CAREFUL DEVOTION

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.

Titus 3:8b, 14

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

At the end of his letter to Titus and the Christians living on the island of Crete, the Apostle Paul wanted to remind the believers as to how they were to live and the hope they lived under because of God’s redeeming, justifying work carried out by Jesus His Son, a hope gained through the rebirth and renewal of their souls through the Holy Spirit.

This blessed salvation assurance took away any question about what the future held for the Cretan Christians and could liberate them to carry out the Great Commission calling Jesus had given. We see the exhortation to be devoted to the cause of Christ in our verses for today. Look again at Paul’s words here:

And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives. Vv. 8b, 14

All that the Apostle had written prior were to be points of emphasis used by his brother and sisters in Christ on Crete as they sought to make disciples. And as they helped people place their belief and trust in Jesus and the God who sent Him to save, they could carefully “devote themselves to doing what is good”, to do things that would be “excellent and profitable for everyone”.

These lives lived for Christ would never be void of accomplishment because they would be led by the Holy Spirit. Christian evangelists would always be in the right place at the right time to share the right message with the right person or people. The Lord always puts His people where He wants them to be to fulfill His divine purposes when they submit themselves fully to His direction. He will always guide His workers to “provide for urgent needs” which will always be considered productive work that is pleasing in His sight.

The call here was for a careful devotion, careful because caution needs to be exercised to ensure devotion is directed toward the right place. The world, Satan’s domain, certainly beckons to all people with any number of things that would seek to draw our devotion and attention away from where it needs to be. With this, Christians need to keep their eyes, hearts, and minds firmly fixed on the cross and the empty tomb where salvation was born to meet every person’s most urgent need, the need for a saved soul that would lead to eternal life.

With this, the scriptures would pose questions to us today:

Where is your devotion directed?

Is it Christ-centered with a focus on being as devoted to God and others as He was?

If so, are you allowing your Christ-centered devotion to drive you into action so that you are devotion yourself to good while meeting urgent needs while being excellent and profitable towards everyone in the name of Jesus?

As we move closer to the season of Advent, these questions can serve to better prepare ourselves to live and give selflessly before celebrating God’s greatest gift ever given.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.