Thursday Reading: Acts 19 8-12

Key Verse: Acts 19 9
9  But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.

Devotion:
It is one thing to listen to God and to obey Him and live by His ways, but it is another thing entirely to be able to go forward and tell others about our Lord and Saviour. When we are encouraged by all that God has done for us and all that we see Him do for others we want to be able to share those experiences with others and allow them to be happy in Christ as well. But as the apostle found out, not everyone is going to want to listen to what we have to say. Indeed there are going to be people who will argue every point we try to make and people who will curse us and even people who will go as far as cursing God in their unbelief.

In these cases we do have to draw the line somewhere because it is hard to continue on in God’s direction when we have such a heavy load as this bearing down upon us. It may even be better to separate ourselves from such people so that we can continue on in God’s will… Is this a form of giving up or giving in? Is this a form of running away from issues? These are the doubts that Satan is trying to plant in our heads by using those unbelievers whom he has got a firm grip on to try and trip us up. We have tried to switch the light on in their lives but they have refused God, refused that light, refused the truth. Yes it is a shame to turn our back on them, but just as God has to punish the unrepentant sinner, we too have to stop at some stage.

I like to think that I continue on when others are failing but it is those times when the going gets tough when I find myself relying more and more on God for some tiny bit of strength just to be able to pick myself up again. It is at those times when God wants us to realise that we have limits and we should not push them too far because it may be us that breaks instead of the unbeliever.

Take time to pray about your decisions. Take time to just be with God and let Him build up your inner strength. Take time to spend in His Word so that you will be ready for the next battle. We may lose a fight now and again, but God has already won the war! It may wear us down to lose a battle, but winning the next one will give us even more strength.

Points to Ponder:
How often do you feel rejected?

How often do you think God is rejected?

Wednesday Reading: Psalms 95 7-11

Key Verse: Psalms 95 8
8  Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

Devotion:
Christ wants us to listen. He wants us to obey. He wants us to be willing servants. He wants what is best for us! A shepherd is not going to do everything in his power to make the sheep’s lives a misery; instead he is going to do what he can to allow those sheep to live a good life – that way he will be able to get the most out of the sheep instead of having to fight with them every step of the way!

When I see how some teachers or leaders treat their students or workers I begin to wonder how they expect to get any work out of their workers! I then am reminded in so many ways of how wonderful God is to us and how much He continues to do for each one of us every day of our lives. It is little wonder then that we are reminded here not to harden our hearts against all of these facts.

But that is where we find out why we have been reminded; because just when we think that we have it all worked out we go off and find something else we like the sound of or something we don’t like the sound of and get trapped in our own desires once again. Right from the beginning of time we have seen how man wants things his own way and wants to be in control of his own destiny. He demands things and runs off in his own direction and then we wonder why things tend to go belly up!

When the Children of Israel were out in the desert they found that they had to rely on God for everything and whilst they did do that they found that things would go according to plan – because God was in charge! But as soon as they took it upon themselves to complain or demand their own ways things went astray. Instead of coming to God with an open heart and a willing soul, they turned hard and rejected His help. God does not want us to reject Him because He is busy trying to show us what is good for us. For forty long years God had to put up with the people answering back, demanding, doubting, wanting, coveting and all the rest of the doubtful and dubious things they got up to! But for those same forty years God continued to support them and watch over them! What grace! What mercy!

And the very special thing is that we continue to be shown that same grace and mercy as we run off in our own directions. God loves us more than we realise at times and He continues to try to show us that every day!

Points to Ponder:
How often do you argue with God’s ways?

How often do you see Him show you mercy?

Tuesday Reading: Psalms 95 1-6

Key Verse: Psalms 95 6
6  O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

Devotion:
There are some verses in my bible that I think I must talk about a lot and this Psalms is one of them; but then I look back and realise that it has been several years since I mentioned these verses in a devotion! Does this mean that I have too much to talk about? Certainly not! By my nature I am a fairly timid person but when I start to put pen to paper and talk about God I find that I have no end of words that I want to get down. This Psalms just happens to be one where one of my favourite songs comes from too!

We definitely need to make a joyful noise to shout about our God, the one who continues to make sure that we can walk on earth without being flung off whilst the earth spins around at incredible speeds. He is the one who allows us to stand tall even though we are mostly water! We look at the surface of the earth and see that it is mostly water and we wonder if we will run out of space to live as the population continues to grow. And yet God makes sure that we do find room to live and that we do have an environment in which we can live. If we were not protected by the atmosphere we would roast to death. If we were not surrounded by oceans we would frizzle up and dry up. Basically God continues to balance the scales so that we can live on a remarkable place at the right distance from the sun and in an environment that supports us.

If we wanted to cook a meal we would not place everything in a pan, put it on the gas burner and walk away from it; that would turn into a disaster. Instead we continue to look out for the food as it cooks, taking care to make sure that it is in the right environment to cook evenly and properly. We need to care for it whilst it is cooking otherwise it will burn and be of no use whatsoever!

God has made all the right ingredients available in all the right quantities. He then places us in the right environment and continues to work us as we live so that when He is finished with us we are ‘cooked’ to perfection. He is a master chef working to produce a perfect meal. If we try to fight Him all the way and jump out of the pan we will find we land in the fire instead of being free to do whatever we want. God has supplied the wherewithal, but we have to obey the instructions otherwise we will end up being burned.

Points to Ponder:
Do you know how much God has done for you?

Do you still think you know better than God?

Monday Reading: John 10 7-11

Key Verse: John 10 8
8  All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.

Devotion:
When Christ spoke of being the Good Shepherd it was not just that He was a shepherd that really did care for His sheep but so much more than that. We can study about how much He has done as a good shepherd in the fact that He continues to look out for us, to track us down when we go astray, to being us back, to love us and to protect us in ways which we can see… but how many times have we thought about the protection that He gives to us from the unseen?

When we look back in our own lives and compare them with the stories that we hear from the world around us we may well be very thankful that God has not allowed us to go through the same problems as others or to face the same temptations as others may have had to face. We can look back on those things and be very thankful because we can see or hear about the evidence of the trial and temptations others may have had to face. For some, you may well have been centre stage and have had to face those things. But then we only know what we hear about or see for our own selves.

If we take a closer look at the world around us we find all sorts of things that we probably do not already know about. The more that we are able to study God’s Word the more that we find that it explains so much more than just a little of the history of the earth like some would believe. This is God’s Word we are talking about and it is certainly not limited as the numbers of words in our bibles are finite.

The hints about what we don’t know about start in the very beginning when Adam and Eve were faced by the serpent who successfully tempted them to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. They gave in to the evil side and they had to pay the price for what they had done; but again, they saw temptation. If we look at Job and what he had to go through we see a different story. He was faced with evil and did not give in, but he was only able to see the effects of evil and not evil itself. God continues to protect us from that evil whilst we rely on Him; but if we wander off into the wilderness to see what is out there, we may well come face to face with something we do not need to see!

Points to Ponder:
What scares you most?

Do you see how much God protects you from?