April 4: Exodus 3 7-12
Key Verse: Exodus 3 11
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
Devotion:
What stops you from telling other people the Gospel message? Is it that you do not feel confident enough, that you feel like you cannot go it alone or just that you don’t know enough yet? There are many excuses we use for all manner of things in life, not just telling others about Christ, so don’t feel like you are alone on that front. I was pretty scared when I started reaching out to the youth because I did not know a lot, I was not confident, I was not a good speaker, and I could continue… but you get the picture.
You don’t have to know more than the other person in order to share the Gospel. You don’t have to worry about being embarrassed. All you should be worried about is them not being given the chance at getting to know what you know now; in other words don’t worry about what you don’t know, you can find that out together. When you want to share a biscuit or cookie with someone else, you give them part of what you do have. Both of you end up feeling better. The same can be said for sharing the Gospel, both of you will end up in a spiritually better place than you were before.
God did not pick the people in the bible because they were great philosophers and the like, He picked them out because He knew they could make a difference. That is what we need to aim to do, just make a difference to the people that you can reach. We are not all called to reach out to millions of souls. We are not all called to stand up and teach others profound and hidden truths in the bible. We are all called to share the Gospel in whatever way we can.
Allow God to lead the way. Allow God to guide you in your speech. Allow God to guide you in where you go. We cannot imagine what would have happened if Moses had tried to reject God because that is pure conjecture. What we can do is look at how Moses listened, how he obeyed, how he was willing (eventually) and then what he ended up accomplishing. He could never have done it alone – God was with him every step of the way, and will be with you every step of the way too!
Points to Ponder:
What stops you sharing the Gospel?
Do you ask God to help?
April 3: Philippians 4 10-13
Key Verse: Philippians 4 12
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
Devotion:
There are many times when we call out for help and expect people to help because it is their job to help. Typical cases would be calling out for help at school and expecting teachers to help, calling for help whilst sick and expecting doctors to help or calling out for spiritual help and expecting the church leaders to help. But sometimes we should also be the ones who are willing to stop what we are doing and offer help toward others. It does not have to be when they call out for help but even offering help when you think they need it.
I do love to help others and I probably get myself into trouble for offering too much to too many, but that is the way my heart works. I do also tend to allow my heart to rule my life sometimes which also gets me into trouble. But if you are not willing to allow yourself to get into trouble now and again then you will always tend to do what is safe and not to expand your horizons. That does not mean to say that we should be careless in our actions because that would end up with us needing help rather than helping others – much like a breakdown truck needing help because it broke down helping a car in need.
God wants us to be good stewards of all that He gives us; which includes our wellbeing! God gives us opportunity when He sees that it is best for us and not when we think we should have it. That takes patience and grace from our side to keep going; but when the time comes for us to help, we will then be able to be a bigger blessing because we waited for the right time.
If you are in doubt about whether you should be helping someone, then start helping and see what happens rather than waiting to see what happens before helping! It is God who will strengthen you when you step forward to help others in need. If we depend on what we can do all the time we will find out that we are lacking in power, might, faith, dependability and sustainability. But when we step out in faith with Christ, we find that we can go that bit further, have that bit more energy and can continue where we may have stopped before.
Points to Ponder:
Do you like helping others?
Have you tried asking God to help you help others?
April 2: 1 Peter 5 1-7
Key Verse: 1 Peter 5 7
casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
Devotion:
A big part of running a congregation, be it a church or youth group or whatever, is being with each other. There is no way that a bunch of people from so different a background and so different an outlook on life could normally mix together other than if they have a common goal. But even then a common goal is not always enough; it is more about being submissive to each other. That does not mean that everyone in your group must always do what other people say, but it does mean that they need to be aware of what others are saying and doing.
Jesus made it quite clear when He was here on earth that we do need to get out there and mix with other people. Shutting ourselves off from the world does not encourage any sort of relationship to build up; if we are to live grow up in a real relationship with Christ, then we need to be able to build up that relationship with others first of all. How else are we going to hear the Gospel until we have a friendship with others where we can learn about God from?
