Wednesday Reading: Ezra 4 1-5
Key Verse: Ezra 4 2
2 they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, ‘Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.’
Devotion:
The Samaritans did not really have any intention of coming to worship God in truth as the Children of Israel were trying to. The Jews were still under the jurisdiction of the king of Persia at this time and were getting ready to build the temple to the Lord God of Israel. The Samaritans, despite their words, had no intention of allowing Israel to build the temple otherwise they would not be able to continue worshipping their own idols and gods in fear of this great God that was being brought into their midst.
What better way than to get in amongst the people trying to do God’s work and disrupt things from the inside. Why bash on the walls to try to get in when you can walk through an open door and then break things on the inside. The weakest point in this building project was always going to be the hearts of man and that is where they were aiming.
As we go out and do God’s work we will also find that Satan will bring in the “local Samaritans” in our towns and villages who will come to try and disrupt things. They want to be able to do their own thing, to worship their own god. If they can do it in the guise of the faith and trust that we do then they may be accepted by others – or at least that is their plan. I have seen so many groups or plans fail in the past because someone comes in and blinds everyone with big promises, only to fail to deliver anything. The evil one brings in these workers of his and sucks communities dry, bringing them to the knees and breaking people’s faith.
Just like these people stood up and said “no” to the infiltration of the enemy, we too must stand firm and count ourselves worthy in God’s eyes because we are doing what He declared and not what man has desired. We have to stand up and show people we are serious about following God and upholding His name above that of man and above our own. It is only by being a good and faithful servant that we will accomplish God’s work in our lives.
Points to Ponder:
Are you trying to work for God?
Are you being distracted by man?
Tuesday Reading: Mark 4 24-25
Key Verse: Mark 4 25
25 For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
Devotion:
I love the way that God’s Word will take a saying that we have ‘come up with’ and give us more meaning than we had ever given to our saying. I’m not sure how many religions or sects will try to attribute the thought of ‘karma’ as their own or somehow build up something that is not true around it. The fact is that in most cases, if we are good and kind to other people, they will probably be good and kind to us; unfortunately that is not always the case because there are people out there that will always treat you badly no matter how you treat them.
But Christ takes this one step further because the Jews had also taken a saying like karma as a common proverb. What Christ says is that we have to be aware of much more than just what is being said and done because life is a whole lot more complicated than that. Not all people are the same and we handle situations in different ways to each other as well. He raised this point whilst telling people the parable of the sower so His focus was on what people were talking about.
Some of us talk, others talk a lot! What comes out of our mouths may not always be what we would like to say but most of the time it is what is on our hearts or what is in our minds; though sometimes we do say some strange things too! We do have to watch what we say as well as taking care what we listen to as well. Just because we can go out and talk about Christ does not mean that we are being diligent. We do have to listen to God’s Word. We do have to take in what it says and we do have to apply what it says into our lives!
If we are willing to listen then we will learn a whole lot more about God. When we are willing to receive God’s Word, we will get a whole lot more than just some words or some good saying. What we will receive is wisdom and knowledge from God through the Holy Spirit. The more time we spend with God, the more we will learn. But when we turn our back on Him, we also find that Satan will fill our lives with so much garbage that we put aside the things of God and lose focus on Him! We need to take care of our relationship with Him!
Points to Ponder:
Are you a good listener?
Are you listening to God?
Monday Reading: Proverbs 15 8-9
Key Verse: Proverbs 15 8
8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, But the prayer of the upright is His delight.
Devotion:
If you wanted someone to help you with a children’s party, would you look for the help of a complete stranger or would you look for the help of someone you knew? Would you accept the help from someone you knew was bad with children or someone who was trusted by everyone? The choice seems very simple when we look at it from different eyes like this, but it is a choice we often forget when we are on the inside and expecting God to forget about things we want to let slide.
Never forget that God is just and that He cannot and will not abide sin! Why then should we expect God to do things for us if we are not going to even try to keep His law to begin with? If we are trying and failing because of other issues then we can always ask for the strength and wisdom to get help with those issues; but if we know what is wrong and refuse to change, then we are asking God to accept our sin and live with it!
