May 3: Isaiah 56 1-2
Key Verse: Isaiah 56 1
Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, For My salvation is about to come, And My righteousness to be revealed.
Devotion:
How many times have you been confronted with something unpleasant and you turn round and say something like “why me?” or “why now?”. And how many of those times have others been quick to tell you of the warning signs you should have seen, but ignored! Too many times we leave things to the last minute so we do not have to do things we don't want to. We put off homework. We put off telling someone the truth. We put off confronting someone who is doing wrong. We put off doing God's will.
The prophets and priests around the time of Isaiah (more than 700 years before Christ was born) knew the time was drawing ever closer when the Messiah would come. They taught, wrote things down and preached the truth. Yet most people put off listening to those words. Most people put off following the instructions. Most people were in a state of unbelief thinking nothing was going to happen for a long time (or at least that is what they thought). The instructions were quite simple: “keep judgement”, “do justice”. The reward was great: “salvation”. Yet people chose to ignore the instructions.
We may look back and ask what any of that has to do with us now because Christ has been born, has died and has risen already... It's not the fact that it happened, it’s the fact that people chose to ignore what ultimately came to pass. Today we have a similar problem as people continue to ignore God's Word. People continue to ignore what is going to happen. We do not know when it is going to happen, only that certain things will happen to show us when Christ is returning. Those things are happening now.
We have the whole Bible now which gives us a full history, present instructions and a future look at the world and us. We cannot accept one part and ignore the others. God wants us to be continuing His work all the time, opening others eyes to these facts. He has already shown us what He can do...
Points to Ponder:
How often do you put things off in your own life?
Did Christ put off His death because He did not like it?
May 2: Proverbs 13 19-20
Key Verse: Proverbs 13 19
A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul, But it is an abomination to fools to depart from evil.
Devotion:
How would you rate your happiness on a scale of 1 (not happy) to 10 (ecstatic)? Of that happiness, how much do you attribute to the physical things you have or use? What was your first response to that question? Was it related to the physical world (i.e. what you have done, what you have and what others do for you?) If we were honest, our first reaction to that question is normally what we have physically.
But what God desires for each of us is not the physical happiness first, but the spiritual happiness. Once we have that spiritual happiness, we will find out how He continues to give us the physical pleasures in our life as well. He wants us to be happy in Him and in this world. What we have to be wary of is that we do allow physical pleasures to guide our lives rather than seeking out the spiritual pleasures first. Many around us who do not know Christ will continue to bury themselves in the physical pleasures they think will make them happy. They do this because that is all that they can see as the path to happiness. The last thing they want to do is to turn away from pleasures and physical happiness to try and seek anything else. Unfortunately, their path will not lead to eternal peace.
I like to equate our choices to a town which is full of one way roads. Taking a wrong turning will very quickly lead you away from your destination because you cannot make any U-turns or go back the way you came. Your eyes become focused on the road ahead instead of your final goal. Then you are distracted by all the shop windows as you go past. It is only when you reach the end of the town you realise you were on the wrong path – by then it may well be too late to go back into town and find what you were looking for in the beginning. At the very least you have to try and find one of those one-way streets which lead back into town.
God wants us to listen to our “satellite navigation system” to guide us directly to where He wants us. That guide is our Bible. His Word.
Points to Ponder:
What physical things would make you happy?
Would they help you to get closer to God?
May 1: 1 Peter 1 13-16
Key Verse: 1 Peter 1 16
because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
Devotion:
How many things in your life do you do “just because you do them”? How many things have become a habit and you just continue to do them? How many of those things are Christian related? It is disconcerting to look into your own life and to realise how many things you are doing just because that is what you do...
Christ has given us the instruction we should live our lives in as holy manner as we can – why, because He made us that way. We are the ones who have corrupted our own bodies with the things which we do, not just the physical like smoking or excessive consumption of anything, but spiritually by the consumption of things even when we are not thinking what we are doing...
It is easy to sit back and read a chapter without thinking. It is easy to read a devotion whilst thinking about the day ahead. It is easy to go to church and think about other things whilst the lesson is being preached. But God does not require we just simply read His Word and go to church. He wants us to do all of this in remembrance of Him. He wants us to think about why we are doing everything so we can realise just how much He has done for us already.
