January 19: Galatians 1 6-10
Key Verse: Galatians 1 10
For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
Devotion:
How many things in your life turn you away from the Gospel? That is a difficult question to answer sometimes because we get tied up in something or other and we slowly wander away from the truth without knowing it; we accept new things and accept different stories and because we like what they have to say we go along with them. What are we to do if we cannot tell the wood from the trees? What should we be doing to try and figure out what is what in our lives?
Some would say that we just need to sit down and read the bible and that will sort it all out. Wrong. Just sitting and reading the bible is going to give us many answers but it will not give us everything we need to fight against the enemy. We are flooded with many different translations of the bible and many different people’s opinions of what the bible actually says that we do tend to get lost on that front as well.
So how do we tell? How do we discern the actual truth? It is clear have a problem that is not going to be as easy as we first thought… As we try to dig deeper into the truth we will find more details and the more information we find the more we may actually get confused. This is where God comes in and it is something we have to learn to do – to trust Him and to trust the Holy Spirit to open our eyes, ears and hearts to the truth God needs us to hear. Start comparing what you hear with the bible. Start digging a bit deeper into the bible and seeing what others are talking about. If you do trust God in your heart then you will begin to be able to discern His truth as He tries to explain it to you.
It’s not going to be an overnight success story where we suddenly wake up totally enlightened. Each of the prophets and apostles we read about in the bible describe a journey they took with God. A Journey where their lives were opened up as they trusted God and left others things behind. No it is not going to be easy. We will have to listen. We will have to fight. We will have to endure. That is life, get used to it; but please continue on and trust God that little bit more each day.
Points to Ponder:
Who do you go to for instruction?
Will you trust God a little bit more today?
January 18: 1 Samuel 3 1-9
Key Verse: 1 Samuel 3 4
that the Lord called Samuel. And he answered, “Here I am!”
Devotion:
I cannot ever remember being told audibly that I should be doing something by God; I say that because I am sure I would remember that! But I can say that I honestly do know I am doing His will in my life now. How? By listening not to the “big loud shouty” voice but the small voice in the quiet that speaks through others people and through God’s Word. I know I am doing God’s will. Not through my life being as easy as pie, but it being in line with what God shows me in His word.
We are not promised we will have everything given to us on a plate or that we will be told verbally which direction to go. We are told that we should seek God’s will in our lives! Samuel may have been the one hearing a voice call out to him and he did not know who it was; but when shown that God works in many different ways, he was willing to listen more carefully and to find out what God was trying to say to Him in that small quiet voice that followed.
God wants us to be obedient to start with. He wants us to believe He is God and we are His servants. He does not want to have to shout at us before we stop and listen. He does not want to have to do anything drastic in our lives before we start listening… but if that is the only way He can get our attention, then we should not be too surprised when we hear Him call in a way we cannot ignore!
Be still and know God. That is not just another saying from the bible but a way in which we should respond to what God is already doing. God is already asking us to stop and listen. He is already putting out the call to many people who simply ignore Him because of all the noise in their own lives. Be still. Stop and listen to Him. He is not shouting but trying to talk to you quietly and lovingly. Listen…
Points to Ponder:
Do you really listen?
Will you stop and listen to God too?
January 17: Exodus 3 11-17
Key Verse: Exodus 3 14
And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
Devotion:
How many times have you doubted God only to be proven wrong and see how powerful He really is? You still waiting? Well don’t give up waiting and don’t ignore all the little things He is doing right here and right now because we may well be missing out on all of the answered prayers whilst we wait for miracles to happen which we can see. We are not all going to have a burning bush experience that changes our lives. We are not all going to have a miracle which makes news headlines around the world; God may just need to answer the simplest of prayers for you at this time…
God chose a single man who had a speech impediment to face up to the power of the Egyptian Pharaoh! It was not Moses’ might, cunning, strength or will power that got them out of oppression! It was God, the great “I AM”. God who has been here from the beginning, holding and supporting His chosen people from the beginning of time, this is the same God we have looking after us now!
