July 3: Psalms 66 8-12
Key Verse: Psalms 66 12
You have caused men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water; But You brought us out to rich fulfilment.
Devotion:
No matter what happens in our lives we should be willing and able to worship God and praise Him for all He does and allows into our lives. Paul continued to tell others he was able to praise God even though he had been through so much and even done so much against God in the beginning. He did this because he knew it to be true after much experience!
The psalmist here encourages us all to praise God and to bless Him for all He allows into our lives. He admits God does allow hardships into our lives but qualifies them to say it is for our own betterment. How can we say this when it looks like we just get horrible things happening without the promise of release or any sign of the hardships letting up. When we study things a bit more closely we will see that God does not let us fall flat on our faces but rather gives us opportunity to grow through learning and through building up.
The psalmist describes it as if God does not allow our feet to falter even when we are going through the roughest patches. He extends this by describing how God uses the harsh times to make us stronger describing it in terms of us being refined in a fire. Just as a fish is cornered and cannot escape a fishing net, so we seem to get into trouble from which there seems to be no escape for us. Even through all of this, God remains with us!
What happens is that we learn from the hardships we go through – that is as long as we do listen to what happens and learn from what goes on around us. If we ignore the trials and just expect God to fix everything we are not gaining all He is giving to us. God does want us to learn about the bad things in life but wants us to come out stronger and richer than when we went into them. Trust God. Listen to God and grow stronger each step with Him.
Points to Ponder:
Do you blame God when things go wrong?
Do you ask God to show you how to learn?
July 2: Judges 11 29-31
Key Verse: Judges 11 31
then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.
Devotion:
If you were going to make a promise to someone would you think seriously about whether you would be able to keep the promise before making it? If someone was going to make a promise to you, would you expect them to keep the promise no matter what? Jephthah made a deal with God saying that he would sacrifice whatever or whomever came out of the door of his house to meet him upon his return so long as God gave him victory over the people of Ammon.
You may read a few verses further on to find out who came out of the door to meet him and wonder just how God would allow this to happen. The person who came out to meet him on his return was his only child, his daughter! Now you start asking questions… How can God expect you to carry out your promise when it is your only child? How can God be so cruel as to allow Jephthah’s daughter to be the one to come out of the door to start with?
I have been struggling with what to write about this passage because it just seems so negative and I was looking for something positive to write to encourage people, but God led me to this passage for a reason. Why would God allow something so bad to happen? Well, it is not always God’s fault! We are the people who take the desires of our hearts, the lust of our eyes and want our own ways. We are the ones who twist those wants and desires until something breaks.
God is just and faithful to deliver on all promises made and to answer our prayers as we ask them. I have found out that God answers prayers in spite of us asking. I have found out I have to ask properly or accept the consequences of asking in error. You see, nothing is impossible with God and when we ask we need to expect our prayers to be answered as we ask them!
Points to Ponder:
Do you think about your prayers?
What will you do when God requires you to keep your promise?
July 1: 2 Timothy 4 1-5
Key Verse: 2 Timothy 4 5
But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.
Devotion:
In this second letter to Timothy, the apostle charges him before Christ with preaching the Gospel to everyone. He does this before Christ because it is only Christ who will be able to judge us based on the fact He paid for our sins on the cross with His own life. But it is not just a simple Gospel message we should be reading out to people; God wants us to expound on the word by studying it and using it as an effective evangelical tool to convict people in their hearts.
Preaching is not just something we do on a Sunday or on the Sabbath but something that should be constant and continual so that it continues the work when we are not speaking. The problem comes with mankind spreading a watered down version of God’s Word or a corrupt version in which man’s own desires are met rather than the requirement from Christ. When we lift up our own ways instead of Christ’s ways we are in fact breaking the one things Christ says we should never break – His own words.
When we look over our Bibles and start thinking we can bend the rules a little here or there just so we can have our own ways, we are lifting up our own ways instead of Christ’s ways. The more we think we can do our own thing the more we want to go off and do our own thing. This is like setting your mind at doing something difficult and then getting itchy feet at the thought of having to do the hard work.
Don’t let your desires get the better of you or your convictions. Make sure that Christ’s ways are held up high and held fast as the truth. When we bend the truth we are no longer telling the truth but hiding it behind our ways and our desires instead. A fairy story may seem like a really good story, but it is only a fairy story and not real. We need to make sure we stick with Christ’s teaching and uphold His truth before all else!
Points to Ponder:
Do you make your own rules?
Do you really think your ways will change the actual truth?
June 30: 1 Samuel 25 32-25
Key Verse: 1 Samuel 25 33
And blessed is your advice and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand
Devotion:
What does it take to stop you from being angry toward other people? When someone makes you so cross you do something out of character and just want to end up doing something which cannot be viewed as good in any books, what would it take to calm you down again? Now think for a while and come up with a time when you happened to make someone else really mad; what did you do to calm things down again?
Some of the most important things in our lives is to know humility, humbleness and honesty. Humility in knowing when we have done wrong and to be willing to admit to doing things wrong. Humbleness in coming down to earth and being willing to do something about it. Honesty in knowing you have done wrong and sharing that with others. Yes all three are difficult and the more angry we get the more difficult it is to have any one of those in our lives.
God continues to try and get us to admit to our faults, but unless we are willing to humble ourselves before Him and before others we are not going to get very far in admitting things. The more we hold on to the anger and the worry, the more we will find it impossible to bring back love into our lives.
It is no secret that God wants us to love each other but in order to love others we have to be able to be honest, humble and show humility. Without these we fail to uphold all God teaches us and we fail to live our lives for Christ. Jesus came to show us what it means to love, the show mercy, to humble Himself and to make a difference. If we want to make a difference we have to start with our own lives and how we affect others through our own actions and reactions. Stop and think. Make a difference!
Points to Ponder:
What makes you cross?
Do you think you make God cross?
June 29: Proverbs 11 16-18
Key Verse: Proverbs 11 17
The merciful man does good for his own soul, But he who is cruel troubles his own flesh.
Devotion:
Sometimes I look at the Bible and wonder how people cannot see how it applies to life today just as it did when it was written. When we look at the words written down in whatever language we read our Bibles in we must remember the original text was not written down in our language as we know it today. Have a look through these three verses again and try to put yourself in a time when they would have been written.
No matter how you look at it, whether you are a man or a woman, a gracious person will always retain their honour whilst one who is not gracious will gladly lose it for the gain of riches or something else. It is the lust for other things in life which will take over and honour leaves the room; which is why our Bibles tell us it is the lust for money which will bring us down.
When we focus on the things of this world and allow them to come first in our lives we lose sight of the very thing Christ reminded us of – that love is at the very centre of our lives and our Bibles. When we focus on love just as Christ says we should, our souls are revived and lifted up. But when we focus on the deceit and other cruel intentions which flood the world, we fill our souls with all of those rotten things. What chance do our physical bodies have when all of our thoughts and emotions are filled with anything but love?
The more we allow those bad things into our lives the more they will control the way we think, act and even talk. This is why Christ warned us to follow the ways of righteousness and not the ways of the world. No matter what language you read your bible in, no matter which translation or tradition you will relate to the sentiment God is trying to put back into our lives – love your neighbour and make a difference today!
Points to Ponder:
Do you judge people before you know it?
Will you follow Christ’s instructions?