September 15: Psalms 86 8-13
Key Verse: Psalms 86 11
Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.
Devotion:
What do you expect out of a friend? One of the things that you may well expect is for them to be a wholehearted friend? What good is someone who calls themselves your friend one minute and then not the next? What good is a friend who needs you when they are down but disowns you when you are down? Our friendship with Christ needs to be established on truth and understanding. It needs to be open and completely honest. It needs to be close and personal. Without these aspects, we cannot really call it much of a friendship, we cannot call it a wholehearted friendship...
We have learned there is only one God. We know He is the only God who performs miracles in our lives because of His love for us. We know He has created everything and He continues to look after us. We know He is Holy and Just. We know we are not the same, we let Him down, we allow sin into our lives and we often need reminding it is exactly what we are doing. We let sin into our lives and expect to not have to pay the consequences for it!
The only way we are going to be able to steer clear of all the things which will ruin our lives is to trust in the one true friend we have, the one friend who is wholehearted about the relationship, the one friend who never lies to us, never deceives us, never argues with us if we are right. We need to understand our relationship with Christ and we need to allow Him to control our lives more. God is more than willing to teach us, so long as we are willing to listen to Him.
Talking to Him constantly in prayer and being openly honest about everything in your life is the way in which He wants us to be to Him. A good listener is what He wants us to be when He talks to us! Listening to Him as He teaches us to walk in truth and unite our hearts towards Him is just the first step in a long lasting relationship!
Points to Ponder:
How deep are your friendships with your friends?
How deep is your relationship with Christ?
September 14: 1 Kings 18 41-46
Key Verse: 1 Kings 18 43
and said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” And seven times he said, “Go again.”
Devotion:
How often have you thought (or complained) “nobody listens to me”? I bet we can think of many times where others have said that, but we cannot remember too many times when we have complained! We do quickly forget the complaints we have, especially when we know the complaints don't really have a valid point!
Today's passage follows on immediately from Elijah's confrontation with 450 of Baal's prophets where God demonstrated just how He does listen when we are sincere. If you have the time, read the whole chapter, it's fun! Again, in this passage we see God answering prayers for Elijah because Elijah had the uttermost faith God would do exactly what He had said. But it was not a half-hearted “please let it rain” request, but Elijah went down on his knees and continued praying until God did something about it!
Too many times in our lives we ask for things without really meaning it – we even ask for things in tears and seemingly forget about it the next day! What would you be doing if you were on the receiving end of such requests... knowing that the person asking would completely forget about their request after 20 minutes!
God has given us His Word, the bible, so we can know what we should expect. He has given us promises and directions. He continues to keep all of those promises and continues to supply us with directions ... so long as we listen! God wants us to know that just like Elijah, we should have the uttermost faith He is keeping all of those promises and we should depend on that fact! Depending on those promises shows we have faith – what better way of demonstrating our trust in God! Depending on God is exactly what He wants us to do... Do you have the faith to show God you trust Him?
Points to Ponder:
Do you trust your friends to do things for you?
Do you trust God to do things for you?
September 13: Psalms 8 1-9
Key Verse: Psalms 8 4
What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?
Devotion:
Have you ever thought “what am I doing here?” I don't just mean thinking about what we are doing here on earth, but does any one particular instance spring to mind where you found yourself in a strange place or situation and you were not sure why you were there... Just maybe God wanted you to be there; but were you listening to Him to get there?
God is in control of this planet – no matter how much man destroys everything he touches, God continue to be in control. Without Him being in control, the planet would not be orbiting around the sun, nor the moon around the earth. Without Him, our galaxy would not be being held together. He made it all! He made it possible for you and I to be here today! He made it possible for little babies to grow up to be presidents and kings. He gave us the power to rule the world!
God made the sun so we could live! God made the stars so we could find our way at night. God made so much for us – just because He loves us! We don't have to look too much at the world around us to realise that God did in fact create it. We don't have to think too much about the odds of particles colliding and evolution because God is the one who made us... not chance!
The scary part is how He put us in charge of the planet! He gave us the power to rule over the planet like we own it! How are we supposed to be able to do that without some guidance and support from the one who made it? How are we supposed to be able to manage things without support from the creator? God has given us prayer so we can seek advice. He has defeated Satan so we can seek Him freely. He has given us His Word, the Bible, so we can get advice freely. He has given us His Son so we may never have to be separated from Him! Prayer is our direct link to Him!
Points to Ponder:
What do you see when you look in the mirror?
Do you allow God to guide you every day?
September 12: Proverbs 15 7-9
Key Verse: Proverbs 15 8
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, But the prayer of the upright is His delight.
Devotion:
Have you ever been close to someone who thought they knew everything but honestly was more of a liability than anything? If you have not yet, then you are the lucky one! There are times when you will face someone who insists on spreading what they think is knowledge, but in fact is worthless and incorrect information. Being around that sort of person can be quite unsettling; we may even start to question our own stance on the subject simply because they seem to be so knowledgeable.
And then there are some people who seem intent on breaking every rule available. They make out they are having a load of fun by breaking the rules, but in order to try and keep up their popularity, they have to invent more and more deceitful ways in order to keep up (or down) their appearance. Being around that sort of person may seem fun to start with, but ends up being very unsettling and awkward!
If either of the types of people above try to convince you about how good their life is, you may not immediately be able to see through their lives. The sad thing is they probably have convinced themselves they are in the right! Thankfully Christ looks within people and not at our physical appearance. He is able to see through the stories and disguises and knows what is in each one of our hearts.
When we approach Him with our prayers, He is not confused by all the things we say or think; he is not fooled by any lie we tell. He is the author of all knowledge and knows what is on our hearts. The only way we can approach Him is with absolute honesty! No matter what we have done in the time between our last conversation with Him and our next, we need to open our hearts to Him in honesty. If we have problems with understanding things, we need to ask for help. If we have problems with doing things, we need to ask for help. He is willing and He is able! Don’t assume you know everything…
Points to Ponder:
How often do you withhold the truth from friends?
How often have you thought you can withhold the truth from God?
September 11: Romans 8 26-28
Key Verse: Romans 8 28
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Devotion:
If you have got it into your head that you know exactly what you want or need in life, then I think you may well be in for a shock as you find out you are not correct! Many times we get obsessed with the idea we need something which we don’t have. We go all out to be able to achieve our new goal, only to find out when we reach it, there is more that we have not got! We are not fully competent to be able to understand what we need in our lives!
There are passages in the bible where we are told to never judge others (Luke 6 37 says “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:”) because we are not worthy to judge anyone. Well, when it comes down to judging according to God's standard, we are not even worthy of judging ourselves by ourselves! We have to remember we should not expect others to treat us any different to the way we treat them (if only people would realise that!)
Far too often we get caught up in our own feelings and our judgement becomes impaired – but God is a faithful and just God whose judgement is always true and righteous. If we are to want to be anything like Him in our ways, then we have to take lessons from Him in the way we should act. This is always going to be one of the things we will find hard to do!
No matter how bad we are at doing something, as long as we are willing to take lessons from someone, we will be able to learn more and eventually may turn out to be fairly good at it. Prayer is one thing we start out with in life where we just don't know what we are doing. If anyone thinks they do know everything about prayer, then they are assuming they know more than our teacher! Christ made sure we would have a teacher with us from the moment we are saved. Our personal tutor, The Holy Spirit, continues to abide with us, guiding and teaching us... so long as we are willing to listen!
Points to Ponder:
Which lessons do (or did) you like at school?
Do you listen faithfully when Christ teaches you?