August 6: Psalms 5 2-8
Key Verse: Psalms 5 8
Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies; Make Your way straight before my face.
Devotion:
One of the hardest things to do is to work out what is right or wrong with our own love for others... until we stand back and have a long look at where we are with Christ. Far too often we start to drift away from Christ and we find out our relationships are affected in ways we did not see.
Love is one of those things which we have to make sure we have throughout our lives, not just in the parts where we think it belongs or where we think it needs to be. Christ would show this all the time with the way He would show His love to all around Him, both Jews and Gentiles. He would not let things stand in His way – something which we find almost impossible because of our nature. But this does not mean we have an impossible task! Our love just needs to be directed by God and not by us.
We will never know the meaning of true love until we are with Christ in heaven – and until then we would be wise to allow Christ to lead us in our earthly feelings through The Holy Spirit and not to try and guide ourselves. Our feelings are far too selfish to be able to make sense of. Our love, if not held up to The Lord, will consume us. Our selfishness will then take us away from Christ and our walk with Him then becomes broken. If we hold Him first in our lives and continue to be led by Him, then He will make sure we are able to love others and to be loved by others too.
So when we try to separate their love from Christ's love, what we are doing is separating ourselves from God. We are His people and withholding love from any one of our brethren is just the same as withholding our love from Him. Trying to love without loving Him first is simply not love at all. He tries to remind us how our love should be pure – as it has to be with Him. He tries to remind us how our love needs to be secure – as it is with Him. And He tries to remind us that His love is everlasting...
Points to Ponder:
Do you think your love is different to everyone else's?
Have you taken it to Christ first?
August 5: 1 John 2 7-11
Key Verse: 1 John 2 10
He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
Devotion:
Sometimes we may think love is something which has grown up with mankind and even how we probably invented it some time in the distant past. We may even think we are the ones who understand it more than some others. We may think we have never found it. We may think we have found and lost it. Whichever predicament we are in, we are not alone!
Love is something that has been around all the time and even before time began because true love was and is and will forever be with God. Our love is very short and has so many pitfalls when compared with Him. Jesus reminded the Apostles how love should be an integral part of their lives and how without it, they themselves would be lost. John reminds us of this fact just as Jesus had done before.
We need to have love in our life because without it we are lost. We need to experience love so we can know how Jesus' love for us is far and above anything we can experience from others around us. We need to see that even though we may think love around us is worth a whole lot more, we will still meet the pitfalls and errors within this earthly love – things we will never have to face with Jesus' love for us!
True love cannot stop with just those people we wish to love, but must go forward for all people. We cannot discriminate between people otherwise they will do the same with us. If we are to show someone we love them, then they need to know that love will never end. If we say we love Christ, but don't love all those Christians around us, then we are placing stumbling stones in front of them and us. We may find our love has its ups and downs and we get let down by people from time to time – but without those times we will not know how much more Christ love us. It is better to have experienced love and lost so we know Christ's love for us is true and does not bend in the wind like ours does!
Points to Ponder:
How many people would you say you do really love?
Christ's love was shown on the cross for the whole of mankind!
August 4: Isaiah 64 1-5
Key Verse: Isaiah 64 4
For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.
Devotion:
No matter how much we get to know and love other people, it does not really change ours or their earthly intelligence. We have a certain ability which comes through earthly intelligence – some have used it to produce amazing things in their lives such as nylon or even atomic and nuclear energy. But what good is it all when we have but a short time to live on this planet. We can see the amazing jumps in technology which have been made in the last century – computers which can work faster than anyone imagined, and are smaller than any science fiction writer had imagined... But what becomes of this all when we die?
Man has been able to pass on knowledge from generation to generation by writing books, teaching and learning. That knowledge is spread through all walks of life and through all subjects. With the Internet, phones, radio and television, that knowledge can spread faster than we can talk, further than we had ever imagined and to many more people than we had imagined. But again, where does it all go? What use is it going to be if we are not learning the right things? What use is it going to be if we do not live forever?
