Thursday Reading: 1 Timothy 2 8-10
Key Verse: 1 Timothy 2 8
8 I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
Devotion:
The Apostle speaks here of men being the ones to pray and this is exactly what the ways of the church were in those days, that men only were the ones allowed to pray out loud in church congregations. Prayers are not to be limited to men only, nor to be limited to being said in churches only; instead prayers should be lifted up everywhere we are or go. Prayers should be said without anger and without doubts because they are being lifted up to our most holy God! The Jews at the time had got themselves into a bit of a muddle in presuming that prayers belonged in the temple only which is not what Christ upheld.
God wants us to know that every one of us can lift up our prayers to Him at any time and at any place. Those prayers are heard by Him and they will be answered. If we have our doubts then we are asking, but not in faith. If we limit it to church then we are saying that God cannot listen outside of church. If we ask because we get angry with others then we are asking for ourselves and not of God. We have a Saviour who does answer prayers, but He wants us to come to Him with honest and heartfelt prayers. If we want to lift up our prayers from our hearts then why should we not lift up our bodies as an outward expression of lifting up our inward prayers?
The next example used is the dressing up of women in society. Why should a person dress up to impress and do nothing about trying to actually impress others? The apostle reminds us all that we need to put aside our outward ways and lift up our inward hearts to God. One of the best ways of doing this is by applying His Word in our lives and by outwardly showing others we are doing so. Acting upon God’s will in our lives and pushing forward to show others you are trusting in Him is going to speak out much louder than a few words when you are dressed to impress!
Good works will show God’s work in a much more alluring way than good clothes will. Clothes are to impress the world about worldly things whereas good works show the world that we are willing to shown Godly things.
Points to Ponder:
Do you dress to impress?
Or do you do God’s bidding?
Wednesday Reading: Matthew 14 24-32
Key Verse: Matthew 14 30
30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
Devotion:
Can you imagine what Peter must have been thinking when he stepped off of the boat and stood on the water. I guess not! Nor can I. But when we are asked to do something that is totally different from anything else we have done before, we get all manner of feeling come to the surface. There was a certain security in what Peter was feeling at first because when He obeyed Christ and stepped onto the water he was able to walk on it at first. Then the doubts must have started to creep in because of everything that was going on around him.
Oh how we doubt so many times as well when we see all that others do around us and all that is in the world. We look at it all and begin to wonder what we have been called to do is actually possible or not! We begin to have those initial doubts that it is real or that it is actually what God has asked? “What if I misheard God and am doing something for myself instead?” “What if I am actually doing this just because I want to?” With such questions will come floods of doubt and those floods of doubt are what will make us sink just like Peter.
But Christ is there, willing and able, firm and steady, truthful and ready. Oh what a Saviour! It may take us tripping up and falling flat on our faces before we do realise that He is waiting there for us with His arms out wide, or we may see them just as we start to sink; but see Him we will!
I can remember many a time when I started out and wondered whether I had made the right decision. I can also remember many a time when I have called out to Christ just as Peter did “Lord, Save Me!” and each time I have been caught and rescued just as Peter was too. It does not matter how bad the storm is that surrounds us, nor how big we think the waves are because as long as we are willing to trust in the Lord we too will see the storm calmed and the waves flattened!
Points to Ponder:
Are you worried about that first step?
Are you looking to God for support yet?
Tuesday Reading: Galatians 3 10-14
Key Verse: Galatians 3 12
12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
Devotion:
One thing about the word of God is that we do not have to have faith to realise that we are doing things wrong. As soon as we start reading God’s Word and see what He has asked of us, we begin to see that we fall short of His requests. God has made sure His rules have all been written down so that we don’t have to go and try it all out one more time. God wants us to leave that sinful life behind and move forward with a new spirit in our hearts.
It is when we start to treat God’s Word as a set of aims instead of a set of broken rules that we can move forward and stand with Christ. I’m not saying that we can all throw a switch and change our lives because if we try to do that we will find that we cannot do it by ourselves. What we need to do is to have a bit of faith; faith that God will be able to give us the strength that we need in order to stand up and reject the sinful ways. That faith will be strengthened as we start to see how much God is willing to support us when we rely on Him.
