November 3: Philippians 4 4

Key Verse: Philippians 4 4
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!

Devotion:
How often do you let things get you down? How often do you get upset about small things in your life? How often do you let those small things build up until you 'explode'? How often do you seek help rather than just sitting on things? For most of us the answer to these is going to be that we sit on things, we allow them to get to us and we don't often seek outside help; at least not as often as we maybe should!

Philippians is a letter to the church at Philippi from the Apostle Paul who was currently in prison at the time. This did not stop him from writing such words as these: “Rejoice in the Lord alway”. He refused to allow his current position get in the way of his relationship with Christ. He refused to allow things to get to him simply because of the knowledge that Christ had allowed this to happen and something was going to happen which would glorify God.

This letter which he wrote has been added to a book which we call The Bible along with many other writings over the years so we can gain a better understanding of the relationship others have had with God over the years. Paul set time aside to make sure his feelings were portrayed in the letter; feelings of love and of contentment in Christ. His goal was to continue in his teaching of the people of Philippi through any opportunity given to him. His thought was probably “why should I let my personal grief get in the way of my happiness in Christ”?

And that should be our outlook in our lives. Why should we allow what happens in our lives to get in the way with our relationships with Christ? When we walk with Christ, we see His wonders and His power and experience His love. When we walk away, we see just how unjust we can be; at this point we should be looking back and seeing what we are missing and long to get back to Christ at our earliest convenience! In this way, we will be able to continually rejoice in Christ. Not just saying “yay”, but truly rejoicing that He has accomplished everything for us already!

Points to Ponder:
So what is playing on your mind today?

How often do you share your problems with Christ?

November 2: Isaiah 58 13-14

Key Verse: Isaiah 58 13
“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the Lord honourable, And shall honour Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words,

Devotion:
Far too often in our lives we get carried up in things we are doing which we like and forget about what we should be doing... How many times have you organised an appointment, only to remember the appointment when it is too late? How many times have you been carried away playing a game and forgotten about what you had been asked to do? How many times have you got engrossed in a book and missed a meeting?

Sometimes it is good to be able to relax and get away from 'life', but we all have our responsibilities and things we need to accomplish. Each of them has its own time and we must be able to keep to those times if we are going to continue with them. We should weigh up the importance of things which clash so we prioritise things and get the most important things done in the right order.

Many people look at going to church as a necessity rather than them wanting to be there. Many people don't want to be there and would rather stay at home and wash the car! But just like getting to know a job or a person, you have to be able to adhere to the times for that job or person. If you are not willing to learn more about it/them, then you probably will not think of it/them when you get carried away with other things.

God wants us to be able to keep our relationship with Him in the forefront of our lives. As long as we do that, we are going to be willing to adhere to His will in our life and to make sure we do things the right way round. The more we learn about Him, the more we are willing to do the right thing. The more we find out about what He has done for us, the more we are willing to do for Him – not because we have to, but because we want to! What better relationship that one that is fully compatible both ways!

Points to Ponder:
Ok, what did you forget today?

How close is your relationship with God?

November 1: Psalms 37 4-5

Key Verse: Psalms 37 4
Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Devotion:
I bet you can remember at least one occasion when you were younger where you asked for something fully expecting to get it, just because you asked for it. There was probably no justification for it, other than the fact that you asked for it! How surprised were you when you did not get it? We go through our lives desiring many things and even expecting to get most of them. We may justify our expectation by the way we have acted or done something towards someone else. I bet you can also remember a few times when things happened for you out of the blue. When you received things that you were not expecting.

Have you ever thought about why you did or did not receive things? When we are very young, we brush off not getting things quite quickly, but as we get older we tend to understand why we get things and our expectations tend to fall in line with what we get. That is because we grow to realise we do not often get things for nothing. If we obey our parents and generally be good, we will often get rewarded for our actions – this is something we learn.

So what is the difference between our actions towards our family and our actions towards God. He is watching over us all the time. He expects us to eventually fall in line with His commandments and His will in our lives. He is not going to push us there, but just like our parents do or did, He will reward us for things which we do right. But that is where things break down a bit, because people suddenly get it into their heads if they do a multitude of things right, then they are going to get big rewards for it...

God can see into our inner thoughts. He can see when we are doing things for a reward. He can see when we are genuine about what we do. He can see when we are doing things because we 'have to'. In short, we simply cannot pull the wool over His eyes – ever! So, if we are going to expect things from Him, we have to be committed in our walk with Him and that means doing it because we want to, not because we have to. Doing things out of love rather than requirement...

Points to Ponder:
When was the last time you did something 'because you had to'?

What is your relationship with Christ like?

October 31: Proverbs 15 30-33

Key Verse: Proverbs 15 33
The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, And before honour is humility.

Devotion:
To be able to recognise what God is doing for us and how much He has created for us is indeed joyous! With that Joy comes happiness and contentment. When we show how we are content with what God supplies for us, others see we are happy in Him. There is nothing better than being able to say we are content with our lot in Christ; but to be able to say that, we have to know it!

We have to be able to recognise the truth when we hear it. We must be able to recognise when we are doing things wrong so we can be corrected. We should be able to accept Godly criticism so we can fix things which are wrong in our lives. For if we start to refuse that correction, we are doing wrong against our own soul. We are trying to fool our own souls we are doing things right, even when we are being shown otherwise. What good can come out of that? But if we can listen and accept criticism, then we can only learn more about what we should be doing!

When are you least likely to listen to someone telling you when things are not right? I have a real problem listening to people trying to correct me when they are doing things wrong! We need to be able to listen to criticism and advice from those who are showing us they are living as God would want them to live. If they are living as God would want them to live, then they have learned more about how God wants them to live than we have. They have listened to the advice and criticism and have acted upon it, knowing that it is true and just.

The fear of the Lord is not knee-trembling fear of a slave to his slave-driver, but the absolute knowledge that God is right and we are not. Knowing that God is right allows us to see what is wrong in our lives. Knowing God is right allows us to have absolute respect for everything He does, knowing it is true and righteous. Fearing the Lord is knowing that whatever we do is going to be judged by Him!

Points to Ponder:
So you listen to advice or just over-react?

Do you listen to the advice that you get from God's Word?