A Sincere and Pure Devotion

Pause:

Before you start reading this devotional, take a moment to stop what you’re doing, slow down and focus on Jesus. 

Pray and ask him to open your eyes to see as you read the scriptures, and to open your ears to hear as you wait on the leading of the Spirit.

Read:

2 Corinthians 11v2-4 (ESV): “For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.”

Going Deeper:

During this time of quarantine, one of my favourite things to do when Shell goes to bed, is to stay up, and sit outside on our balcony and watch the City, and think, and pray and let my mind wander.

I don’t sit and think constructively enough, and whenever I do make time to just think, I love it. It’s one of the habits I need to make more time for in my life.

But, not all “mind wandering” is good or helpful. Our minds are the most significant space for spiritual warfare. And since Satan is a conquered foe - disarmed and defeated - all he has left to attack us and harm us is his words.

And how often do we listen to his lies, internalize them, meditate on them, and let them hurt us, distract us and even erode our faith.

Here in this passage, Paul is writing to a Church that have let their minds and focus wander from their initial pure and sincere worship and devotion to Jesus, to other things.

Satan has gradually, subtly, and strategically got them thinking about other things. And they have wandered to a place where they are now under the influence of a different Spirit (for us, that could be the zeitgeist, the Spirit of the age), and accepting a different gospel, a different message of good news, and are following a different Saviour.

But, they are still the Church! Even though their heart allegiance is drifting, or has drifted from Jesus to these other things, and their faith is now a hybrid mish-mash of Christianity and Culture. And Paul writes to them to call them out of deception and distraction, and back to a pure, undivided, deep love for Jesus.

During this time of quarantine, and uncertainty, and the unknown, it would be easy for our minds to focus in on other things, and to start to wander from focusing on Jesus, to focusing on other things. From believing in the Gospel, to trusting in some new message of hope. And from being lead and filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit, to being misguided by another spirit.

For all of us, God is jealous for our hearts! He is jealous for our undivided devotion to Him, and He is the only one truly worthy of it. So, if as you read this you realise that you have drifted from Jesus to other things. Or if you realise Jesus is not on top of the priorities of your heart or life. Or if you realise that your mind has been consumed with things other than Him. Today is the day to come back to Jesus. To focus in on Him, to enjoy Him and to return to a sincere and pure devotion.

Pray:

Respond to God in prayer by speaking to Him about what stood out to you from this passage this morning.

Listen:

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you this morning?

Apply:

What are you going to do in response to what God is saying to you from the text and by the Spirit?