Sunday Reading: Acts 12 5-11
Key Verse: Acts 12 11
11 And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.
Devotion:
We like to marvel at the magicians who seem to be able to escape from various chains and other perilous looking devices that are keeping them, but they are illusionists that are showing us tricks that we do not see because we do not understand how they work. Peter, on the other hand, was no magician or illusionist! And yet he was able to get up, leave the chains that bound him, walk through a couple of prison wards, through locked iron gates, all without alerting any guards, and escape into the night air without even having to break into a sweat!
When God wants something to happen, we had better be sure that we are ready for what is going to happen because it is going to happen! Sometimes it is only when we see what God has done that we begin to realise just how awesome and powerful He is. Sometimes it is with unbelief that we lift up our prayers because we cannot see how God is going to answer them! But when God has set something in motion, we need to depend on Him and follow it through to completion… or be left behind…
Our God is not bound by the limits that we impose on Him! Just because we cannot see past the end of our nose does not mean that there is nothing there. God is God of the whole realm and not just God of what you can see and hear. Just because we have limits on what we see and hear does not limit the earth to just what is around us. The early sailors did not know what lay beyond the horizon, and many of them would not go too far because they lived in fear. It was the early explorers that went past the limits that found out there was a whole world out there! And yet God told us of the earth that hung in space right from an early age.
We need to open our eyes to God’s will and to His ways because they are far and beyond anything that we can imagine. Don’t try to limit Him so that you can make sense of what you can imagine because what you can imagine is very small in comparison to what God can do!
Points to Ponder:
Are you amazed at what others can do?
Do you think you know what God can do?
Saturday Reading: Psalms 102 18-22
Key Verse: Psalms 102 20
20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;
Devotion:
This is part of a prayer that was written for those people who are in distress, just as the people in the wilderness were facing the unknown, just as many people today face odds that seem too big to overcome, God is reminding us that He will always be there and will always be listening to our prayers. There is no situation that is too big for God to overcome even when we have given up. Just as we think that things are getting worse there are still people being born into this world, this world that we think is so corrupt and sinful… And yet every one of us can still call upon the name of The Lord!
Even though we are faced on every side by people who are full of sin and sinful ways, there are still people who wish to be able to come forward and praise God. When we see so much sin surrounding us, our hearts should be focused on those people so that they get to hear about this truth that we know, so that they can get to hear about the wonderful Gospel that we know. Only then will they be able to see this same truth and come forward to accept Christ as Saviour.
It is not just the great preachers and outstanding Christians that Christ is going to hear when they call on His name. The people who think they have no hope left, the people who think there is nothing to turn to, the people who have given up on everything else… these are the people that Christ is also going to hear because these are the people that need Him most of all. When we are at our lowest we need Christ most of all to lift us up out of the deepest pits. When society has turned its back on the people who have sunk into these pits, Christ listens more intently for those voices that cry out to Him!
Think of all those people also who have dared to stand up for the name of Christ, knowing that they will face all manner of punishment just because they dared to lift God up instead of the tyrannical rulers of their countries. Those are the people that Christ is holding firmly in His grip. They may not survive man’s wrath but they certainly will be reserved their place in heaven! It is hard for us to understand just what they face when we live a life where we are free to worship; so lift them up in prayer this day.
Points to Ponder:
Do you feel left out?
Are you really trusting God?
Friday Reading: Psalms 9 17-20
Key Verse: Psalms 9 18
For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.
Devotion:
We must never forget that God is just. He will continue to carry out the judgements that He has said that He will and continue to lift up those that He has promised. These verses remind us that the evil people and the unbelievers (even if we do not see them as evil) have no place with God and they will have to face the punishment that they have chosen for themselves in unbelief – an eternal place in hell.
But that does not mean that they are going to have to live in hell whilst on earth. Far from it; they may well be given to a long life of luxury instead. We do not know the reasons behind why God allows certain things into other people’s lives while they live here on earth but we do know what we have been promised when we leave this earth. We may well be poor and need for many things on earth, but as long as we stay focused on Christ then we can continue to be encouraged about our future place in heaven. These rough and tough times on earth will not last forever.
