May 24: Psalms 27 1-5
Key Verse: Psalms 27 1
The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?
Devotion:
I read a lovely tweet yesterday which said the more you rely on God the more you will want to rely on Him! There is so much truth in that statement even though it is just that and not actually from our bibles. So today we get reminded of just how marvellous God’s love and protection over us are. We remember just how powerful God is and begin to see nothing in this world is able to take us away from God. Yes there are plenty of temptations which will get us confused and we will walk away from God, but nothing can snatch us away from God!
When we do call out to Him, He listens and answers. Israel continued to see how much God protected them, how many battles were won by God and how much they could rely on God for everything… and yet they still chose to walk away from God because they stopped thinking about all God was doing and started thinking about all they could desire.
David continued to see so many cases where God protected him and hid him from his enemies; sometimes that was not immediately apparent to David, but upon reflection David could see it. Too often we get caught up in the excitement of everything around us and we lose sight of all God is doing in our lives. We lose sight of the protection, the encouragement, the blessings and even the guidance. All of which are constantly available to us when we seek God in our lives.
As long as we continue to focus on the fact that we have a place in Heaven with Christ because He paid for it and He is there making sure it is ready for us. Knowing this is true should give us the incentive we need to keep going and to always seek God and His protection. And when the going does get tough, God will be merciful to hide us from anything we cannot handle so we can always depend on Him.
Points to Ponder:
What things worry you in life?
Do you allow God control of these things?
May 23: Isaiah 60 17-22
Key Verse: Isaiah 60 20
Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.
Devotion:
How would you try to describe something you have not seen before? How would you describe something that has only been described to you? Or what if you were able to see something you have never seen the like of before and then asked to describe it? We would try to take what we know and make comparisons to those things so we could try and shed some light onto what we saw or heard about.
One thing I struggle with is the ability to describe the way people are. I could probably make up descriptions of what people looked like and would be reasonable at face recognition or rebuilding, but to try and describe what they are like as a human or spiritually is quite difficult for me to do. We all have our own ways of seeing things and describing things. Physical mineral objects may be easier for me to describe because I could relate what I see to what I have seen in the past and this is what Isaiah is doing here to a certain extent.
Being able to describe what tomorrow will be like is always going to sound subjective; but when Isaiah was given insight into how God would make this world and heaven like, he then had to come up with some way of describing things for others to get the picture from. So he takes the things of the time and tries to explain how they could be better so we can get the idea heaven is going to be that much better than anything we know now.
But then Isaiah goes on to describe something new – the fact we will not have to depend on physical light but will be engulfed with God’s magnificent light instead. Now we may not be able to comprehend this sort of thing, we can all (those who can see at least) describe how beautiful things can be based on the light we know. Suffice to say, God is creating us a place which we will find very special and one which will be better than any dreams we have…
Points to Ponder:
How would you describe Heaven?
How do you describe God?
May 22: Isaiah 41 8-10
Key Verse: Isaiah 41 10
Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’
Devotion:
Isaiah’s word came from God to all of the servants of Christ – which is all of us! Isaiah did not say this was only Jacob or Abraham or whomever else, but included all those who are descendants from the people called out by God to be servants. Servants are those who are given a task to do and should keep to that task or lifestyle because that is how they were first called. We were born to worship God and to lead others to Him through His word; that is actually our remit!
We have been chosen as these servants from all over the land and not just from one corner of the world. God has said we are His servants because He has chosen us to be so; He has not cast us aside and forgotten us but has remembered us all the time making sure we have the right support in place at the right time to be effective servants who can lead others to God.
We are certainly not alone when we are called. Christ has given us His word saying “I am with you always” and upholds that word wherever we are. God is everywhere but remembering He is actually with us is not always on our mind. It should be! He is God and we are here because of and for Him!
If we are willing to rely on Him for our guidance we will find out just how much He does do for us; not how much He can do, how much He does do! We can look back on the life of Jesus and see how much was accomplished because God was always with Him and He listened to God every step of the way. We can look at the lives of the apostles and find out how much their lives were changed because they relied on Christ and did not go anywhere without Him. Let us never set foot out of our houses without knowing Christ is right there by our sides!
Points to Ponder:
Do you get worried about working for God?
Do you expect Christ by your side?
May 21: Mark 16 19-20
Key Verse: Mark 16 20
And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
Devotion:
I love the way this book finishes by showing us the apostles went out and did as the Lord had commanded; but it was not just them going out, it was them going out and demonstrating the power of Christ through prayers, preaching and signs. In other words they did not go out alone, even though Christ was now sitting in Heaven on the right hand of God the Father, they were not alone. This is the same amazing promise we have with Christ – we are not alone!
Being able to go forward and be confident enough to know Christ is with us does not take a huge amount of faith. It is not only reserved for apostles or people who have been blessed in the right manner – this is the same for every person who will go out in the name of Jesus Christ! That means all of us! Paul demonstrated the Gospel needed to go out to all people and not just the Jews. The disciples supported him and made sure he knew it as well. Jesus blessed them and lifted them up with each step of faith they took, from that first tony step of faith to every step that followed.
Jesus is the same today as then. He is still in Heaven and yet He still comes out with us everywhere we go carrying His name forward. It is not as if Christ is asking all of us to lay down our own lives on a cross to declare Him as God, He is just asking us to take His name with us wherever we are willing to go. Allow Him to guide you and give you the words to speak to others. Allow Him to give you the strength and courage to go forward. Allow Him to be with you!
When we do take the simple step forward and allow Christ to be with us, He will make sure we are effective and will make sure we can give Him the glory which He so richly deserves. Don’t try to go out and do it all yourself otherwise you are leaving Christ behind. Take Him with you and allow Him to work through you. Stop stopping Christ from being effective!
Points to Ponder:
Do you go out and do things?
Are you allowing Christ to work?
May 20: Acts 4 32-37
Key Verse: Acts 4 32
Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.
Devotion:
I think one of the most amazing things I have found about the love Christ has allowed me to share with others is that I want to share everything with them and not just Christ’s love. When God implants that love of His in my heart for others I do tend to share whatever I have with them and to do it without thinking about what I can get out of it afterward. The word sharing does imply that it is a two way exchange, but I know that God is directing us to be open with our gifts to others.
When Barnabas sold his land he came and laid the money at the feet of the apostles for them to do with it what they could. He did not make a contract with the apostles nor say he wanted interest or to be supported by them; he simply came and laid what was gained in front of the apostles. It does not say this made him feel really good, nor does it say he had to do this because he was a Levite. Think about it.
We tend to take a look at other people and try to size them up before we are willing to give to them. On the other side of the spectrum we have people begging because they want enough to give to others or to support others. Doesn’t this seem a bit messed up compared to this passage from the book of the Acts of the Apostles? Doesn’t this seem like the world has lost the plot somewhere along the line? It is not the world that has lost its way but each one of us who have made an active choice to do otherwise.
I’m not saying we should all sell everything we have and go and share all we have with everyone – who would buy what we have to sell? I’m not saying we should give everything up and live in one big commune. We still live in this world and most of us will still have to work to make a living; but when we do earn money we can share it with others if we make that choice. When we see our fellow Christians in a spot of trouble or having difficulties in their lives we should be more than willing to stand up and say “here I am, let me help.”
Points to Ponder:
How much do you love God’s children?
Will you do what God asks of you?