October 16: Genesis 11 1-9
Key Verse: Genesis 11 4
Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’
Devotion:
It seems that no matter how we go about our lives, we are always going to be doing something wrong. God has given us these wonderful brains we have and they tend to work overtime when we least want them to. When they do work overtime we get caught up in thought of how we can do more or what else we can do; the focus then changes to ourselves instead of on God. That is exactly what was happening here in Shinar. The people were all working together and as they did they realised how much more they could do together. As they realised that their brains worked overtime and they because overly proud of what they could accomplish.
When that happens in our lives we should not be too surprised to find that God allows something to stop us from doing what we think we can by ourselves. God is not punishing us for doing things wrong but is rather trying to open our eyes to the fact that no matter how good we think we are, we still need God in our lives!
God not only created everything and knows everything, but He really does want to be able to care for us as well. We like to think that we can take care of ourselves, but in truth we cannot because of our own minds which tend to focus on other things instead of God. The more we open our minds to worldly ways the more we focus on those ways and not on God’s ways. Yes, God is a jealous God and He wants to know that we are focusing on Him otherwise we will get side-tracked and we will go astray from His ways.
We may want to believe that we can do so much more as a community but when we do focus on what we can do instead of what God does do in our lives, then we have failed God again. God has had to be rather harsh in our history to try and get us on the right path. We now have so much more information and so much more history that we are running out of excuses to do our own thing. Isn’t it time we did focus on God and allow Him to work in our lives?
Points to Ponder:
What strengths do you have?
Do you allow God to use them?
October 15: Ecclesiastes 1 3-11
Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 1 7
All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
Devotion:
Solomon may have been incredibly wise with all that wisdom God gave him, but sometimes you may think about the way he used the wisdom. We may think of some of the things he got up to as not very wise at all; but then we don’t have the insight into life and everything that God gave him. Would I want to be as wise as Solomon or would I want to carry on in my own silly ways? A hard question to answer truthfully without being drawn into a long theological discussion!
I am very happy with all that God has given me and I am very happy with all that he allows me to do, especially the parts where I get to share the gospel with others and encourage people to get to know Christ a bit more each day! I am very happy with all that God has given me in life because I have been able to have my fair share of a variety of things and ways and levels of life (if you can call it that).
If I were wiser then I would have difficulty in accepting many things in life because I would be able to see through so many of the actions other people do. I don’t like living in ignorance and will always try to think things through as well as asking God for guidance… but to be able to see where people were headed all the time may well be a bit too depressing for me. I love to smile and love to love people, but seeing how some people sink so quickly into despair when something slight does not match up with their expectations is hard to accept for me. I always try to find the positive side of everything – I emphasise the trying part!
Maybe that was why I have always found the book of Ecclesiastes hard to read when others thought it easy; that was until I looked at it in a different light. If you look at it as the author being depressed then it is going to be a depressing read. But what if you look at it as a book showing how far short of God’s will for our lives we fall… well that may be depressing too… So look at it as how much God has created for us and how we always look for the failing instead. Turn your view of life round by looking for the positive in Christ’s creation and salvation!
Points to Ponder:
Are you happy with your life?
Are you happy with Christ’s gift to you?
October 14: Genesis 8 15-22
Key Verse: Genesis 8 22
‘As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.’
Devotion:
This is one of those verses that sticks in your mind after you have read it, not because we have always had harvests, hot, cold, summer, winter, day and night, but because it is from God and it is a promise that we will continue on until He deems it necessary to stop the life cycle once again. Many people read this and take it as a statement from God saying that there will never be an end to the world; that is not what God is saying. What He is saying is that whilst He wants the earth to continue, it will continue on in the same cycle of events.
The earth will continue spinning, it will continue to give us day and night as it spins, it will continue to give us summer and winter as it wobbles on its axis… and how does it do that in the middle of space? God is the one who knows how it does that and He is not going to explain every detail to us because we simply don’t need to know it! It does not mean that there will never be droughts and floods… of course they will still come and go and we will still have to fight against them. In fact as we destroy more of the world and the environment we will get to see more famine and destruction instead of less.
