A Sunday Devotion

            Back in High School, I used to play Racquetball. We had a gym in our little town that me and some of my friends would go to after cheerleading practice. We would pound the ball against the wall, back and forth, swing after swing. The ball would leave my racket and slam up against the wall on the opposite side of the room. When I look back on it now, I ask myself what exactly was the point to that game? I mean, all the ball ever did was bounce back to be hit again. (I love the game though, don't get me wrong!) Many times, I think we as Christians can be like the wall. The truth of God's word comes bouncing up against us and just bounces right off of us. We think we know the answer so we don't want to listen to that word of wisdom someone just spoke to us, or we don't want to heed the warnings in the Bible about sin, and temptations, we just want to be the wall. We think we have the answers and don't need anyone else's advice, no matter who they are. 

"For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith." Romans 12:3 NKJV

Paul reminds us that we do not know it all, and we will never know it all. We are not God. If all the ball does is bounce off of us, then maybe we need to take a look at our reflection, maybe we think more of our own selves than we ought to think. We cannot be the wall that just allows God's words to bounce off of us. We have to have ears that are ready to receive what He is speaking to us, but we also have to have hearts that are willing to receive them when they come. Not everything that people tell us is going to be right on, nor is all the advice we are given going to be godly. That is why we need to take what we have been given and hold it up to the Word of God, if God confirms it, then we must obey it. If God does not confirm it, then let that ball fall out of bounds and don't pick it up again.
Just don't be a wall.
Amen? 

Father, may our ears be open to hear Your Word to us today, and may our hearts be ready to receive whatever it is You have for us. Lord, teach us to be teachable, and not walls. Give us the wisdom and the understanding to know when that ball is from Your swing, and not our own. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen.