Daily Devotional

Smoke Alarm
AUGUST 23, 2021
Reading Time: 2 minutes Bible Reading:
Psalm 119:9-16
DOING RIGHT IS EASIER ONCE YOU’VE COMMITTED
TO GOD’S WAY. “HOW CAN A YOUNG
Uncle Jim’s hacking cough echoed through the small PERSON STAY PURE? BY
house as Pete skulked in the front door and tried to OBEYING YOUR WORD AND
FOLLOWING ITS RULES”
sneak into the bathroom.
“Pete!” Uncle Jim called. He appeared suddenly in
(PSALM 119:9)
front of Pete.
“Hi, Uncle Jim,” Pete said.

“Where ya been, boy?” Uncle Jim asked. Pete had

agreed to stop by Uncle Jim’s house after school to
help him hang some shutters.
“I, uh, hung out with a couple of friends after school,”
Pete said. “Oh,” Uncle Jim said. “Is that why your
breath smells like cigarette smoke?”
Pete dropped his hand. “Yeah,” he muttered, not
meeting his uncle’s gaze.
““I guess so. The guys were just messing around, you know?” he said. “I was
ashamed to say no.”
“You should have been ashamed to say yes,” Uncle Jim barked, which triggered a
prolonged coughing spell.
“Uncle Jim, you know what it’s like,” Pete said in a pleading tone. “You started
smoking when you were a kid, didn’t you?”

PRAY: Take
“Yes!” the man answered loudly. “And it took me thirty-five years to stop. And
now all that garbage I took into my lungs is killing me, slowly but surely. I don’t
want you making the same mistake.”
turns
“1 know,” Pete said. “It’s just that—well, the guys—”
praying,
promising
“I know all about the guys,” Jim said. “They think it’s ‘cool’ to smoke. They test
you and tempt you and try to get you to take the same impurities into your body
as they do.” He coughed. “I know it’s hard, Son, but it’ll be a whole lot easier if
you decide ahead of time that you’re going to keep yourself pure, in soul and
God that you
body.”
will follow
“But how do I do that, Uncle Jim?”
Uncle Jim sighed. “Doing the right thing is easier,” he said, “if you’ve already
what he says
made your mind up before temptation hits. You need to decide now what your
answer’s going to be when your ‘friends’ offer you a cigarette. Commit now to is right and
obeying God’s Word and following his commands, and trust him every day for
the strength to avoid temptation or, if you can’t avoid it, to resist it when it that you’ll
comes.”
stay pure by
“I’ve never really done that, I guess,” Pete said.
“Now’s as good a time as any to commit to God’s way,” Uncle Jim answered. Pete obeying his
looked at his uncle with a serious expression.
“OK,” he said. Uncle Jim gripped Pete’s shoulder firmly in his hand, and they both Word and
closed their eyes while Pete started to pray, committing himself to following
God’s way. following its
TO DISCUSS: Do you ever face temptation to think, say, or do impure things? rules.
Have you committed to following God’s way when temptation hits? How can you
do that?

Millennium Christian Academy