Sunday Reading: James 4 13-16
Key Verse: James 4 15
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
Devotion:
When God says that we should be treating each other with brotherly or Christian love, it is not just limited to the way that we are toward others face to face but our whole attitude should be based around that fact – Christian love! I’m sure I would have used my mother’s tapestry before in a devotional, but it goes well with this text. The tapestry states “If there is peace in every home there will be peace in all the world”
It may seem obvious to people that peace would ensue but it would be a whole lot more than just peace. We would be living together in a closer harmony. We would be helping and supporting each other. We would be working toward common goals. We would be able to show love to each other without worrying about being politically correct and we would be safe with each other!
God is the one whole has control over all things and He uses that control with absolute wisdom. We are the ones who continue breaking His ways because we insist on going against God’s ways and take our own paths toward destruction. When we do that we take a whole lot of people with us and not just ourselves. So when we aim for peace at home first of all we are aiming toward a much greater goal than we think.
God wants us to know that peace that He can give us. He wants us to know that love that He wants to share with us. He wants each of us to share what He wants for us with those people around us – that way we will be able to share in that common goal that He has designed from the beginning; the one that we seem to want to avoid! If we relied more on God and His guidance then we would get closer to living for Him and not living for this world. We have seen that we cannot serve two masters and yet we continue to serve the world instead of God. With God in our hearts and minds we will be different people because we will not hanker after the things of this world as much as we currently do. That would mean we are already one step closer to living in His peace, which means one step closer to living at peace with others, which means one step closer to our lives in God.
Points to Ponder:
Do you annoy others for fun?
How much of God’s peace do you ignore?
Saturday Reading: Psalms 95 1-7
Key Verse: Psalms 95 3
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
Devotion:
One of the best ways in which we can praise our Lord God is by lifting up our voices and audibly praising Him for all that He does. We should not have to wait until we receive an earth-shattering event that clearly comes from God; instead we should be praising and thanking Him for every single thing that he allows into our lives. Whilst it is easy to thank Him when things go smoothly and we enjoy the outcome, we must also be thanking Him for the times when we don’t like what we go through; it is often those times that shape us more than the good times because it is during those times when we may learn more because we are forces to think about the outcome.
We should never forget that God is above all and He alone is in charge of everything that He has created – and that is absolutely everything! We do not have to look to anything or anyone else when we should know that God is behind it all and has been from the very beginning.
We the psalmist tells us to make a joyful noise it is not necessarily being able to sing like a nightingale but rather that we should sing or speak from our hearts. When we allow the true meaning to come from our hearts then that can only be a joyful noise because God can see that that agrees with our hearts – hearing the truth come from us has got to be a good thing when He knows how wicked and deceitful we are in the first place! We should not lift up anyone above our God because He alone is above all others and that is how we need to proclaim His name!
He is the creator of the deepest parts of the oceans, the highest parts of the mountains, the widest seas and the narrowest valleys. He is the one who created the most colourful flowers and the driest desserts. He is the one who created the fastest animals and the slowest insects. It is by His hand that we see everything we do and understand how much He does do for us every day and every hour of those days. He is our God and we live in the pastures that He has created for us; He created them knowing what we needed and knowing what we desired.
Points to Ponder:
Do you see everything He created?
What an awesome God! Hallelujah!
Friday Reading: Psalms 45 10-11
Key Verse: Psalms 45 11
11 So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.
Devotion:
God has given us His Word for a reason and that is that we listen to it and act upon it. If we simply listen and do nothing about it then it is falling on deaf ears; but it certainly is not going unnoticed because God will be able to use those words to work in our hearts in ways that we don’t realise. How much quicker could God work in our lives if we were to listen to the words and allow them to get to work immediately rather than discarding them and continuing on in our worldly ways instead.
The prophet here refers to the church as the daughter and speaks as if it is the bridegroom talking, that being our Lord God. Whether this or as some may thing the kings’ daughters, a daughter will make her father immensely proud by listening to his direction and acting accordingly. It is true that we are given our own identities and that God does not expect us to follow Him without question, but when God is giving us the best possible advice, we should be following that advice without question.