They may well seem like they are lasting forever if we continue to live for a long time, but each day our Lord will be faithful and just and will give us our needs. Those needs may well be very different from our wants and desires, but they will be met by God. We may think that we need things right now and God may want us to wait on Him so that we can be sure that it is He that is supplying our needs – so be patient…
We have to remember also that it is not up to us to judge people and their positions because we do not know how the Lord is working in their own lives. We just need to remember that we are all just humans and that God is the one who has everything in the balance of life. Others may well be following evil ways and being encouraged all along the way by the evil one, but we must stay focused on God and continue to promote His ways instead. Without us lifting up the name of our Lord and Saviour, others may not get to hear of His name in a manner that they can easily understand. They may well be fools until they accept Christ into their lives, but we were fools before too! Lift up God and allow Him to show them the truth!
Points to Ponder:
Do you feel poor and rejected?
Are you focusing on what God has promised you?
Thursday Reading: Job 5 6-16
Key Verse: Job 5 16
16 So the poor hath hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth.
Devotion:
Despite Job’s so called friends blaming just about everyone for everything and trying to convince Job that he must have done something to cause God to show him such wrath, they actually did say some good things… Eliphaz reminded Job that if God is going to show His wrath we should expect to be reprimanded for our sins. Thankfully we have a Saviour who has paid for our sin debt and has set us free – but it is God who allows everything into our lives.
Just as God allowed the devil to have a hand at trying to get Job to renounce God, Job would not do it because he fully trusted in God. Job did not fully understand why all these things should come his way after he had led a good life, but I think this is one of those sections which must have made him think again. Yes, God allows everything into our lives, and sometimes He allows things into our lives because we deserve them – but other times it seems like it just happens!
We are all born into this world and hence we are all born with a sin nature which we inherit from Adam and Eve. That sin nature encourages us to go into sin and see what happens! But God has given us a new nature through Jesus Christ that allows us to avoid sin if we should choose to. Unfortunately many of us continue in sin rather than turning our backs on that sin. It is only when we do turn our backs on sin that we find out just how much God is looking out for us and how much He wants to help us in that path!
No matter where we are in society, we are all born with this sin nature which means that we all do need Christ in our lives in order to dispense with that sin nature and take on God’s ways! No matter how rich or poor we are, we all have that same hope through Jesus Christ because He died for everyone and not just the righteous or the just – after all, we all fall short of that mark! When we are willing to lay aside our ways and come humbly before our God, He is the one who will show us the mercy and help us when we actually need it!
Points to Ponder:
Do you count on God?
Do you actually wait on Him?
Wednesday Reading: Romans 3 19-20
Key Verse: Romans 3 19
19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Devotion:
How many times have you heard someone say that they are good and that they don’t break the law? How many of those people are Christians – probably not many! If we profess to be Christians then we should know that we are very guilty before God because we have His Word and our consciences to tell us of all the things that we do wrong all of the time. For us to try and justify ourselves through our works in any way is just plain wrong because it is our works that bring us down and make us fall short of God’s Law.
None of us like to be called guilty or sinner because they are such horrible words to accept – but that is what we are. The sooner that we realise that we are guilty of sin the sooner we will be able to move on. When we do accept our sinful nature we should be able to see that God has provided us a way whereby we can be called ‘not guilty’ once again. Those same scriptures that show us how guilty we are, also give us the answer that we are looking for.
It is through what Christ alone has done for us that we can be called to Him and see that He is willing and able to forgive us of all of our sins that we bring openly before Him. If we seek to be justified by what we can do instead then we are saying to Christ that He died in vain! If we look at the moral law that we live by and try to justify ourselves by how we live, then we are once again calling what Christ has done for us as a useless event.
Let us never forget just how much Christ has done for us. Let us never forget just how much Christ has gone through on our behalf. Let us never forget how much He has promised us… if we only believe on Him. God’s Word has given us this whole truth and we have to accept this whole truth so that we can live with Him and for Him. Part of that is admitting that we are dreadful sinners before Him and that we do need to ask for forgiveness before we can move forward with Him. But the part that we can all look forward to is where God has promised us a place in heaven with Him when we do accept His Word as the truth. Let the truth set you free today!
Points to Ponder:
Do you think you are good?
God want you to be ‘not guilty’!