Daily Devotions
How Are We Using God's Gifts?
Reading for September 3rd: Ezekiel 16-17
"Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced in royalty. And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD.
"But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your shorings on any passerby; your beauty became his."
Ezekiel 16:13-15
That computer or cell phone or tablet you are using to read this devotion... who gave you the ability to have that?
The house (or car, or school, or place of business) you are sitting in right now... who has made this place possible for you to be in right now?
If you got out of bed this morning and stood up on your feet, and if you took a warm shower, and if you put on nice and clean clothes, and if you then sat down to eat at the breakfast table, do you know who is responsible for all of that?
The fact that you breathed in and breathed out just now... do you know who is now giving you life?
The question I have for all of us this morning is simply this: how are we going to use these gifts today? Will we use them to glorify God or will we use them selfishly to gratify sinful desires?
"You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, 'He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us'?" James 4:4-5
Father, we give thanks for everything you give us to enjoy. May we use all of this to bring praise and glory and honor to your great name!