When any one of us runs off and follows people who are working against our parents’ wishes then we should not expect our parents to be that proud of us; but as a parent I can say that I am still proud of my children even though they have chosen their own paths and not the exact paths I would have chosen for them. I know they are finding their own ways and I know they are making good decisions based on the facts as they see them. I also know now that the things that I thought I knew back when I was a child are not quite the same as the things I know now. If we did have the best knowledge and wisdom then we would have made the best choices – but that is just not true.
But God is the one who does know the very best for us and He does know how to apply that into our lives. If we are willing to listen to His Words and learn through applying those words and wisdom into our lives then we will get closer to having the best in our lives. How proud would our God be if we actually listened to everything and acted according to His wishes!
Points to Ponder:
Do you follow instructions?
Are you listening to God’s instructions?
Thursday Reading: 1 Timothy 6 17-19
Key Verse: 1 Timothy 6 19
19 Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
Devotion:
I have always wondered what I would do if I had a lot of money. Would I go out and spend it all on myself or go out and spend it on others. Well, when I was earning a fair wage I found myself spending a lot on things around me, worldly things, and not that much on others. Yes I would be more than willing to help others and gave some time and money away, but it has only been since I have committed my life to Christ that I have found that I can give so much more than just wealth.
Wealth is certainly not everything and it saddens me to see people struggling to become more and more wealthy whilst leaving their lives and God behind. God has only given us one life on earth and we need to be aware of that fact. If we spend it aiming at worldly treasures then that is what we are going to end up with – a bunch of worldly treasures that we cannot and will not take with us to heaven, if we get there! If we are not taking notice of God in our lives then we may well not get to hear the gospel and may not get to know Jesus like we should.
Yes, Christ died for all men. But His salvation is reserved for those who believe in Him and not just anybody. We do not have to be model citizens before we ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins; we are sinners and that is what we should be asking forgiveness for. If we try to change our lives before finding out about Jesus we may well keep focusing on the world instead of focusing on Christ and in doing so may miss the boat altogether. Christ wants us to know Him now, before it is too late. He wants to forgive us whilst we are sinners. He has loved us from the beginning. His love does not change by the way we act or how much we give; His disappointment does!
We need to give God the glory because of all that He has been able to do despite us and not because of all that we have been able to do because He changed us. Yes we can do more the more we listen to Him. Yes we can achieve more by following His commandments. Yes others will see a bigger difference the more we do for Christ. But it is what He has been able to do that will speak even more than what we have been able to do. I have learned from the Christians around me to give God the glory in spite of what I can do!
Points to Ponder:
What wealth are you building up?
Is God supporting your wealth?
Wednesday Reading: Luke 18 18-22
Key Verse: Luke 18 22
22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
Devotion:
There are many people in our societies that we look up to because of all the good that they do and the comfort and joy they bring to others; oh to be more like some of them in that way. But when a person like this came to Jesus and asked how he should obtain eternal life, the answer he got was probably not what he was expecting! Jesus told him that he had been good and had followed the commandments as much as he could, but for one thing and that was to follow Christ. And not just to follow Christ but to keep God above everything in his own life.
That is the stumbling point for so many people in life – the need to keep God above everything in their lives. They do not seem to have any issue with giving things away, supporting others, loving others, but when it comes down to following Christ and being willing to give up everything for God alone, they stumble and fall short. God does not want to be second best in your life. He does not want to be second fiddle. No matter how you want to describe it, you need to keep God first and foremost in your life so that He gets pre-eminence in everything!
This man that approached Jesus was obviously wealthy and may well have been giving vast amounts to the poor and needy, but he still was looking to that wealth and holding it as more important in his life that God. That is not how it should be working. If God does want you to have loads of money so that you can give to the world, then He will allow you to have loads of money – as long as you give Him that all important primary position in your life. This does not mean that He will strip you of all your wealth or strip you of your position in society… it just means that you need to make sure that God is more important than any of those positions or things in your life!
We cannot serve a second master as well as serving God because there will come a point in time when we have to choose between the two; and unless you have already chosen Christ to be first, you may well give in to the world and leave God behind. That is when others will see you as a different person to whom you say you are; God has already seen that in your heart…
Points to Ponder:
What do you hold on to in your life?
Are you holding on to God?