Friday Reading: Psalms 89 1-4
Key Verse: Psalms 89 1
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever; With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations.
Devotion:
How often do you praise all that God does in your life? I try to make sure that I thank Him every day for all that He allows into my life, be it good or bad, because I know that He is the one who is in charge of all things and He will make things happen for the best. That does not mean that I can stop doing anything and see what God does instead because He continues to want us to live our lives as best we can.
God is the one who continues to show us that His mercies endure through everything and that they are not limited by what we can do or by time itself. God has shown us so many things generation after generation so that we can see that He does not change. He continues to remind us that He is our God in heaven and that He alone has power over everything; and yet He chooses to take notice of each one of us and cares deeply for us as individuals.
We need to believe in God and His power and Mercy and that belief has to be heart-felt and embedded within us so that our faith comes from that belief. God does not want us to doubt that He can do anything and He certainly does not want us to limit His scope, power, mercy or faithfulness; but somehow we do because of our lack of belief or lack of faith. Each of us has those moments where we look back and we start to wonder, but each of those moments can be covered by what God does to show us that we can trust in Him. Sadly it is those moments that we are down that tend to stick in our heads more that the moments that we are up!
God made the promise with His chosen people so that someone would record it down in writing for the rest of the world to read, believe and trust in. He made sure that we all have a way in which we can see that His promises have already been fulfilled. He is the one who made sure that we continued to survive everything that has happened. Yes people have died in great tragedies but God has made sure that mankind continue to survive. It is only when He chooses to make complete His promise to us that He will come and take us home; until that time we must live in our hope and trust in Him wholly.
Points to Ponder:
Do you trust in God?
Are you carrying your doubts with you?
Thursday Reading: Ruth 1 1-5
Key Verse: Ruth 1 5
Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died; so the woman survived her two sons and her husband.
Devotion:
We can look at stories like these in our bibles and come up with lots of reasons or excuses why things should have happened the way that they did; but the truth is that God was not too pleased with Elimelech’s path he had chosen. God was allowing a famine to spread across the land for a reason; people were turning away from God. He did not want them to scatter themselves around the world but to pull together as a country with one God and show everyone that they trusted their God, no matter what!
Yes God knew what was going on and He probably allowed many things to happen to Elimelech and his sons before they died so that they were given plenty of time to turn back to God. We could say that Elimelech was taking the best care of his family that he could, but sometimes it is about entrusting our families to God and not to try and do everything ourselves. God was not the one here that was bringing death into the family, but He was going to allow it because they were not walking with Him as they should have!
If we walk away from God then we should not be surprised to see things happen that we do not like. This is not God punishing us but rather us inviting these things into our lives. I know this may be contentious to many people but we have to face it, God should not have to care for us if we do not care for Him! God does say that there will be crosses that we do have to take up in our lives, we are not immune to everything just because we trust in God. What He does say is that we will not have to carry the cross alone if we are trusting in Him!
Death is a certainty. We cannot escape it unless God Himself chooses to save us from it. We have to face it, but we do not have to face it alone; and we certainly do not have to see it as the end of everything because He has promised us eternal life. What we do in our lives before that death will not just affect us but will affect all of the people that get to know us as well. The things that happen to us do not just affect us; they affect the people close to us as well. Naomi and her daughter in laws were going to be profoundly affected by what the men did!
Points to Ponder:
Are you doing what you want?
Is it affecting others?
Wednesday Reading: Psalms 42 1-5
Key Verse: Psalms 42 4
When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.
Devotion:
There will always be times when we feel weak and heavy laden; those are the times when we do find it hard to give our burdens to The Lord because we can’t seem to shed them in the first place. But when we get together with other Christians we do find that it is easier to shed them. It may take one or two people to help out in prayer or even physically, but when we surround ourselves with people who are willing to assist, we will find it a whole lot easier to cope!
God has given us a real thirst to find out the truth and to follow His Word and His will in our lives; but unless we get together with other Christians and see how we can work together, it becomes a burden because we struggle to let go of the world. It is true that there is strength in numbers, but our real strength comes from God and He shares that out with the people who actively seek Him in church.