No matter how much we can think of; we are restricted by what we know now. We have not seen, heard or thought of any of the things which God has prepared for us because of His love for us. We cannot even begin to imagine what He has in store for us. We may start to think about the amazing world He has given for us now – a world He has given to a sinful mankind – imagine what He would give to us when we are made perfect so we can live with Him!
We cannot see or imagine any of this without The Holy Spirit showing it to us. We would never have any explanations as we do in The Bible without God showing it to the Apostles. It is only through Him we can begin to see what wisdom is all about. It's not what we can do, but what He can do for and through us!
Points to Ponder:
How intelligent do you think you are compared to others?
Compare your intelligence as being the earth in the whole universe of God!
August 3: Philippians 1 9-11
Key Verse: Philippians 1 9
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment
Devotion:
You may hear people talk about “learning to love someone”, but have you really thought about what it means – or what it should mean. We often will get annoyed with people because they do not do exactly what we think they should be doing without thought for what they would like to do. We do this through our own selfishness or pride instead of bending a little to accommodate them into our lives.
What we should not be doing is bending in our lives just to please people if it is going to take us away from God. That is far too easy! We will quite often get caught up in our lives and ways and leave out the one who should come first in everything – God! We do it because we may want to be more popular or ever to win the affection of someone we like – but in doing that we are hurting the one who should mean most to us in our lives.
But you don't learn about these sort of thing unless you read about them in God's Word, or unless you experience them for yourself (both in good or bad ways). We are able to learn from our mistakes and to make sure we apply what we have learned. What use is all God's instruction if we are not going to listen to it! Learning how to love someone whilst walking with Christ in your life is not easy unless you are willing to listen to and apply the knowledge which The Holy Spirit is giving you all the while.
If we are able to listen to Him, we will be able to discern between what is good and bad in our lives as well as in our friends lives. We will be able to help others walk closer to God – assuming that is where we are walking! We will be able to encourage others to find the love of Christ – as long as we are showing them we have found it. We will be able to show them brotherly love is a strong relationship between friends and encourage them to know their relationship with Christ can be even stronger than a simple friendship. Above all we should be doing this all to make sure Christ comes first in all of our lives!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you bend the rules to please friends?
How often do you say NO because that is what God wants you to do?
August 2: Galatians 5 13-18
Key Verse: Galatians 5 14
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
Devotion:
How many times have you asked your parents if you can do something, but not told them the whole truth about what it is you actually want to do? We are given many rights in our lives, but if we stretch those rights beyond their real or legal limits, then we are not sticking to them – we may as well just go about breaking the rules – but what good would we be to anyone if we were to do that?
Christ has given us freedom – a freedom from the death which is pending due to our sin nature we started with. Using that freedom against Christ is purely against His Law no matter how we look at it! Christ has Himself given us the commandment to love our neighbours as ourselves – we need to make sure we treat others in the same manner as we expect others to treat us. Corruption within our Soul is literally soul destroying; just like a corrupt government or nation will bring itself to its own knees, so will we.
The only way we are going to clean up our acts is if we start by cleaning ourselves from the inside. There is no way we can do that ourselves due to our uncleanness. This is why we require Christ as our Saviour. When we accept Christ is our Saviour, He ensures we are cleansed from all unrighteousness at that very point in time. He ensures we start will a clean slate and we have a fair chance at moving in the right direction. The choice we have is what to do after we accept Him as Saviour.
The Holy Spirit will be desperately trying to guide us through the minefields which we walk through each day; most probably cringing each time we take another step forward with our eyes closed! It is far too easy for us to return to our sinful ways and continue without care for others. Taking a stance and standing up for those around you in Christ's name may be the hardest step to take, but you will never look back after that first step!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you try ignore people in need?
How often do you try to ignore God's warnings?