August 25: Deuteronomy 18:15-22

Key Verse: Deuteronomy 18:19
I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.

Devotion:
No matter how much God does in your life, you may well still face temptations which you give in to or do things you should not be doing. “We are human” is the excuse we all turn to in these cases… We may be human, but we still do have a choice despite the peer pressure and despite all the temptations. We will be held accountable for the choices we make.

We can look throughout the bible to see how much God has supported us and how He has bent over backward to try and get us to obey Him – yet we still go astray like sheep walking off into the wilderness instead of staying with the shepherd. We do this because we make choices and we follow our own choices rather than the people God has put into our lives to guide us.

We may be scared by a God who is able to do anything and who has told us the wages of sin is death… but that same God has listened to our infirmities and has placed people into our lives to allow us to gracefully come back to Him by listening to those people. God has continued to do this throughout time and will continue to do this because of His great love for us! It is not God giving in to our wishes, but a God who is using everything and everyone to try and reach out to us and guide us back to His side!

He has given us His Word in the bible. He has told us He will put people into our lives to teach us because we are scared to listen to Him directly. He has told us we need to discern who is telling the truth by their actions in His Word. We have everything we need to make the right choice in our lives – but we do still have to make that choice for ourselves. Nobody else can make the choice for us!

Points to Ponder:
Do you listen to God’s servants?

Are you obeying God’s wishes in your life?