May 6: Matthew 7:21-23

Key Verse: Matthew 7:22
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’

Devotion:
So… have you been following the rules about being safe and staying at home? I’m not sure there are too many people out there who can definitely say they have done exactly what their governments have said because many have bent the rules slightly so they can keep some sort of normality in their life. I know I have bent the rules so I can help others out but one thing I learned at an early age was how to clean my hands properly! My dad was a pharmacist and cleanliness was a big part of the job, some of that actually rubbed off one me!

I know I was not the cleanest of kids and I know I did not clean things as much as I should have until this virus raised its head and boy was I thankful I had remembered some of the simple things to keep myself virus free – so far so good!

But just doing the ‘keep yourself clean’ thing is not going to completely protect me from the virus; I need to do many other things to help! But this is not a lesson on keeping clean, this is a lesson on not counting on your own works to get you to Heaven! These words spoken by Jesus bring it home hard that not everyone is going to get to Heaven. Some may think they have done enough by speaking about Jesus, teaching about Him, leading prayers or whatever… unless they believe in their hearts that Jesus is Saviour and believe the words which Jesus spoke, they may find themselves lacking!

Just because I can clean my hands properly, can take pills and self medicate does not make me a pharmacist! The same applies for Christians. Unless we actually believe in our hearts the words which come out of our mouths – we are not necessarily Christians! I have been in places where I found it very hard to believe the person speaking believed the words coming out of their mouths because they were reading from a well prepared script rather than from their hearts. If I can spot that, Jesus can see right through it!

Points to Ponder:
Do you tell others about Jesus?

What do you believe in your heart?