There is nothing that is impossible for God. He has given us proof over many centuries, many places, many surroundings… there is nothing God cannot cope with and nothing that will stop Him from helping and looking after us other than rejection. Yes, there is a clause in there… We need to have faith He will do what He has promised and believe it in our hearts. If we continue to reject Him and His ways then we are showing Him we do not really want the help we may be asking for!
When we ask for help from our friends we do not turn round and tell them how stupid they are or how useless they are and still expect them to help us! We trust them to help us and we wait for their help. If we are going to expect God to answer our prayers then we have to believe He is listening to them and will answer them according to our needs. That means trusting He is going to, not just that he can, but expect the result we pray for!
Points to Ponder:
Do you ask with doubts?
Will you ask with confidence?
January 16: Exodus 3 7-10
Key Verse: Exodus 3 9
Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
Devotion:
There are going to be times in our lives when we just cannot see how God could be listening to us because everything seems to pile up and continually go wrong. I am not going to pretend to understand why we should have to go through periods like this nor how we should be able to cope with them; but I can say God has been with man through many difficult times. I have learned not to doubt His presence but to have faith in Him and His presence and to persevere through these hard times.
When God called Moses to go and rescue the people from oppression in Egypt it was not a calling of a huge army to rescue the people but that of a single man to go and face the might and power of Pharaoh! When we call out to God it may not be the help we are expecting but a smaller, quieter help coming from an unexpected source. I cannot presume to have faced anything like the trouble and strife any other people have had to face, but I know He has always been there. I have not got my own desires and wishes, but what I have got is a God who supplied my needs and led me through things in the best direction.
God did not simply open the doors for the Israelites to walk out of Egypt; He closed doors, made Pharaoh mad, made them walk, run and get scared, but made sure they were safe and delivered! You see God is not a God who will give in to us and our lustful desires, but rather a God who knows what we need and gives us according to those needs.
I thank Him daily that I have to face rough times because I know I am strengthened. Do I have to go through those times? No, but if I did not go through them I would not be in the place I am now. If I did not go through them I would not be as fit for the job as I am now. God has not promised us an easy ride nor a safe passage; He promises to supply our needs. A bit different to what we may expect!
Points to Ponder:
What do you ask for?
What are you expecting from God?
January 15: Matthew 18 28-35
Key Verse: Matthew 18 35
“So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
Devotion:
This is one of those parables that some people love to avoid whilst others will try anything to give it as an example; and yet some will take it and say that God cannot love us because of the hatred shown here. If we are honest with our own feelings and the way we live we would probably have to admit to some time in our past when we have wished something bad on someone or taken revenge on someone. But what happens when the people we love to hate actually say sorry and mean it?
Jesus was trying to teach the people around Him that loving others would be difficult at times because not everyone wants to love others. Loving people may seem impossible at times because of how they live. But then again we may be seen as impossible to love because of the things that go on in our heads. Don’t forget that God looks inside the heart and does not just listen to what you have to say. We may be able to pull the wool over some people’s eyes but we will never do that with God.
When we are honest with others we can get ourselves into deep water just by saying what is on our minds; what is on our minds and in our hearts is not always what we say though as we try to filter out the unpleasant looking stuff and hide our true hearts from those around us. God continues to love us no matter what happens in our lives, but that does not mean that He will ignore what we do.
We have this choice as to whether we live a life that will please Him or live a life of total rebellion against Him. If we choose to rebel all the time then we will have to put up with what happens in our lives. It’s not that God will be on our backs all the time because we dare to go against Him, but rather that we will have to put up with the consequences that will happen because God has already warned us of the consequences. We are making a horrible choice and we have no other person to blame but ourselves.
Points to Ponder:
Do you blame others for your errors?
Will you accept your just punishment always?