It only takes a single realisation for each of us to know that He is God. It only takes a small event for us to realise He is in control of our lives. So why do we then turn back to our old ways and think we have not been born again. When we accepted Christ to be our Saviour, we were born into a new life with Him. Living that life with Him should mean we do it according to how He wants us to live, not according to how we used to live. Christ wants us to leave our old ways behind us to and live our lives the way He designed us to live. Yes, it can be hard! We live in a corruptible world where we are surrounded by all manner of distractions and temptations. Rising above those is only possible when we enlist God's help. Keeping above them is only possible with His constant help – which means we need to live according to His Will so we can stay close to Him at all times.
Points to Ponder:
What habits do you have in your life?
How many of those habit distract you from your Christian life?
April 30: Isaiah 55 1-3
Key Verse: Isaiah 55 1
The Lord says, “Come, everyone who is thirsty — here is water! Come, you that have no money — buy grain and eat! Come! Buy wine and milk — it will cost you nothing!
Devotion:
When God is going to do something, He gives us plenty of warning. We may not think so, but all we have to do is to look back at scripture and read. His faithful servants have recorded His will and His word for many years and we now have all of it gathered together in one book we call the Holy Bible. Why has He done this – so we all can have the same chance of making the same decision; to accept Christ as our Lord and Saviour.
Note how He invites everyone. Not just with a simple welcome, but an exclamation like a town crier standing in the square shouting it out. He invites everyone who “thirsteth”. In other words, we have to want something first. We have to want to follow Him because we know we have something missing in our lives! It does not matter what social standing we are from. It does not matter if we are rich or poor. It does not matter if we are brash or hermits. Christ has given us all that same invitation to receive His Word and His Salvation.
He reminds us the things we surround ourselves with which we assume are necessities, are not. They are in vain when compared to what Christ can give us. All we have to do is to listen to His Word. Listen to His will. Eat what He gives us as food. Drink what He gives us. For there is no better food than what is supplied by God. We may well need normal bread and water to survive as humans, but to live beyond this life, we need to know of His Word. We need to know Him personally.
To do this we should be coming to learn about Him as often as we can. We can only learn a certain amount by reading ourselves, but a whole new world of His is opened to us when we come to listen to the Gospel expounded by His priests. He has chosen certain people to learn more about His Word so they can explain it to the rest of us – just when we need it most. Turning down such an invitation can only be foolish!
Points to Ponder:
Do you still think there is something missing in your life?
How often to you make it out to listen to His Word explained in full?
April 29: 1 Corinthians 6 12
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 6 12
Someone will say, “I am allowed to do anything.” Yes; but not everything is good for you. I could say that I am allowed to do anything, but I am not going to let anything make me its slave.
Devotion:
“It's OK to do this... it's not going to hurt anyone else” may well be a phrase we think when we start to do something we know is not quite right. But, we think, because it is not doing harm to anyone else, it must be ok. Maybe what we are doing is never going to be found out by anyone, so we assume we are safe in doing it. Maybe we think it even help others – even if it is not right...
There are probably many things in our own lives we have done which we are not proud of. We are not going to admit these to others because we know they are wrong. We are not going to do them again, but we have already done them at least once. We may have used an excuse to justify why we had done it at the time. We may even use the law to prove what we have done is not explicitly said to be wrong. But we know it was not right anyway.
We may even have done something just because the law allows us to do it, even though we know it does not follow Christ's teachings. We prove that it is right through the law of the land – therefore why can't it be ok to do it? We are not above the law. None of us are. We live by the law so we do know what is right and wrong. But when that law falls short of what we know is right and wrong, there is no reason to go a bit further just to prove the law is wrong.
I had an interesting conversation with a young girl during a youth club event when we were revising some scriptures together (Psalm 139:2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.). God knows exactly what we get up to. He knows when we stray from the path. He knows when we do things wrong. But He also knows when we think wrong things! (That is when she suddenly went quiet). It may well be lawful to think bad things, but it certainly is not expedient to do so!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you think bad things about others?
How often have you remembered that God is listening?