For God's sake - Devotion for 10/27/08

For God’s Sake – Devotion for 10/27/08

When I was growing up, one of my favorite foods was pizza, and particularly pizza from a certain pizza establishment. I just knew that my parents loved me because we would get to eat almost every week. When your parents keep doing something for you like that you truly know that they love you. The problem was that when I got older I found something out: we didn’t eat pizza almost every week because l loved it; we ate pizza almost every week because my dad loved it! There I was all that time thinking that it was about me, when it really wasn’t about me at all – I just got to be the beneficiary of it! That’s probably what it’s going to be when my boys eventually find out how much I love Outback!

In Ezekiel 36:22-32, God is explaining to Israel all the things He is about to do: He will gather Israel together in her own land; He will make them clean; He will given them a new heart and put a new spirit within them; He will even bring forth extra grain, fruit, and produce so that they may not suffer from another famine. Why is He doing all these wonderful things for them? We can find the answer to that at the very first part of this particular passage: “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.”(verse 22)

Sometimes we pray to God asking for something that really is of no benefit to anyone else. Sometimes we live a life that is so self-interested we can’t even begin to see why God does some of the things He does. Living a life full of faith means entrusting all things to Him, accepting God’s will, and trying to live a life for God’s sake. Who knows? We may even get to reap the benefits.