Following the law, God’s Word, is not a leap of faith because it is the truth. Anyone can come to the correct conclusion about it being the truth and if we follow it we are following it because we have read what it says. God wants us to trust in Him, the unseen part, which means that we have to have faith in that unseen part, trusting that He will strengthen us and guide us in the correct ways down the right path. Walking in those ways gives us an even better understanding so we can walk closer to God’s will in our lives.
Christ showed us His love by taking that curse that we brought upon ourselves and nailing it to the cross. By giving His life for us He has separated us from those sins as far as is possible giving us the opportunity to walk away and believe that He can deliver us. He then calls on us to have faith in what He has promised us, the gift of eternal life given to all those whom He willingly forgives. What a Saviour we have! We can accept the Holy Spirit into our lives by faith and live our lives by faith, trusting that He will continue to guide our every step.
Points to Ponder:
Do you carry your sins around with you?
Or do you depend on God for deliverance?
Monday Reading: Psalms 8 3-9
Key Verse: Psalms 8 4
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Devotion:
Sometimes we can look at something and wonder how man has ever been able to build something so great. The first time I saw a jumbo jet I was amazed that the huge hunk of metal would actually be able to hang in the air on two simple wings. When I went to university and studied about aeronautics I was amazed that engineers came up with the ideas that they did to make it fly. But when we look up at the starts or even look through a telescope at the moon, we marvel at how God has been able to create such huge things in perfect harmony. Maybe you will be lucky enough to learn about the more majestic parts of the universe and sometime in the future you may even be able to get a better view of those places to see how magnificent God’s creation is.
In the mean time we should take what we know and think about what God has planned for us in heaven. If we can do amazing stuff, and we see that God can do so much more, then imagine just how special a place heaven is going to be for us. And why should God do all of this for us? Why should God even think about the smaller things such as us?
Putting aside all of the huge things that we see, have a look at some of the smaller things… The grace with which a tiny bird can flitter through the air or a dragonfly dart back and forward over a pond does not come from a random act of chance; this is because of a loving God that has created something special for mankind. God has created this all, above, below and all around us and has given us dominion over it all. Jesus came to earth and showed us that He has absolute dominion over this all and then willingly gave His own life for us on the cross. What love!
So why should a great and awesome God do all of this for us, the vile, offensive and sinful race that has proven over and over again that we want it all for ourselves? Why should He do so much for us in this state that we are in? Because of that simple thing called love! Don’t ever doubt the love of God because it is everything!
Points to Ponder:
What is the most awesome thing you know?
God can do more!
Sunday Reading: Matthew 21 14-16
Key Verse: Matthew 21 16
16 And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?
Devotion:
One of the best things I see in life is a child turning to embrace Christ and the joy that they get out of what Christ brings into their lives. I know there are many who ascribe to not allowing young children to make decisions like asking Christ into their lives, but this should be the passage that they are ushered toward to show that this is what has been ordained for a long time already. Christ was quoting the scriptures once again to point out to the Scribes and Pharisees that they were ignoring the parts of the bible they wanted to once again!
We cannot ignore the parts we think should not be there just because we think so! This is God’s Word and it is all His Word. God has given us His Word from the beginning and told us that we should read it and accept it as the truth because it is the truth. Once we accept it as the truth and apply it in our lives we begin to see how special God is and how much He wants every one of us to know Him. My heart is set on getting young people to know Christ because I can see a very big gap left in society where Christ has been left out. The young people have been given all manner of things to keep them out of church just as we were, but there is a generation of people who are giving in to those things rather than fighting to keep our children in Church!
We owe it to our children to give them God’s Word at the earliest opportunity and to give it to them as the truth and not as something they can choose to believe or not. If we do that then we encourage them to think of it as a story instead of the truth. I know I was guilty of that as a young parent and I am not going there again.
Jesus reminds us here that children and young people have every right to know Him just as adults do. They have every right to stand up and praise Him like adults do. They have every right to pray to Him and ask things of Him just as we do. Bring them in and allow them to experience what we had when we first got to know Christ! Don’t fight children. Don’t put them down. Lift them up!
Points to Ponder:
Do you blame children?
Or do you lift them up to Christ?