they should. This made Jesus angry and He took out His anger on the animals and people who were doing this. Was He right to be angry?
If we look at our modern society we see many people using church buildings for many things, and many are not doing this for the right reasons. We may say we are doing these things to raise money for the church and for the support of things in the church, but there will always be some who are doing it purely for selfish reasons and plain monetary gain.
God knows we have to have money to continue using our church buildings because we live in a world which is largely controlled by money. He knows we will have to go out and earn money in different ways because we may not be rich enough to pay for the expenses of the church buildings. But He also knows when some people are taking advantage of the situation and working for their own good!
We may have our own ideas of how Jesus should be portrayed, what He looked like and what we should expect from Him: but we did not live in those days when He walked amongst the people of Israel. We should not be trying to put Jesus in a box defined by us but rather allowing Him to work His miracles in our lives with the freedom He needs to work. We need to stop putting barriers up which stop Him working in our lives!
Points to Ponder:
Do you think you do work for Jesus?
How many barriers do you put up when He really tries to do things?