No assigned reading for today. Use this “free” day to catch up on your reading plan, read a Psalm or Proverb, or just pray and ask God to direct your reading for today. The important thing is to read the Word.
Daily Devotion
Does Your Spiritual Account Have Insufficient Funds?
By Dominic Couvion
1 Corinthians 10:23 “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.”
Paul gives us good instruction when he states some things lawful, yet not expedient. What qualifies as expedient? Paul gives us insight when he instructs us to die daily (1 Corinthians 15:31). This is not literally dying, but telling oneself “no”. I don’t know how it goes in your life, but when I deny myself there is an argument in my head about if it is truly necessary and all other imaginable excuses to convince me that I am wrong.
Paul speaks about thing being expedient, another usage of that same word is profitable. If I view my relationship with Jesus as a bank account, there are some things out there that if I participate in will cost me and deplete my account. The more the account is depreciated the easier it will be to participate in sin. On the other side of the bank account, there are things that will deposit funds into the account and make it easier to resist temptation and not participate in sin. Things such as praying, fasting, and reading the Bible.
Jesus was tempted, there is no shame in that. He wants us to be aware of this and instead use this knowledge to resist temptation. As a parent, my mandate is to communicate this to my children and at the same time explain the danger of sin as Jesus did. If done correctly I can prepare them to face the world and be ready and not ashamed when temptations come, but rather be prepared with a plan of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13).