August 11: Acts 7 54-58
Key Verse: Acts 7 54
When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
Devotion:
One thing we may well never be able to understand is just why some people get so upset about us being Christians. We are going to meet people who will say all sorts of things behind our backs, yet be unable to say things to our faces. We will meet people who will be bold enough to say things to our faces. And then, if we are unlucky, we may get to meet people who will simply despise us for being a Christian! If we are able to call upon Christ at these stages and trust in Him for protection, then we are worthy of being called a Christian!
Too many times in our lives we do what Peter did and turn round to say we don't know Him when we are faced with a situation where we could be outcast because of our faith. Standing up for Christ is what people need to see from us – they need to see how we have enough conviction to be able to stand up and be counted as a Christian! Without us showing that conviction, how are others supposed to believe we truly believe in what we say we do.
We are told how The Word of God is sharp as a two-edged sword – and that it is! With God's Word we are able to cut down anyone. But if we get to someone who will just not listen to His Word, but reject it all the time, we may well be facing someone who will object to His Word strongly when it counts. Walking away and pretending not to believe in Christ is not the way to approach this sort of situation. Standing fast on God's immovable word is! We will not all have to face what Stephen faced here, but we will get some rejection.
We may face all sorts of excuses about why people don't want to believe in Christ. We will see how people throw things back in our faces to try and say how God's Word contradicts itself – be patient, read a little more and show them the truth. The truth is not hard to find if you are willing to seek it!
Points to Ponder:
How many people know you as a true Christian?
How many people know you are not willing to bend the rules?
August 10: Matthew 5 21-24
Key Verse: Matthew 5 22
But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.
Devotion:
Have you ever thought about the 6th commandment, about what it actually means? At first glance we may see the simple text “Thou shalt not kill”. But when you start to think about what man does before he gets to the stage of killing... just maybe we are all guilty of it!
How many times have you built up anger and other ill feelings towards someone before letting go and giving them a mouthful of what you think they deserve (rightly or wrongly)? When we start to see things going against what we would like to see, we start to build up resentment against that person. The more we see things straying from what we want to see, the more resentment we build up, getting to the stage of being consumed by our ill feelings. It is at that stage we all do something out of character; be it shouting at them or simply telling a lie.
We don't have to look too far into society to see how people are pushed over the edge and commit suicide or harm themselves because of what has happened or been said to them. We don't have to look too far to see people in problematic situations seeking what they think is the easiest way out in desperation... Who or what has pushed them over the edge?
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realise what we do or say to others out of anger can affect them a whole lot more than we first realise. You yourself may have been badly affected by what someone else has said to you. Jesus saw what was in people's hearts and wanted them to clear their hearts so that they could worship with a clean heart, releasing the resentment and anger that was building up within them before it was too late. What we need to do is to ask God to help us in our lives so that we can move on in our lives and heal with His help before we say something that may push someone over the edge...
Points to Ponder:
Who are you the most angry with right now?
How can you diffuse that anger? (Ask God's help)
August 9: Psalms 37 8-9
Key Verse: Psalms 37 8
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret—it only causes harm.
Devotion:
Living with the enemy is hard. If you want to stop yourself from getting mad with your enemy, the worst place you can choose to stay is with them! If you want to be able to keep calm about them, then you should remove yourself from them. That does not mean we must hide our heads in the sand, just not get ourselves involved in the mischief they get up to; for if we do, we are opening ourselves to more than just their ways.
If we start to get worked up about the people around us who are having better lives than we are because of the wicked lives they are leading, then we are going to be tempted to join in with those lifestyles just so we can get a piece of the action! The only way we are going to find rest whilst placed in this wicked world is by making sure we base our feet on solid ground where we can trust someone who does nothing wicked – the only way is to place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
One of your biggest problems when you are young Christians may be being angry with God... Before we find salvation in Christ we tend to fly off the handle at almost anything because that is what we see in the world around us. But when we place our faith and trust in Christ and start to grow with Him, we think this anger is only affecting ourselves – it eats at us from the inside. But what we do not realise (all too often) is that each one of those outbursts affects God as well. We may well be destined for a long afterlife with Him, but we may well be hurting Him with every step here and now!
