December 15: Isaiah 8 19-20
Key Verse: Isaiah 8 20
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
Devotion:
One of the things you can be sure of in life is that there will always be someone trying to convince you to go off and do something else… It is not because the world is full of evil people but rather that the world has many people who simply do not know the truth and who will grasp at anything that sounds good. Being able to test the difference between something that sounds good and something that is actually good does not always come easily to us. We are easily led astray at times because our minds are seeking things which sound good – after all why should we not try to get the best in life?
God wants us to have the best in life but not so that we are drawn away from Him or drawn into deceit or greed. He wants us to be able to enjoy the best that He gives us because those are the things in life which will be best for us!
There will be many people who will try to convince you of different ways in which we can get hold of other beings, spirits, those who have died before us and many other unseen things; but these are the ways in which Satan can convince us to follow his ways instead of God’s ways. God has tried to show mankind throughout history that there is no other gods. He has given it to us in writing and continues to show us how He is in control of everything, but as soon as we hear of some other unseen force we give it a go to see if it will make a difference. How vain we are.
God’s Word shows us the truth and He has given it to us via the prophets before us and those teachers around us now. If we listen we will learn. If we reject the word we will continue to reject Christ and reject God. There is no value in the false religions or the false gods of this world. There is only one Creator God and we need to realise this up front before we get enticed to follow some strange ways. Allow God to light your path.
Points to Ponder:
Is your faith steady?
What rocks your faith?
December 14: 1 Thessalonians 5 16-24
Key Verse: 1 Thessalonians 5 21
Test all things; hold fast what is good.
Devotion:
How many things have you thanked God for today? How many creature comforts do you enjoy and yet don’t give thanks for all the time? I know that I do not always thank God for all that He gives me and it is verses like these which remind me to do so! God is good! Even when we have what seems to be an overwhelming tide of bad things coming into our lives, we should still be able to find time to thank God for those few things in between that make a big difference. It may just be that single moment when you saw someone today that you have been praying for or thinking about.
Praying has got to be one thing we keep up constantly with as it is the means by which we allow God to know our wants and needs. Whilst we can always know that He knows our innermost thoughts anyway, we need to lift up our prayers to make sure we remember it is God who is answering them. If we do not pray we are taking God for granted and not recognising just how much He does for us behind the scenes!
God wants to be able to work through us and to do that we need to listen to Him; the Holy Spirit indwells us and wants to work with us, not forcing us to do things against our will, but willing us to change our ways to fall in line with God’s ways. Once we realise God’s ways we can live more for Him and less for our own selfish selves. Don’t push the Holy Spirit into a corner in your life but allow Him to flourish and change your life.
God has shown us all of the prophecies that came to man before Christ came to be with us; they all came true and changed the world. Don’t continue to put down prophecies of what is to come in the future because God is showing us this is what will happen, not what might happen. But always test what others say to make sure it does agree with God’s ways. The evil one is sly and will use all manner of strange ways to entice us to follow him instead of God. Don’t be a fool and follow the foolish ones, but stick with God and follow the Holy Spirit’s teaching.
Points to Ponder:
Are you a good listener?
Are you listening to yourself or God?
December 13: Psalms 3 3-4
Key Verse: Psalms 3 4
I cried to the Lord with my voice, and He heard me from His holy hill.
Devotion:
We have so many accounts of how God has protected people when they have called out to Him in our bibles; we should be taking this protection as a fact and not something we have to read up about to try and encourage ourselves. But many do not rely on God’s protection all the time. David had his ups and downs and certainly had to cry out to God to make sure that he was going to get the protection he was asking for. When David cried out he would probably have remembered all that God had done for him in the past and realised that this call would be answered just like the previous calls for help.
What seems to be uncertain in our own minds is the timing or whether God will answer or whether we are asking the right stuff or… well, the list could go on and on if we thought about it. What we do need to know is that God is going to answer our calls for help at the right time and the right place. If we are willing to rely on that help and not to forget about our calls for help but bring them to mind at all times, then we will see just how much God does answer our pleas!
Just because we worship a God whom we cannot physically see and one that is far separated from us (or at least it may seem like that from our point of view), does not mean that He is leaving us alone or leaving us to fend for ourselves. I love the ‘footprints’ poem as it describes how God will carry us when we falter; and that is what He tries to do. But if we are squirming around because we are not trusting Him totally, that makes it harder for Him to hold on to us.
A young baby will totally trust their parent and rest comfortably and securely in their arms. But give them to a stranger and they may well start to cry out and wriggle around. We need to trust God as our heavenly father just as a young baby trusts and expects the safety from their parents.
Points to Ponder:
Do you wriggle in God’s arms?
Are you really trusting Him?
December 12: Isaiah 60 19-22
Key Verse: Isaiah 60 19
The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; but the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory.
Devotion:
What a wonderful place we can look forward to when Christ is reigning in person once again. Imagine not having to put up with darkness! I know many people get down and depressed with the very short winter days and long nights, not to mention the cold and wet! So imagine being able to be in light and warmth all the time…
The best part of all of this is the fact we have Christ as our Saviour right now and do not have to wait until His return. We can know the joy and peace He gives us without having to see the end of the earth or whatever else lies ahead for us on His return. We do not have to wait until any big and drastic event before we can know Christ as our Saviour. I love the fact that He is here for one and all and all we have to do is to believe in Him and to call on His name!
I know, as it comes up to Christmas, many people are thinking about the presents they will get and many are asking for the stuff they want. But imagine what it would be like to ask for something you really need and having that gift delivered to you just at the time you need it most of all! God loves us in a very real way and He is not going to hold back things from us just because we have done something wrong in the past. But equally don’t expect to be given everything you ask for just because you have kept the commandments as best you can!
Christ is not going to check if you have been good enough before He will give you the gift of eternal life; Christ gives us the gift of eternal life if we believe in Him. He is not going to take away that gift just because you go ahead and break His Commandments. God is just. That means that His promises are exactly that, promises which will not be broken. Believe in Him and trust in Him because He is faithful above all.
Points to Ponder:
What do you look forward to?
Do you try to bargain with God?
December 11: John 15 26-27
Key Verse: John 15 27
And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
Devotion:
John was the witness that God provided to tell the people of the coming of the Messiah. John was only about 6 months older than Jesus so was not there to tell people that Jesus was going to be born; that was the job given to the angels. John was telling people they had to repent and be baptised, to give up their old lives and live a new life with Christ. John was preparing the way for Jesus to come in as preacher and King.
The disciples had been with Jesus for most of His ministry and hence had enough knowledge to be able to pass on the news of Jesus to many people. Much of this was going to be done after Jesus had died and risen again because that would be the time when they would be able to go out with the message; learning more each day whilst they were with Him. We do need to be able to spend time with God and learn what He has in store for us before we go out and tell others, but we should not stop just because we think we do not know enough.
We may know a single verse which could be the key to someone else coming to know Christ: it is going to be the Holy Spirit who leads us toward the people that need to know what we have learned and not us selecting who we think should get what we have learned after we think we have learned enough! Going to university or college to learn more is good because it sets the foundation for which we can pass on knowledge or use that knowledge; but it is not the end of our education.
As long as we are willing to learn more from the people around us and from God through the Holy Spirit, we should be able to continue learning right up until the day we die. I thank God that He has given me an inquisitive mind to seek out the truth and to share that truth afterward. But I thank Him more for what He set out to do in the beginning so we would have this time to pass on what He teaches us.
Points to Ponder:
Do you think you know enough?
Will you trust God to teach you more?