November 25: Hebrews 11 13-16
Key Verse: Hebrews 11 16
But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
Devotion:
Each one of the faithful followers that we have look over the past week have shown their faith in God by placing their trust in His Word, by believing the things that God spoke. Just as Abraham was promised he would be a father of many, he was. Each one of those people born from his lineage was born to die. Just as there were thousands of stars in the sky, there were thousands of descendants from Abraham. These people were all given a promise of a great land they would receive. Each of these people lived their lives believing they would inherit a great land. Each of these people died before they actually did receive the land. That is because God's promise to them was that the family would receive the land, and they have.
Each of these followers were able to confess that they were nothing without God. Each of them were able to confess they were pilgrims, wanderers, campers here on earth. Each of them were plainly seeking a country as was promised by God. But when their faith faltered and they turned from God, they lost sight of the way they should have been heading.
Nowadays our eyes are no longer focused on reaching the Promised Land here on earth, but should be focused on the Promised Land in heaven. God has promised us a place in heaven for each of us that accept Him as our Saviour.
We all look forward to that place where we will no longer have to hide our faith, no longer have to hide our love for Christ and no longer have to be ashamed of loving God. That may sound harsh, but just like Peter, we are all under strain and when push comes to shove, many of us fail to uphold the truth. Many of us feel like our faith crumbles.
Points to Ponder:
Can you always focus on God when earthly possessions surround you?
Will you trust in God’s faithfulness?
November 24: Hebrews 11 11-12
Key Verse: Hebrews 11 11
By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.
Devotion:
Sarah stood by Abraham all the time, doing what was required and staying close to God. She too, though, had her lapses of faith. When she was in the tent, preparing the meal (Genesis 18 10-14) for the three 'strangers', she heard one of them say she would have a child and laughed inwardly. The reason why she laughed was because she knew she could no longer physically have children because she was too old. At least, that is what she believed.
Once again, God had spoken, and someone had doubted. Once again a miracle had been spoken of and man had doubted the miracle. It was only a short time later God's promise was seen to come true (Genesis 21 1-2) when Sarah indeed gave birth to a son; and she was a little bit older than when she was told of the birth!
Can you think back to the days when your parents would accuse you of doing something even though you were absolutely sure they would never find out that you actually did it? And when they confronted you, you would insist you had not done anything. Somehow, they just seemed to know! But when you grow older you realise is was not such a hard job to spot the things you did wrong because they were so blatant! God is with us all the time, and even though we think our parents see just about everything, God can see what we do all the time. There is no way we can hide anything from God at any time. We may like to think that we can, but we cannot.
The sooner that we can accept that, the sooner we will be able to understand why it is so important that we do things right and believe Him. But in order to do things right, we have to accept God into our lives. Without God, we are not able to resist the temptations that surround us. Without God, we are not really strong enough to live our lives. Without God, we are nothing.
Points to Ponder:
Are you able to intentionally lie without knowing it as a lie?
How can God lie if He knows everything?
November 23: Hebrews 11 8-10
Key Verse: Hebrews 11 10
for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Devotion:
You may look at some of the people from the past and say “But I have never been without some doubt, I have always doubted, I have always done things wrong... what hope is there for me!”
Abraham was a man of God. When God told him to go into the lands that he did not know, he went. He continued south until he reached Egypt, where his faith grew a little weary. Abram (Abraham) told Sarai (Sarah) that when they entered into Egypt, they should say that they were brother and sister so that Abraham would not be killed for his wife. This was just after being told by God that he would be the father of many people. There was still doubt. Abraham's faith faltered a little and he “just wanted to be sure” that he would stay alive.
When God tells us something, it is the truth. No matter how hard it is to believe, it is the truth. Just like Noah put his faith in the unseen, in the unbelievable... we have to put our faith and trust in God. Many times it will be real easy to believe what God tells us through the Bible. All we have to do is to look at the world around us and we can see the difference between good and evil. We can see the evil people try to take things they do not have. We see the good and grateful people accept things they do not deserve.
We can look at the wonderful sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and begin to understand His love for us was so great that He was willing to lay His life down for us. We can begin to understand the truth as it was told many years before the coming of Jesus, came to pass when Jesus came to earth in human form and is now our promise for the future. We can begin to understand that when God says He will do something, He does it! It just takes faith…
Points to Ponder:
Would you believe God if He said you would become king, queen or president next year?
What would it take for you to trust God totally?
November 22: Hebrews 11 7
Key Verse: Hebrews 11 7
By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Devotion:
What would you do if someone told you that there was going to be a period ahead where grass was going to be constantly falling out of the sky for 40 days and nights; and the grass was going to grow exceedingly quickly out of the ground until everything was covered and we would not be able to see each other because it was that deep? I think enough things would die under the weight of all that grass to make us stop and wonder why on earth it was all happening! How would you plan to escape such an event if you did not have time to plan for it at all?
I guess you would think that person was stark raving mad! You can imagine what the people thought of Noah at that time before the flood. It had never rained before, so they did not know that water could fall out of the sky! I bet they never imagined that something that gave them all life could be used against them to kill them all.
But Noah did not have to be told over and over again about what was going to happen. Noah listened to God, even though he probably did not understand the gravity of the situation at first. Noah had absolute faith in God that He would deliver Noah and his family from the judgement that was about to cover the entire planet. Noah trusted that God knew what He was asking.
Nobody had yet built a vessel as large as God was asking for. Nobody had ever tried to take such a diversity of animal life on a single boat before. Nobody had ever imagined that there would be a time where there would be no docking place on the whole planet for the boat. Noah listened to God, did what was asked of him, put his faith and trust in the unknown and God kept His word. Sometimes we don’t understand how God can help; we just have to trust Him.
Points to Ponder:
If someone asked you to put your head inside a lions mouth, would you?
God does not ask you to do anything silly!
November 21: Hebrews 11 5-6
Key Verse: Hebrews 11 6
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Devotion:
It is said the only things in life that are certain are taxes and death. We know, as humans, we are going to die someday; we know our life expectancy is around 85 years. And yet when we are young, we believe we are going to live forever and do all sorts of things that are contrary to a long life. We go out and do things which we look back on as absolutely mad!
But as we read through our Bibles, we find there were some people who lived good, long and productive lives, living them for Christ and gaining rewards through Christ. Enoch, born of Jared, lived a good 365 years. We could never imagine living that long, simply because our bodies break down so much faster now than they did in Enoch's time. But notice how God took Enoch (Genesis 5 18-24) before Enoch actually died.
God was so impressed by Enoch's faith and life, He spared Enoch the fate that awaits us all. As we read through Genesis 5, we find that before and after Enoch, people still died as they have continued to do so. Yes, they are all recorded as living longer lives, but they all did die in the end. Every other person on the planet at that time came under God's judgement and fell under the flood apart from Noah and his family.
Without our faith in Christ, it is no possible to please Him. Not back in the times before the flood, and not now, and not in the future! Every person that comes to God must believe God does exist, God lives, and He is a great rewarder of every one that seeks Him all the time. Enoch managed to find that reward by diligently seeking God at all times.
Points to Ponder:
How often have you been late because you lost something?
Are you seeking things which don’t really matter in life?