Wednesday Reading: 1 Peter 4 7-11
Key Verse: 1 Peter 4 9
9 Use hospitality one to another without grudging.
Devotion:
There are some subjects that you just want to quote whole sections of the bible for rather than limiting any devotion to a few verses; the love that God commands us to have for one another is one such subject. How often we do forget this every so simple command because we somehow corrupt things so that we don’t have to love some people, just the ones we want to. That is not what God has said we should do!
We do live in a world where people are going to choose the ones they want to love and care for rather than following God’s wishes. We do live in a world where those that do not know Christ will demand things from those they say they love almost as if it was in payment for them loving them. We do live in a world that is full of hatred, wars and strife. But this is the same world that Christ came down to in order to demonstrate God’s absolute love for us. Christ came to openly declare His love for the whole world, both to the sinners and to the saved.
When Christ then taught His disciples about brotherly love it was first to the Jews so that they would grasp this love; for God had shown them His love throughout history. But then He sent Paul to demonstrate that love to the gentiles, knowing that those that accepted Him would not be limited by this focus on Israel as the chosen race, but would be able to love others freely. It was that outreach that opened the eyes for many people as to how they should be opening their hearts. It is that example that we look at today and begin to realise just how much God wants us to love others.
Above all, God wants us to be able to love without grumbling, without holding back, without limiting it and without worldly selections. Oh how we like to pigeon-hole people so that we may not have to put up with some. How we like to blame others so that we can live ‘above’ them or ‘without’ them in some manner. We are all God’s creation and we are all accountable to God. We do not have the choice as to whether we should choose who we should love because God commands us to love everyone. What we do have the choice for, however, is to associate and mix with whom we choose. God does not say that we have to mix with people who reject Him. He wants us to reach out to the lost, but He does not want us to sink into sin with the lost. God will give us the gift of love is we are willing to accept it and use it without imposing our own limits on it – because God’s love is without limits.
Points to Ponder:
How choosey are you with you love?
What would you have done if God chose to ignore you?
Tuesday Reading: 1 John 3 11-15
Key Verse: 1 John 3 12
12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.
Devotion:
The message that God has tried to teach us from the beginning is that we need to love one another; something that Christ enforced and reminded us of as well. But when we see how the world has tried to re-define that love that God has taught, we then begin to understand how we have managed to get so far from God in so many things. God’s love is pure and whole whereas we try to define love in terms of what we can get out of it; God’s love is directed toward others.
Cain must have had love for his brother – that is something that we can relate to as well; and yet he got to such a stage that he turned against his brother and killed him. For that to happen there was a limit that he placed on that love, a boundary which was crossed in his mind. God does not have such boundaries and does not impose limits on His love for us. We place limits on relationships so that we do not have to go all the way or give everything when required; instead we want to only have to give as much as we think is enough.
If God had placed limits on His love He would not have gone to the cross for us knowing that we would sin against Him, but would have probably required something from us before going that far. Instead, Christ gave it all without expecting anything back. That is the level of commitment and love that He requires that we apply in our lives, that we are willing to love without expecting anything back. Once we can see that we can then begin to see how much He does actually love us and how easily we are led astray by the evil one and his ways.
When we start to show that we are willing to love without requiring anything in return we will find that people will not just think that we are strange, but may even try to stop us because we may just show them up for what they are. The men of Israel wanted Christ out of the way because He was showing them up for the wicked men they were. Once our feelings of pride and greed start to surface we find that we lose control of our own feelings pretty quickly and don’t see why others should be in control of theirs. God’s directive for us to love without fault was given to us so that we can aim for a fuller relationship with Him.
Points to Ponder:
Are you limiting your love?
Why try to limit God’s love?
Monday Reading: Hebrews 13 1-6
Key Verse: Hebrews 13 5
5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Devotion:
I like the way that Matthew Henry describes the reason for Christ giving His life for us: “The design of Christ in giving himself for us, is, that he may purchase to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works; and true religion is the strongest bond of friendship”
When Christ gave His life for us it was not just a carte blanche by which everyone will be forgiven as some may suppose but rather that we who ask Him into our lives should be changed such that we may live a changed life for Him from that day forward. It is so very easy to give in to the ways of the world and continue on as if nothing had happened – but by doing that we are dictating to the world that we are no different than before and that Christ has made no difference in our lives! That certainly was not the intention of our Lord when He gave His life for us!
