August 26: Mark 7:14-23
Key Verse: Mark 7:15
there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’
Devotion:
If you have been following the lectionary over the last few week you may well have come across this a few times already because it has been covered in a few Gospels.
It is not what we eat or drink that is going to defile ourselves, but what comes out of our hearts and mouths! We do not have to give into the garbage which we eat, drink, watch or listen to. We do not have to copy it... but we often do.
So the sin is not the watching, eating, drinking etc but what we do with that which we consume. We can continue to do what is right and we can continue to follow God's will in our lives - even when we are consuming bad stuff.
But, when the only things we consume are bad things, we learn to do those things and way in our lives, so the more likely we are to regurgitate that stuff; that is why we warn against bad stuff in our lives
Points to ponder:
What sort of things are you learning in your life through living?
Do you have the strength to go against the flow of garbage in?