Do not get worried when your prayers are not answered immediately because we do not know the perfect timing like our Lord does. Do not get upset when your prayers seem to get left behind when others are answered; God is the one who is in control of things. Don’t stop praying when you think it is taking too long for an answer to come, because He is the one who is in control of time itself and will not bend to time like we have to. So when you do offer your prayers to God, offer them expecting Him to answer and don’t hold on to them just in case He does not answer – that is not answering in faith!
God does want us to experience the joy and peace that He gives to us, but in order to accept that joy and peace, we have to be strong enough to give our prayers and our burdens to Him once and for all. Praying without ceasing does not mean offering up a single prayer and waiting for an answer to come at some stage; it means offering up our prayers daily and waiting patiently for God to answer them.
Points to Ponder:
Do you expect your prayers to be answered?
Are you holding tight to your prayers in case they get lost somewhere?
Tuesday Reading: Psalms 100 1-5
Key Verse: Psalms 100 2
Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
Devotion:
It is wonderful to be able to sing out our praises to God openly in the United Kingdom; I know there are many places out there in the world where people are discouraged from praising God, discouraged from attending church or even banned from doing so. My heart goes out to you. But be encouraged by being able to read verses like these and to sing out in your heart; just because nobody else will hear you does not mean that God will not hear you! If you are on your way to work and fear that people will get upset by you singing to our Lord, then sing in your heart because that will reach God!
Our prayers do not have to be a mass congregational thing. Our songs do not have to be sung out loud. Our worship can be solitary and hidden from sight. God is not after a public display of what you can do but a heartfelt personal link between you and Him. God wants to know you and not to have to listen to you… I know my singing is not the best, but when I lift up my voice to Him it comes from deep in my heart and I know that He loves that!
We need to make our praises cheerful as well! So many people get caught up in trying to make their time with God as solemn as possible rather than as joyful as possible. God is after a truthful relationship and not a “very proper action”; He would rather hear from your heart than from a book. I find it very difficult to be encouraged by someone who is talking to me in a monotone voice because it does not sound like they are putting their hearts into it; but when someone talks to me instead of reading to me; I find it far more encouraging.
We do have many reasons to praise God and they should not be kept under a bushel or hidden in a box; but equally they should not be put on parade just so that others can see what you are up to. If you want to put your worship on parade then you must do so because that is how you want to worship God and not because that is how someone else will see you. Yes I am guilty of that as well, but I also know that my heart sings for joy when I praise my God!
Points to Ponder:
How do you think God sees your worship?
Are you worshipping from your heart?
Monday Reading: Psalms 46 7-11
Key Verse: Psalms 46 7
The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Devotion:
We may look at the world today and think that we have seen new ways and new things to do. We may even pick up on new ways of working and new ideas to spread around; but God has always been and will always be!
From the beginning man has learned to recognise that God is here, is real and is a fortress within which we may grow; not just hide, but grown up in safety! This Psalms was written to sing about the glory of depending totally in God. This Psalms should bring it home to us that He is present and He is the foundation upon which we can build our lives. He has created everything around us, given us the abilities to be able to build so much that we use today and yet we always seem to leave Him behind when we seek whom to praise!
God is not going to shout and scream and have a temper tantrum when we leave Him out of our lives. He may well raise a few issues to make us stop and listen, but He will not make a huge scene about it. We are the ones who seek our own glory and shout and scream when we don’t get our own ways. God wants us to be still and listen for Him otherwise we will get carried away with the noise of the world instead of what He can do for us.
God is not the God of war and chaos but the God of peace and stability. He is not going to cause noise and strife just so that we will stop and listen; how can we listen with a world filled full of noise? He would rather we pick a quiet place and set aside time to really listen to Him and what He has to say. That way we will pick up on the real meaning behind what He is trying to tell us and not the worldly vision of what we want! When we do realise how much He can do, we will want to lift His name up and praise Him for what He is accomplishing!
Points to Ponder:
Do you shout when things go wrong?
DO you try to listen in the quiet for God?