God would love us all to be without sin; that is not something we can ever hope to be without Christ. God would love it if we were able to live our lives without sin, but again that is not possible because of our sin nature that we inherit all the way back from Adam and Eve. But just because we do have this sin nature does not mean that we have to give in to it all the time and live as sinful people. Christ gave His life on the cross so that we would not have to be bound by that sin nature. He has given us the chance to choose the sinful ways or choose to not sin!
Think how happy you would be if nobody ever did anything wrong against you. Now think what a joy it would be for God if we tried our best to not sin against Him! We may not have a good start in our lives because of our sin, but as we live we can choose to follow Christ and His ways giving us a better walk with God. Christ has given us the chance to break free from our lives of sin but we are the ones who have to take that opportunity to walk without sin. He will strengthen us on that walk if we ask Him to!
Points to Ponder:
Do you give in and go with the flow?
Or do you try to make a choice?
Sunday Reading: 1 Peter 3 10-12
Key Verse: 1 Peter 3 11
11 Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it.
Devotion:
If there is some way in which we can extend our lives or get better when sick, then we seek those ways and try to apply them to our lives; after all, who would not want to live a bit longer and enjoy life a bit more. But what about our spiritual lives as well? Do we not want to be able to get the most out of our spiritual lives and to live a better spiritual life too?
If we continue on in the ways of the world we will find that our spiritual lives continue to be eroded and broken down as we follow the worldly ways. It is our consciences which gnaw at our spirits as The Holy Spirit tries to guide us away from the sin and toward righteousness. That constant gnawing at our spirits wears us down on the inside.
One of our easiest traps to fall into is that of letting loose with our mouths! When we get a little wound up or someone says something horrible to us it is very easy just to retaliate with a few words back instead of biding our time. It is so much easier to ‘warn’ them off with a few choice words of our own. But if we stop to think for a second we would realise that those words or actions that have just come our way are the things that have hurt us. Why should we then use the same weapons against someone else? Why should we be able to get away with it if we don’t want others to?
God is Just. That means He always upholds the law. If we turn round and do exactly the same as someone has just done for us then we are opening ourselves to the same condemnation as they have just done – how can we expect to be treated any different if God is just? But stopping what comes out of our mouths is a hard task when we are surrounded by so much. The right way is not to try and stop our mouths after we open ourselves to evil but to get away from that evil in the first place. Don’t go there if you know that your spirit will be constantly worn down. That does not mean that we have to ignore all bad situations in our lives because we still have to reach out to our neighbours, even when they act like our enemies! But don’t hang around with them and expect that you will get away with not being tempted yourself!
Points to Ponder:
Do you retaliate with choice words?
Are you walking God’s path?
Saturday Reading: Deuteronomy 6 1-3
Key Verse: Deuteronomy 6 2
2 that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.
Devotion:
Moses had already given the people the Ten Commandments and had repeated them in the previous chapter. Now he was reminding the people of the importance of everything that God had told him. It’s no good just trying to keep the basic rules and ignoring everything else because life is much more complicated than that! God has given us His Word so that we can learn from it and apply it into our lives; it is not a step by step guide of every step we take in our lives not allowing us to make our own decisions. God gives us His Word so that we can make informed decisions in our lives.
God’s Word is the truth and as long as we uphold it as such then we stand in good stead to be able to make good decisions based on His Word. If we keep teaching each other what we know of the scriptures and keep applying them into our lives we are going to have a far better chance at getting things right! It is not something we need to follow today and forget tomorrow!
I know I have been there because I learned enough to know what was good and what was not, and then I chose to go off and do my own thing instead of listening to God’s instructions. It took me many years before I stopped and listened to God again, but I know that I have finally done what is right by listening properly once again.
God warns us against living an evil life because the ways of the world are unpredictable, unsafe and do not lead to peacefulness! If we continue on in the ways of the world we dig ever bigger holes for ourselves and face harder decisions as we go against more and more things which we know in our hearts to be wrong. That all eats at our spirits and brings us down into despair rather than allowing us to live with Christ is love and have the peace and joy He wants us to have.
Points to Ponder:
Do you live for the world?
Or do you live with God?