This is the way that man goes about things – destroying as he goes, making nothing of the amazing creation God gave us. Man continues to break things and to upset God in what he does. God knew that when He made this promise too. God knew we were going to mess things up yet again and that we would have to get Him to bail us out when we do; but he still made the promise! What love is that!
I can’t imagine what the earth would have looked like before the flood and immediately after it as well. But we see some pretty amazing scenery in the natural world which allows us to imagine what things could have been like many years ago. The earth has changed dramatically over time and will continue to do so as we make and break so many things – but God is the one keeping it spinning and wobbling in space to give us day, night, summer and winter and time to grow and harvest crops.
Points to Ponder:
Do you help with harvesting things?
Will you help grow Christians?
October 13: Psalms 24 1-6
Key Verse: Psalms 24 3
Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?
Devotion:
One God. One Lord over all. We are but human beings, trying to do our best and live our lives as we think best. Though we do try our very best, we are simply not good enough to prove ourselves as worthy to enter into His Kingdom by ourselves. There is no way we can enter into His kingdom without and invite. But in order to get there we have to accept that invite and follow the instruction. God does not simply say, read my word and you can come in.
We cannot buy our way into heaven. We cannot work our way into heaven. We cannot live our way to heaven. We have to accept the conditions of His invite and ask Him to forgive us for the things we have done wrong. Only then is He faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. Once He has done that, we are worthy of entry into His church where we are safe eternally. Before then our hands and hearts are dirty and would make anything of His unclean, but because our Saviour is able to forgive us totally, we end up being clean and worthy of entry.
Turning our backs on the world can be difficult when we are used to living in the world and trusting the worldly ways. Having faith to stand up and say “no” in order to accept His ways can be very difficult when all we have known is the way of the world. Having the courage to turn away from those ways and turn to a way that is alien and sometimes hidden from sight is not always easy.
It should not be our expectation that God is going to reward us with gifts when we listen to Him and obey His words. It should be our expectation that we have a safe home with Him and that is all. God will be the one who chooses what we will receive and what we will not. God’s love for us does not have conditions so we should not be placing conditions or desired rewards on anything He has in line for us; just accepting what He gives to us with a humble heart is what is required. That is all.
Points to Ponder:
Do you realise just how much God did to create the world?
Will you accept Him as Saviour and Lord of all?
October 12: 2 Samuel 6 9-11
Key Verse: 2 Samuel 6 11
The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed him and his entire household.
Devotion:
When David tried to bring the Ark of the Lord back to Jerusalem they had a bit of an accident on the way when Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark and immediately died. David was angry because God allowed Uzzah to die even though he was just trying to help; but when God lays down a law, it has to be kept. David was then afraid to move the Ark any more than he had to in case anyone else died; what would happen to him with the Ark being close to him? So David moved the Ark to the house of Obed-Edom…
Whilst the Ark was there, everyone in the house was blessed. When word got back to David that this is what was happening, he started to plan how he could bring the Ark back to Jerusalem. Was David being overly cautious? Was he being sensible?
Being close to God means that we are going to be blessed by Him. There is no disputing that. But when we do come close to God we also have to be aware that we still will do things wrong from time to time. Whether it is us being tempted to do something that he does not want us to do or whether we overstep the line and have to pay for what we have done wrong, God is just and continues to uphold His word. If He has said that we must not do something we should not expect to be able to do it just because we are really close to Him! If anything we should be more afraid of doing that when we are closest to Him!
I’m sure that God would love to bless us all the time but when we continue to live for the world then we are going against Him and should not expect the same blessing as when we work with and for Him. When things go wrong around us we should seek God’s direction to see if it is us walking in the wrong direction or God trying to guide us in a new direction. Don’t leave God out of the decision making because He alone knows our best path forward; we need to trust Him and expect Him to show us the right way.
Points to Ponder:
Do you ask God for direction?
Do you try telling God the direction?