Monday Reading: 1 John 5 18-21
Key Verse: 1 John 5 21
21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Devotion:
I just love the way that this letter is finished off because we so often forget that it is those things that we desire that keep us away from our God; and anything that we desire more than God is effectively an idol that we worship more than God! If we are going to have sports that keep us from God, then they are our idols rather than God. If we are going to have video games and such that keep us from God, then they are our idols.
God alone should be the one that we idolise because he alone is God and there is none other beside Him. Once we start keeping to that ideal then we start to see just how important He is in our lives. Once we lose track and accept other things instead of our God them we find that it is so very easy to be side tracked by almost any temptation that will keep us from God. Do you not realise that that is the primary goal of Satan? Do you not realise that if we give in to those things we are giving in to the evil one and siding with Him instead of with God?
The more that we do seek God the more that we do realise just how much the world around us is giving in to the evil one and the more concerned that should make us. As we grow more concerned with how this world is we should allow God to strengthen us to take forward His Word. As I have already said, we do not have to bash people over the head until they believe what we are trying to tell them, we have to present the gospel to them as best we can by allowing God to work through us. It is not the strength that we have or the understanding that we attain; it is a gift that God has given each one of us – to be able to give the most precious gift that anyone can have to everyone!
We start thinking about the gifts that we could give to others round about now. We start to think about what we can buy for others because Christmas is just around the corner. We may be disgruntled by the many seemingly disposable gifts that are on the market because we want to give something that is going to last; well the one gift that will last eternity is the best gift that we can ever give to anyone. If people want something to idolise, give them the only thing they should idolise – God!
Points to Ponder:
Are you looking for the perfect gift?
Have you given God’s Word lately?
Sunday Reading: 1 John 5 13-17
Key Verse: 1 John 5 15
15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Devotion:
With so much evidence it is only right that we should believe in God and believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He came to save us from our sins; and yet we are still given this as a choice we can make. The apostles, like us, may well have marvelled at how people can ignore the truth and cannot see that Jesus is the Son of God, but then we do have hind sight because we have come to know that truth.
It is a hard task to try and get people to believe the truth when they are surrounded by so much corruption and temptation, but then that is not our task. God has given us the task of taking His Word out to others, not trying to get them to believe it. If we are faithful to take His Word forward and present it in the best possible light that we can, then God is able to use what we have done to convict people and to allow them to understand the truth. Just because we are believers and they are not does not mean that God has not given them the ability to discern the truth, it just means that nobody has given them enough information yet!
When I first started running a youth group I would try to do my best to make my talk sound good but I very quickly learned that what I can do and what God can do are very different things. If I had relied on what I can do I would have lost my youth group a long time ago. Instead, I lift up my prayers to our awesome God and ask Him to give me the words to speak to my youth. I ask Him to help me to deliver His Word in the best possible light for them to understand it. I know many say that teenagers are the hardest nuts to crack because they are at the cusp of throwing everything away, but to me that is just part of the challenge that God has taken on through me. I love to tell the youth about my God that is able to do so much and they seem to like me telling them these truths because they keep coming back for more. I am certainly not one to count the souls won or lost; if I did that I probably should have given up a long time ago. Instead I count every youth that I am able to see as a potential vessel for God to work in; I just need to start filling them up!
We may find things hard to understand. We may find things difficult to accept. God has given us a direct line through which we can ask for help – so long as we ask in sincerity and with an open heart.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you ask God for help?
Do you keep in constant contact with God?
Saturday Reading: Psalms 31 19-24
Key Verse: Psalms 31 19
19 Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!
Devotion:
It is often only after we have been through trials that we begin to understand just how awesome our God really is because it is during those times when we find out how weak we are and how strong He is! But there is a difference between what we will see as Christians and what non-Christians will see. As Christians we can identify how much God has done for us behind the scenes whereas a non-Christians would not understand just what they have been through, nor why they had to go through it and certainly not that there was someone behind the scenes at all times looking out for them.
I have heard non-Christians say that there must be a God because they should not have been able to survive some things that they have been through. But when they come out the other side they immediately forget what they have been through and how miraculous their escape has been. We can think of Pharaoh and how much he saw but how he refused to believe in his heart that it was God who was in control. We see that with friends and family who do not yet trust God – oh how we wish they would just open up their eyes to see the truth that is before them!