Each time we allow ourselves to be caught up in the worldly things around us, we take a step away from God. The Holy Spirit stays within us – but each time we sin, we are provoking The Holy Spirit. Each time we give in to sin it is like we are forcing Him into a corner. Each time we are provoked ourselves and react in a bad way, we force Him deeper into that corner until He becomes like a silent partner.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you make yourself heard to your friends?
How often do you ignore God in your life?
August 8: Proverbs 14 29-30
Key Verse: Proverbs 14 30
A sound heart is life to the body, But envy is rottenness to the bones.
Devotion:
Part of our growing up is learning to understand the world and people around us – many times we are going to think we just cannot understand people and what they are doing! But as long as we take notice from what people do and their actions and reactions to things, we can learn about them. The hard part comes from trying to learn about our own actions and reactions – making sure we change when we know we are in the wrong!
Allowing yourself to learn from your mistakes and to apply the wisdom is a good start, but far too often we allow our human nature to step in when we should be looking to God for help. Our human nature is very impulsive and is more likely to break something than to fix or side step it. Having the presence of mind to be able to analyse a situation and to do something about it before it gets out of hand is something we should all strive towards. Almost all the time that means we have to hold back our anger and apply our learning instead. If we can get into the habit of doing this extra step, then we will go a long way to keeping the peace instead of breaking it!
Allowing our passion to get in front of us is only going to get us into trouble. Being able to control it should be our goal. That is one area where we have the most problems – allowing our feelings to break out even before we begin to think about the situation. I'm not just taking about anger, but lust, greed and envy as well. If we allow those feelings to get the better of us, then they are going to be like a cancer which is growing in our bones eating away at us from the inside.
So we stand up and say “I’m strong, I can take it!”... Wrong! No matter how effective and resilient we may think we are, we will never be able to stand up to our own anger, envy, greed and lust without a whole lot of help from the outside – only God can give us that sort of help because only He is able to avoid those sins!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you get angry with others?
How often has your anger taken you away from God?
August 7: Psalms 37 7-8
Key Verse: Psalms 37 8
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret—it only causes harm.
Devotion:
How many times have you asked yourself “why are they so successful when they are so evil?” How many times have you been tempted to join in with a bit of “fun” just so you can enjoy a bit of the success they are enjoying? We may look at some people we know to be evil or at least dishonest and wonder why they can go through their whole life with apparent ease and end up with a whole lot of money and belongings. We may even look at them and think how nice it would be to be in their position for a short while. What we have to remember is how they are getting their success and what is going to happen to them when they die.
Firstly, their success is going to be governed by sin or evil deeds – they live their life a one big lie after another. Just imagine how that must eat at their soul, how that must bother them day by day. They may turn around and say they have no worries, but that will end very abruptly when they begin to think about what they are doing. Secondly, if they continue to live their lives without Christ, then they are going to die without Christ and will end up alongside Satan in hell. What they are doing is enjoying the carnival for a few years and then they will have to pay for the damage and eternal separation from God afterwards.
We should not be burdening ourselves with their lifestyles, nor being envious of their lifestyles – being so would then allow Satan to tempt us day by day until we do give in to his evil ways. Living with one eye on evil allows us to follow evil and to be tempted into doing parts of that evil just so we can join in the fun. If we do follow that route, then we will be amongst those evildoers when they are cut down by the truth... We probably will not even be discriminated from them when they are cut down!
God wants us to live our lives according to His will and to His ways. He made us capable of doing so as long as we keep on the narrow path.
Points to Ponder:
How many successful people do you know who are actually honest?
Satan has the success market pretty well sew up through greed and envy!