The ‘Getting Rid Of’ stage
Linda is away during March, Clayton Bjelan brings you today’s devotion…
It all came to a head the other day when a text message went to the wrong person.
Reference: 6:21 They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. (TNIV Bible)
Explore: I have a friend who recently had to make a really tough call. You see he’d been mates with a few guys for a while, and there’d been a number of instances over the years that he knew meant these guys were not the sort of positive influence he needed in his life.
It all came to a head the other day when a text message went to the wrong person. It was vulgar and highly insulting. But, it was ultimately the impetus that my friend needed to make the tough call to not hang around these mates anymore.
He told them this, but they didn’t take it seriously. A little while later they contacted him wanting to hang out – he reminded them that he wasn’t going to hang out with them anymore…they got angry and once again were very rude– confirming he had made the correct decision.
Emotionally becoming uninvolved can be very difficult. This ‘getting rid’ of stage can be very difficult – but it is invaluable in the process of moving on.
Application: I don’t know about you – but I sometimes struggle with verses like this one in the Bible that talk about completely destroying everything and (more troubling) everyone – even the women and children.
To be honest, I haven’t been able to fully understand it… however, I can grasp the principal behind what is happening here.
Just like my friend needing to make the tough call of ending friendships, the Israelites needed to rid themselves of anything that was not devoted to God; anything that might lead them away from God.
That principal is a good one to hold to, especially as we see in so many other parts of the Bible that when God’s people ignored that advice, inevitably, they wandered a long way from God.
Prayer: Dear God, give me the courage to stay away from the things that take me from you… no matter how desirable they are or how much a part of my life they have become, Amen.
What might be something you currently need to rid yourself of?
This article was written by Clayton Bjelan