God has given us the enquiring mind to seek out these truths, but as long as we bury our minds in the dirt of this world we will not be able to look up and see the truth when it is right in front of our eyes. Instead we have to wait with patience upon Gods instructions and upon His timing and that wait may be a trial for each of us in itself. If we do start to feel down and dejected we have to look up toward the things we know that Christ has already achieved for us. We need to look and see the grace that He has shown us and have faith that He will continue to look after us in ways we can only imagine.
The Lord has proven His love for us, has shown us His faith is without question and that His Word is totally reliable. We need to take those truths and realise that we can and must have faith in this Rock that is Christ Jesus. Through what we can learn through His Word we can have courage and know that He will strengthen our hearts when we do trust Him – we have His Word!
Points to Ponder:
What do you cling to in life?
How much are you relying on God’s Word?
Friday Reading: 2 Corinthians 8 7-9
Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 8 9
9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
Devotion:
God has given us (humans) many gifts through which we can explore our relationship with Him. He has given us the ability to exercise our faith through trusting Him in ways that will really surprise us. He has given us the ability to talk, but not just to each other but to Him especially through prayers. He has given us amazing minds that can explore things, can work things out but also have the ability to learn, especially about Him. He has given us these gifts and more so that we can experience a full life with Him and in order to do that we have to use these gifts to the best ability that we can toward our goal of glorifying God.
One of the things that we do have to remember is that even though God has given us the commandment to love and obey Him, He still give us the choice of whether we do follow that commandment. So when the apostles gave these instructions to the churches that they visited, they passed on that same idea; this is a commandment from God that we love one another and that we love Him as our only God, but it is not a commandment or order from man that we should obey it without question. After all, why should God give us an enquiring mind if He simply wants us to follow without question. No, instead God has given us these gifts so that we can fully realise just how awesome He is as our one true God!
If we question why we should follow Him or follow His commandments, then we should look at what he has done for us so that we can know just how much He really loves us. If we were to blindly follow the rules without understanding what God has done for us we would not know that full extent of His love. The gifts God has given us are for our benefit and not just for fun; through them we are allowed to find out more about How much He does for us and what this all means for us as well. Through our gifts we are able to find out much more than just facts; we are able to understand the spiritual side of our relationship with Him and to understand His love that He has for us.
Jesus has shown us that He was willing to lower Himself from His position with God in heaven to a mere human being so that we would see that He wants us to be with Him and not slaves without a soul. Through those gifts He has given us we are able to understand why He has done this and to know that through His position of servitude, we are raised up in positions of power and richness in Him.
Points to Ponder:
How rich do you think you are?
Do you see how many riches He has given you?
Thursday Reading: Luke 6 33-36
Key Verse: Luke 6 35
35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
Devotion:
One of the hardest things to accept in life is when someone works against you, puts you down or is just plain unkind toward you; when we are faced with such odds we tend to try and think of ways in which we can get our own back or get our own way instead. But that is not what Christ has been trying to teach us all these years – He has been trying to build up that part of our heart that allows us to love our enemies.
God does not want us to get our own back when things go wrong. He does not want us to give in and make other people’s lives difficult just because they have done so for us! God wants us to be strong, be strengthened by His Word but also to accept the hardships we have and learn to try and work with them. God may well allow various hard things through our lives so that we can understand how amazing He is and how He could get us through anything!
We need to also build up our strength so that when people come complaining to us, we have strength to help them out as well as to help those around us. Another big thing that we get trapped into very quickly is working for the world instead of working for God. Just because we live in this world and we have to make money to survive, it does not mean that we have to forget about all those people around us that need God because He wants us to tell those same people about our awesome God!
Just because our enemies want to extract every last cent out of the world, does not mean that we have to give up on everything of this world and only live like missionaries. God has given some of us remarkable skills so that we can go out there and earn money; and maybe that is so that we can support those saints around us that God has chosen to reach out to others through. I find it very encouraging to know that this is going out to hundreds of people and that they can share in the love for God’s Word that I have found. Let us not hope for any return but instead rely on God to make the return possible that is going to glorify Him! Nothing is impossible for our God, but sometimes we do have to put aside the fear that we have for the impossible and trust that God can do things!
Points to Ponder:
Do you expect favours in return?
Do you expect God to do things just because you did something for Him?