We would not normally trust other people and what they say until we got to know them. Trusting others about what is in the bible is not all that different. If we do not build up that trust relationship with them, then they are not going to take what we have to say seriously. That kind of makes giving them the Gospel an uphill task to start with; but having a friendship, a trust relationship or some other connection through which trust is present, allows us to give others the truth about God.
It is hard enough trying to tell someone a new story which seems totally incredible when you do have a trusting relationship. Can you imagine what it would be like if you tried to build on distrust? Jesus had the upper hand in that He did have the power to heal the sick which helped to get people on His side; we need to work at our relationships much quicker and build up that trust so that we can share the Gospel effectively!
Points to Ponder:
Do you find it hard talking to strangers about God?
Have you tried just being a friend first?
April 1: Judges 18 30-31
Key Verse: Judges 18 30
Then the children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image; and Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.
Devotion:
How important is history to you? I was unfortunate enough to have a history teacher who would make watching paint dry a more exciting prospect than going to his class. Needless to say I had problems with history and with his classes. But even though I did have issues in his class, I did like to hear about history and even began to enjoy it after moving to another class; a bit too late in the day for me to learn a couple of years of history in one term though…
History tells us all about what actually happened in the past and it is there, written down as faithfully as it can be so that we can learn from that past. It is there so we can take what has been learned and build on it in the future. But what happens when we don’t believe what is written down? Well that is like throwing away the instruction manual and trying to get to know everything by trial and error once again; it’s a lot of hard work and time that is wasted!
The children of Dan wanted more than just what was down in the scriptures; they wanted to be more important than they thought they were. One of our failing as a race is that we often think far too little of ourselves rather than remembering what God thinks of us by going back over what He has done in the past. When we do that we end up looking for something that will lift us up in the short term and that is most often vain things we seek. The Danites sought out something from the land they were taking rather than depending on what God had given them, ending up worshipping the local god of Micah the local priest.
You may think that they would have spotted the obvious: how could this god protect them when it could not even protect itself from being stolen! You may think that they should have known better by going back to the history and seeing what God Himself had done for them. You may think all manner of things should have changed their minds. But think first of all: what do you do when you get into trouble? Do you turn to God and accept what has happened or do you question God and look for a quick fix?
Points to Ponder:
Are you really trusting God?
Do you like quick fixes?
Monday Reading: John 5 19-23
Key Verse: John 5 19
Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
Devotion:
Jesus did not hide the fact that He is the Son of God; but many people at that time could not come to terms with the way Jesus was trying to teach them and to enlighten them. What they though was blasphemy was just Christ showing His true position at the right hand of the Father; listening to God was not something that came to the religious leaders at that time.
Jesus did not act alone. He did nothing but what God the Father said should happen. And yet the people ignored that part and focused in on what they wanted to so they could blame someone for daring to be more God-like than they appeared to be! None of us have the right to judge others and we must never pretend that we are any better than any other person either. Christ is our judge because He is the one who has paid for our lives with His own life.
God provided us with a Saviour; His Son. God provided us with an advocate; His Son. God provided us with a way to get to Him even though we are separated from Him by our sin; His Son. Because of what Christ has done, He alone has been given final judgment over mankind and because He is the Son of God, that judgement will be final as well as just. Nobody will be able to get away with saying that they did not know about God and that they did not know about Christ.
If we want to be more Christ-like, then we should be aiming at following His example and not going our own way or following the way of the world. The religious leaders at that time followed what they thought was best even though they knew that the Messiah was coming; they were not trying to seek out the truth but rested on what they wanted themselves. Christ made sure that all actions He took and all directions He chose came from God and not His own choices. We should be doing the same – following God’s example and not mans.
Points to Ponder:
What do you base your decisions on?
Do you strive to be more Christ-like?