March 8: Psalm 81:6-10
Key Verse: Psalm 81:8
Hear me, my people, and I will warn you – if you would only listen to me, Israel!
Devotion:
Have you ever tried to sit down and count how many times God warned the people of Israel about only following Him, only worshipping Him and listening to Him? Time and time again God had to warn the people of Israel through prophets, kings and priests. They would listen for a while and then get side-tracked and go off and do strange things!
Nothing much has changed for us nowadays either. We promise to follow God, to listen to Him and to obey Him, then we get side-tracked by the world and by other people. We begin to do things according to what people say instead of listening to God and His instructions. We run off and do things we know in our hearts we should not be doing, just because we think it will be OK this time.
God does not change and His instructions will not change over time. If we cannot follow them in the beginning then we will find it difficult to follow Him at all. If we do follow Him and then go off and do other things, we are making a choice to do that. We are choosing to run off in the other direction which is what God has warned us time and time again about!
I can almost imagine God pulling His hair out and pleading “why will you not listen!” God is the one who has done so much for us from the beginning. He is the one who continues to do things for us, even when we turn our backs on Him at times. He does this because of this great love He has for us. If we can see that we should respect Him and show Him love in return!
Points to Ponder:
Did you follow God at one point?
Will you still follow Him?