November 20: Luke 4 1-13
Key Verse: Luke 4 13
Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.
Devotion:
Where we go with God, you can bet that the evil one is going to be following along waiting for a moment to try and trip us up. Listening to God does not always mean that we are going to be free from sin, free from temptations and free from trouble! The devil is going to be there waiting until we are weak or waiting until we make a mistake so that he can pounce and try to get us thinking about stuff that we should not be thinking of.
Sometimes that is going to cost us because we will give in and go off the rails for a while. Sometimes we will be strong like Jesus was here and lift up the Word of God in the devils face to fend him off. Sometimes we will not see anything coming and we will only realise what has happened after the fact. But every time we can be sure that God is going to be with us and we need to depend on Him for protection and wisdom to handle the situations.
Sometimes it is not going to be the wilderness that we are trapped in but the lives that we lead right here and now. I know that because I see that happening in my life from time to time. I certainly am not as strong as Christ and not as ready to handle things as He did. I often find myself on my knees asking for that advice to get me out of a hole; so don’t think that you are the only one this happens to!
But notice the outcome. Christ was able to use the scriptures to push Satan away. We too can use our bibles to push him away. Just as we may be able to push a bully away for a while, we can push the devil away for a while. That does not mean we have won the battle because he is going to go away and wait for another moment when he can come and try it all over again. That is why we need to know the bible, so we can be more prepared for the next time!
Points to Ponder:
Do you read your bible each day?
Are you preparing for battle?
November 19: Acts 23 1-5
Key Verse: Acts 23 3
Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! For you sit to judge me according to the law, and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law?”
Devotion:
Paul obviously was a man who stuck to his principles; they may have been the wrong principles to stick to in the beginning as he followed religious ways instead of God’s ways, but he still stuck to what he believed was right. We can take a good long look at our lives and ask the question: do we actually stand up for what we believe? Do we stick to what we see as the truth and tell others about it? Or do we keep it to ourselves and hope that nobody disturbs us?
Paul was not afraid to stand up and say what he believed, even in from of the council. He was not shy at letting everyone know what he thought, but even in that way he still obeyed the law. When he got to know God’s real intentions through Christ, he stuck to those laws even more ardently; so much so that he spoke out toward the high priest (unknowingly). We the mistake was pointed out he apologised, but carried on trying to get them to understand they were following religion now and not following God!
I wonder what we would do if we were placed in a crowd of people of authority and knew that they were doing things wrong. Would we keep quiet and hope that they do change their ways? Would we speak out and tell people they need to change their ways without naming names? Would we speak directly to the people and tell them what they were doing wrong? We think we know the answer, but when placed in that position, the reaction we show is often quite different!
God wants us to be able to uphold the truth at all times. He wants us to be able to share the gospel to everyone. He wants us to be able to make friends and influence people. What we do may often be the wrong thing but by doing something (or nothing) we learn what we have done and we move on from there. When we realise what we should be doing we need to ask God for strength and protection so we can be bold and speak for Him!
Points to Ponder:
Do you keep quiet in crowds?
Do people know you as a Christian?
November 18: Isaiah 58 3-7
Key Verse: Isaiah 58 4
Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high.
Devotion:
How many times have you asked yourself why you do the things that you do? I am not focusing on all the bad things that we get tempted into doing, the bad habits we have or the things we do once in a while… I am talking about the things that we do “for God” or “because of God”. So many religions have a whole raft of things that should be done in particular ways or at particular times and many people get caught up in just doing things instead of thinking about what they are doing.
Isaiah had the focus on fasting here where he was reminded that many people were taking fasting to a new level in that they would tell as many people as they could about how they were fasting and how drastic it was going to be and how much they were paying for it… when all this time they are lifting up themselves in bragging about how much they are going to do for God. When they come round to actually doing the fasting they are so focused on themselves that they forget about God all together.
The same can be said for some worship bands where they are so caught up in what they do and how they do it that the focus has left God and been drawn to the people and what they can do instead. We have to be very wary of what we do and why we do it because God is the one who sees inside out hearts and not the outside as the rest of the world sees.
I know that I do many things and brag about things at times, but each time I do catch myself I lift that act up to God asking for His forgiveness and try to move forward with Him. Yes there are times when I just want to carry on bragging or doing it my way because it makes me feel good, but when we think about how bad God would feel, we should not have any problem turning away from our sin and back to God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you like praise?
Are you taking praise from God?
November 17: Acts 4 23-30
Key Verse: Acts 4 29
Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word,
Devotion:
When we stand up and start talking about Jesus (and it doesn’t have to be physically) we will quickly find out that there are some people who are very much against what we say. At one stage I was publishing recordings of these devotionals when there was a free service to do that easily and after gaining a few followers I was followed by one person who seemed bent on disrupting things by always commenting in contradictory ways. Fortunately they grew tired after seeing that I would not back down about the Word of God! But that sort of thing will wear you down.
I am pretty sure that Peter and John must have had a very tough time by being arrested and accused of doing things against the people and against God. But by standing up to the truth they were able to continue telling people about Jesus; not freely, but with continued struggle. It is those struggles that will test us and see if we are found wanting. It is those struggles that allow us to see just how much faith we do have and how much we know about God as well.
Being able to study about God by reading the bible and other books by people who themselves have studied allows us to build up knowledge and wisdom that helps us to support our own arguments when we are faced with disruptive people. Without those trials we tend to grow a bit weaker because we are not tested; almost like taking the Word of God for granted and not actually learning as much as we should.
Sometimes I will read a verse or two and write about them. Other times I will have to read chapter after chapter before God shows me something special to write about. I don’t give up, I dig my heals in and carry on until the truth comes out. That should be our attitude about everything to do with God, not backing down just because we don’t get what, come up against someone or because we want to be nice and kind – get on with your relationship with Christ and count it all joy!
Points to Ponder:
Do you falter when it gets tough?
What do you think God says about your attitude?
November 16: Amos 7 7-9
Key Verse: Amos 7 7
Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand.
Devotion:
I love the picture of a the wall being built using a plumb line that the Lord is holding; this is His plumb line and the wall has been constructed using it. In other words this wall (the people of Israel) has been constructed using God’s Word (the plumb line). God is the one who gave instruction for the children of Israel to live as a separate people and when they followed that word, they excelled in all they did and were protected all the time by God. But when they grew lax in the law and gave in to the local ways and idols, God made sure they listened to what was to come.
Amos was given a string of dreams showing Him how terrible things were going to get. Each time Amos pleaded with God to make the punishments a little less harsh! God, through His mercy and grace, was ready to forgive and move forward when they were strong enough and honest enough to listen to God’s word now.
Up to now God had shown the people His forgiveness and His grace by allowing the people of Israel to have their sins atoned for by sacrifices and other works. Now God was saying that they were no longer giving this from the heart by were just doing it to get closer to God, thinking that the better they did it the closer they could get; the same acts as the people of Babel earlier on in history.
When we leave our hearts out of our worship of God, we become ineffectual in all our deeds. God wants to hear from the heart and not from something done just because that is what should be done. God was going to put aside all the laws of sacrifice when Christ came to lay His life down. When we study to find out when this all started we find that God has been trying to make sure we love and obey Him from the heart. Allow God to work wonders in your own life!
Points to Ponder:
Do you apply God’s law into your life?
Are you doing it because you actually believe Christ?