Your Devotional Website
The Broken Mailbox
Devotional for Monday, February 11, 2002 by Jim Messmer
Matthew 5:6 - Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (NIV)In our area we have a special mailbox for receiving newspapers. It's similar to our regular mailbox, except that it has no door. It is fastened to the pole just below each regular mailbox. My neighbour's newspaper mailbox is broken. It slants forward, being attached to the pole improperly, thus allowing papers to slide forward, out of the box, and onto the ground. I frequently see his newspaper lying in a puddle on rainy days, or blowing across my yard on windy days. "They should fix it," you are possibly saying to yourself. That's what I thought three years, and a hundred wet papers, ago. But it remains broken today, dumping freshly delivered papers out onto the ground, in spite of being easily fixable, and our neighbour being competent with hand tools. Apparently, he just doesn't care.
Is your spiritual mailbox similarly broken? When you receive something from the Lord, does it remain safe and protected, or is it lost, dumped out onto the ground because of neglect or an unappreciative spirit? If you find you haven't grown spiritually over the years, or if you find yourself making the same mistakes over and over again, perhaps it's not that God's newspapers haven't been arriving at your door, but that you haven't appreciated and applied what has arrived. Perhaps it's a matter of not taking the Word seriously, as truly coming from God? Perhaps it's letting other messages come first, like the internal messages of desire, or the messages of pride? How many more years will it be before you make the necessary repairs?
1 John 5:3 - This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome. (NIV)
1 Samuel 15:22 - To obey is better than sacrifice. (NIV)
Prayer: Father, if we've been letting Your messages slip out onto the ground, please adjust our attitude, before any more of Your "good news" slips through our hands. It's all a matter of respect, Lord, so may we begin and end each day on our knees, praising Your name and glory, praying that Your will be done on earth, beginning with our own lives, as a living sacrifice on the altar of obedience. You are God and we are human, and never let us forget the difference. Amen.
Jim Messmer <jmessmer@insightbb.com>
Washington, Illinois, USA
E-mail This Devotional to a friend without subscribing them, or give a
Gift Subscription.
Today's Music:
Faithful To Lead Us On.