Friday Reading: John 20 25-29
Key Verse: John 20 25
The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
Devotion:
Yes, I’m guilty of doubt! Go on, admit it too! We all like to think that we would not be in the same position as Thomas found himself, faced with Christ showing Him physical proof so that he would stop doubting… but we all find ourselves in that same position time and time again. Whether it is someone telling us of something that has happened to them where they have been blessed by God or something that has yet to come that they are sure God will deliver them from – we all doubt!
God wants us to see that we have the absolute truth set down before us in His Word. We have this all written down that we may believe it. The disciples spent so much time together with Christ and with each other that they should have had no doubt whatsoever when they told each other things that happened… and yet Thomas chose to doubt on this occasion. Christ allowed it so that we would get the story down in writing that we may believe!
When Christ shows us things in our lives we should already have been in a place where we believed. We should not have to wait until we see the proof so that we can believe. God has asked us to have faith not eye witnesses only! Faith is believing in the unseen or believing in what is to come, not believing because we have just seen it or just been shown proof!
God is going to allow many things through our lives where we are going to doubt, but unless we can work past those things our faith is going to shrink rather than grow. God allows these things so that our faith grows and is not dashed against the rocks. The evil on is the one who is going to try to give us more things to doubt about instead of building up our faith – don’t let him in the door to cast doubt around otherwise you may well start believing that doubt instead of the truth!
Points to Ponder:
How strong is your faith?
How strong is your doubt?
Thursday Reading: John 6 28-35
Key Verse: John 6 30
Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do?
Devotion:
How many times have you done that before – asked someone to prove they are who they say they are by doing something for you as proof? If someone comes up to us and says that they can make something special then we probably want to be able to see that they can do what they say they can before we believe them… But if they have already done many things before and we can read all about them in letters, books, watch films and the like, then we are going to believe them when they say so. At least we should be able to believe them because proof has already been shown before!
So why then do people have so much trouble accepting the truth about God and all that He can do for us? The simple fact is that people want explicit truth and if their situation deviates one tiny bit from the things that have happened in the past then they believe they are unique and have to have something special applied for them!
Don’t turn round and look at others and blame them for not believing or trusting! We are just as guilty as the next person! Just because our situation seems to be unique in our own eyes does not mean that God has not already been there and done that for someone else in the past. Jesus tried to remind the people around Him that God has already shown us miracles from the beginning of time and yet we still choose to not trust Him because we think that we are special or at least need to be treated in a special way!
Let us get over this need for something special and just accept that God loves us as we are. Yes He is trying to get us to change from the worldly people that we are to be His good and faithful servants, but that does not mean that He loves us any less because we think we are different! Jesus reached out to all manner of people as He walked amongst us. We walk amongst some pretty strange people too – but we need to have faith in what God has already done for mankind. He did it for all of us and not just the people that were standing in front of Him there and then. God works with us. We work against Him if we are not accepting Him in faith.
Points to Ponder:
Do you always look for proof?
Why not accept God’s Word on it?
Wednesday Reading: 1 Peter 2 13-17
Key Verse: 1 Peter 2 17
17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, and honour the king.
Devotion:
Part of being a Christian has got to be setting yourself apart from the ways of the world; not setting yourself apart from the people of the world! God wants us to be able to show others that we obey laws, we obey people in charge, we try to do what is righteous and above all, we obey our God. The ways of this world seem to dictate that man should be able to do anything that seems right in his own eyes. I have learned the hard way in the past that this cannot be done without getting into deep trouble!
The most important part, I feel, from this is that we show respect toward everyone in our lives. Whilst it is very hard to show respect to people who do not respect anyone else, we should not get caught up in their ways but rather continue to trust that God will give us the grace to be able to show respect. When others see that we are willing to show respect, they will grow to trust us and in doing so will start to show us respect. If we turn our backs on them before that moment, we will never gain their respect.
Is there ever going to be cases where this is not true? That is debatable! I believe that God has given every single one of us the ability to show some respect some of the time. Some people will not be able to stick with that respect because their lives are so corrupt that they lose track of things before they understand what is going on! To those people we need to extend further grace but also authority to show them that they need authority as well as respect – if they ignore authority, respect for them cannot be built up.
As for other Christians, we need to show them extra love, care, trust and respect. We need to build up the church of God and not break it down by separation! We need to show each other that God is pre-eminent in our lives and that we try to do His will at all times. That may sound obvious, but putting it into practise is not always as straight forward as it should be!
Points to Ponder:
Do you relate to others?
Can God relate to you?
Tuesday Reading: Hebrews 13 1-3
Key Verse: Hebrews 13 1
1 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.
Devotion:
Whilst we could all probably pick a hole or two in our relationships with brothers and sisters, the intent laid down here is that we ought to treasure each other as we would our own family members. But it should not just stop at treating others as if they were your own brothers and sisters; God expects more than just doing something because it is said we should!
If we invite others in just because someone said so, we are doing it out of duty and not out of love. Without love any show of friendliness is without foundation and we will not know what it is to share in true friendship. Applying love to any friendship will break down the barriers we all put up when someone gets too close. I know I have been guilty of putting up all sorts of barriers in the past when new people have come into my life and none of them have helped whatsoever!
Being able to lower your defences and allow people to meet the real you will go a long way to show that you actually can trust other people. It does not mean that you have to put aside all of your standards and allow people to run riot over you; what it does mean is that you should trust people to come close at times. We all do need our own personal space, but we should also allow people to come closer while we build up friendships. If we are not willing to allow anyone close we may never meet that one person who will make all the difference in your life!
But don’t stop just because you are not looking for someone special – continue to reach out to people that need your love and support. When you are down it is nice to have someone who is willing to build your spirits up; but don’t expect others to be nice to you if you are not willing to be nice first of all. Love is about giving as well as taking – never expect to get any unless you are willing to give first of all.
You may not feel too much like giving others love and support when you are feeling a bit down yourself, but through lifting up others spirits you will get a lift yourself. Try it!
Points to Ponder:
Are you willing to give before taking?
Have you seen what Christ gave you first of all?
Monday Reading: Job 1 3-5
Key Verse: Job 1 4
4 And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
Devotion:
This is one of those things that I have missed every time I have read the book of Job; always we look for the story of Job and all that happened to Job and miss the things that were happening there and then. Have you ever noticed the friendship and fellowship that the family of Job enjoyed when the story first starts?
The whole family would spend time together, having fellowship and enjoying all that God had given them. From the rest of the book we can see that Job continued to take all the necessary steps required with regards to offerings and sacrifices ensuring their long and happy existence with God in the picture at all times. Job made sure that he also made the required sacrifices to cover all of his family and not just himself… that is what family is all about!
Now when we start to realise that we are of the family of God, then we start to realise just how far short we fall concerning our family! God has appointed us as a single family to make sure that we take good care of each other and that we offer support and care for each other as much as we can and should. As we continue to read through the book of Job we realise how much he cared for his family both before and after the trial he went through. We need to make sure that we do not shy away from our families, both physical and church.
I thank God that He has given me such a loving, caring community, church and family that surrounds me with God’s love! But have you ever looked at what has gone on before you get to this position in life? We don’t know how much Job had gone through before the book starts, but we can see just how much he did trust God for total support in his life. When we are willing to put our uttermost faith and trust in Christ, we may begin to see just how much we get from our families through God as well.
Points to Ponder:
Do you like sharing?
Do you share God’s grace?