I know that we do still struggle with earthly matters and our old ways, but Christ also gives us strength that we may go forward and live a new life for Him. He wants us to put aside those old ways because He knows that they will lead to destruction; after all that is what He has saved us from. We ought to listen to His instructions therefore so that we will not just change to be better people, but change to be a better example toward others as well.
One thing we must never forget is that Christ has promised to be with us from the moment we invite Him into our lives for all eternity. If we invite Him in and then continue to invite in all that old lifestyle back again, we are trying to mix Christ in with that old person, that sinful person. We are ultimately trying to force Christ to accept our sin as being normal. Christ does not want our sin – He is trying to separate us from that sin so that He may craw close and teach us His ways. Turning our backs on our old sinful ways and turning toward His teaching and His ways must be our goal. We must be aiming to be a “peculiar people, zealous of good works” so that others will be encouraged to find out what special thing has change us and made our lives a life worth living. We have been given this change to make amends and to live with Christ. We need to embrace His ways in our new life with Him.
Points to Ponder:
Do you count your life as being different?
Are you still rejecting your new life in Christ?
Sunday Reading: Proverbs 10 2-3
Key Verse: Proverbs 10 3
3 The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.
Devotion:
The age old question – will riches make you happy? Yes it is true that having riches will allow you to buy things and many people will count that as being happy or fulfilled in some manner. I beg to differ. And then there are the many people who will look at verses like these and say that God is going to allow them to be prosperous because He will not allow them to go hungry; or other strange arguments based on single verses. The proverbs are not a law unto themselves or a means to an end for all your woes – they are just a part of God’s Word, just like the other parts.
Our God is God of gods. He is Creator of everything. There is nothing that He cannot do! His promises are exactly that and we need to make sure that we do not doubt that there is anything that He cannot do; but equally we have to make sure we never forget that God is Holy and Just. We are the weak ones who will always trip up and fall over various temptations whereas He continues to uphold absolute righteousness. It is the Righteousness of Jesus Christ that has made it possible for us to be delivered from eternal death; but have you also noticed that people are still facing death?
Christians will still have to face death as a human being just like any other human being has to face death. We continue to have bad things happen to us just like other people do. But as this passage alludes, God continues to care for us in ways we cannot imagine when we have our faith and trust firmly in His grip. Because of His love for us He does not want us to have to suffer, be it through hunger or any other ailment – but when we invite sin into our lives we also have to put up with the bad things that that is going to attract as well.
When we follow our prideful hearts or selfish minds we fall very short of God’s ways. We also then have to face up with the consequences. But even then we find an awesome truth in that God is always willing and able to forgive us when we do bring our faults to Him. So when someone tells me that our God is going to protect me from things, I already know that He does because I see the results of His forgiveness in my life every day. I am but a sinner, save by grace, God’s grace!
Points to Ponder:
What do you seek from God?
How often do you seek His forgiveness?
Saturday Reading: Psalms 33 18-22
Key Verse: Psalms 33 18
18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
Devotion:
The fact that we say that we fear God is not so much that we fear His wrath, what He can do to us because of our sin, but rather that we depart from evil because we know that it will offend our God. He is the one who has chosen to support us and to love us; should we depart from His ways we are effectively saying that we do not respect His ways. He is our God, our Creator God, the One who has not only created us and supports us but the One who has chosen to love us first.
It is our lot to serve and worship Him in a manner that is befitting of His position as our Lord, Saviour and King. That means having faith that He is going to uphold His promises toward us and knowing that He has shown us mercy from the beginning even though we do not deserve it. It is that hope in the unseen that we call faith and it is that hope that we exercise every day; and that mercy that we count on to allow us to rely on that hope and faith.
Now whilst we do not have a sure cure for death and disease, we do have an eternal place reserved for us in Heaven with our Lord and Saviour. Just because we have that eternal life based on a promise from God does not mean that we are going to be able to cheat death in any way; God may choose to keep us alive so that we can be used to further His Word, but we still have to face the same sort of deaths that any other human has to face. It may be that we have to face up to cancer or have to face some other terminal disease; but it is what happens after we die our earthly death that counts most of all.
We must wait patiently on God’s promises to look forward to our eternal place with Him knowing that it is Jesus Christ that will save us from our sin because of what He has already done for us. The love that He demonstrated goes far beyond our vain imaginations and allows us to begin to understand just how much He does love us. It is our souls that look forward to the joy and peace that we face in heaven by comparing the joy and peace we now have on earth with that that is missing from the unbelievers life. It is that that gives us more hope and something very special to aim for.
Points to Ponder:
What do you look forward to each day?
Are you really standing on God’s promises?