Wednesday Reading: 1 Corinthians 3 6-9

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 3 6
6  I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

Devotion:
The one thing that I should never aim to claim is that I am in some way able to make seeds grow. I, on the other hand, can live my life so that God can use me to do His work and whilst He does not require me for any work, He is willing to use me so that others may be encouraged through me. It is God that is doing the planting, sowing, reaping and He that is increasing His church, but He is using people like us to do that! That to me is another humbling thought, that God is using a person like me to reach out to others and bring them in to the same relationship that I have with Him.

I do feel very privileged that Christ has chosen me as one of His servants, as one who will be used to fulfil a single step in someone else coming to know Christ. I know that He has chosen me because of the love that He has given me toward others and it is not just those wonderful and beautiful people that He has brought into my life, but also those ‘hard nuts’ that seem impossible to reach – but He brought them into my life almost a decade ago and they continue to play a part in my life. My ministry to them has changed over time as they have grown from children to adults, but my love for them has remained a part of me and my life. I know that it is God who has given that love to me because others around me continually wonder at how I could keep coming back for more. To me it is simple – God requires and I follow.

When we take care of plants in our garden or even in pots in our houses we are the ones watering and caring for them; we may not have planted the seeds that started the growing and we may not see the end results, but we are caring for them here and now. We are fulfilling a role as laid down by God, a role that is necessary in order for the circle to be made complete. God has given us different roles and different gifts so that we can work together to fulfil His will.

And it is that working together that is what is important to me. Like Moses, I don’t feel like I have the wherewithal to be able to do God’s work, but I do know that with certain people in my life I can achieve a whole lot more. But in order to do that I must work with other people that God has chosen. I must trust that He has chosen the right path for me. I must trust that His Word will continue to show me His righteous ways so that I can fulfil His role for me in this life with confidence.

Points to Ponder:
Who’s goals do you seek?

Are you seeking God’s role for you through His Word?

Tuesday Reading: John 4 34-38

Key Verse: John 4 36
36  And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.

Devotion:
Today just seems to have been one of those days when I have seen many things in God’s Word that I have not considered before and have also seen how they relate to my own life as well. Seeing how God is working in my life directly is a humbling experience because you suddenly get a picture of how our great big God does things for little old me! So when I started reading through this passage I knew that I should be bringing this to you as well.

Jesus had just been talking to the Samaritan woman at the well, the disciples had just returned and see Jesus alone with this foreigner! Then they are told that those people that do all the hard work don’t always get to reap the reward of all of that hard work. Whether they knew what this all meant at the time or not is not what I want to discuss but rather that there are two sides to this relationship. Whilst we would not normally look at this as a normal relationship, the two sides here do need each other to make a whole; hence it is a type of relationship or companionship.

We often look at the people who make us happy as the companions in our life, or the people who we love that should be our companions. In reality, we have many companions when we work together as a society rather than as individuals. If we want to work alone then we are going to find that the work that we do is to no avail because we will not be sharing the results of that work; yes others will get to hear about it and maybe even benefit from it but we gain nothing.

When Jesus was telling the disciples about the combined work of the prophets of old and the work they were doing now, He was showing them that we do not always get to sow and reap, but sometimes just get to do one or the other. When I started my work as a youth leader I thought of the work as being a complete circle, but in reality it is not like that. The way that I see things now is that God is using me to do a whole lot of sowing because He knows something that I do not know. His vocation for me is to sow His seed to the many people that I have been introduced to through working with their children (some of which are adults now). It is rewarding to know that the seeds I am sowing will be gathered at some stage, but in God’s time and not necessarily my time. Patience.

Points to Ponder:
Do you always look to complete things?

Are you trying to complete God’s Work?

Monday Reading: Ecclesiastes 4 9-12

Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 4 9
9  Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.

Devotion:
We don’t have to read very far in our bibles to find out that God created us to have companions. He created man and He created woman, to live together and to be companions. God knew that man would sin and yet He still created us the perfect partners so that we would not have to work alone. He knew that we would end up facing toil and hardship outside of the garden of Eden and what better companions that to have each other after we had been separated from our God?

These verses follow on from Solomon showing how covetousness and solitariness go hand in hand when God is left out of the equation. Instead, as described here, a social life has great advantages and it is not just the social life of people with people but also the social aspect we have when we gather together as Christians to worship our God. God saw it necessary for man not to be alone (Genesis 2 18) when He said that He would make man a help meet or companion. Having a society instead of a bunch of people trying to get one ahead of each other has got to be a whole lot better for all of us. There are very few cases where a person would go out alone instead God always encouraged man to be with companions so that they would always have support in some shape or another.

As I have grown in my Christian walk I have found this to be so true; being able to pray with others, to study with others and to grow in Christ with others is so much more rewarding that anything that this world can give me. It is not always going to be the good times that we share either because we will face some pretty grim times, and it is when we have a companion or friends around us that we will find it so much easier to bear.

God wants us to be able to share our lives because through sharing we learn to trust and to grow together. We can support each other, reward each other, learn with each other and share our burdens with each other. When we are together with other Christians we then find that we share so much more because we know that peace that Christ shows us. It is also that when we are together as Christians that we can be sure that Christ is with us… And then of course there is the pleasure that we will have just by being in each other’s company! We should never be able to find a greater love than the love we should have for Christ; but Christ’s love for us goes far beyond any love that we can have for Him. To grow that love we do need companionship so that we can nurture it rather than become jealous that we cannot find that love.

Points to Ponder:
Do you have special people in your life?

Is Christ on the top of that list?

Sunday Reading: 2 Chronicles 20 1-13

Key Verse: 2 Chronicles 20 4
4  And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the LORD: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.

Devotion:
What is it going to take for you to seek help from God? Will it be the loss of a loved one, the threat of war, a bad accident or some life threatening illness? Why should it have to take such a drastic turn of events to get you to listen to advice and to seek out God? It should be our first order of business to always seek out God first and not to have to wait until everything is collapsing around us instead. But, sadly, that is far to often the case – we wait for everything to collapse around our ears before we step forward and ask Him for help!

Jehoshaphat acknowledged God as creator, protector, sovereign and Lord of all. He knew just how awesome God was and He went straight to God when it looked like there was going to be trouble. He knew from what had happened in history that God was the one who had to power to overcome any enemy and that He alone had the power to do it when nobody else could. God has continued to make sure that we know just how powerful He is but also just how loving He can be as well. Every believer should instinctively know that God is our protector and that He will make things right.

Jehoshaphat also made sure that he did not do this alone – not just because he was asking God but because he knew that we need to help each other. He gathered together the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem and stood with them, glorifying God and pleading for God to step in and judge their enemies. This was not a plea to make them strong enough to withstand their enemies but rather to stand up to their enemies directly. Why should we limit God’s power by asking Him to act through us when He could do so much more directly?

But one of the things I would like to focus on is the fact that even though he was in charge, Jehoshaphat stood up with all Judah. He stood up and declared that they were one and that they had to go to God as one people. God does not want us to stand alone but to work together, loving each other, supporting one another and most importantly depending on Him as part of our lives. God wants us to be able to call on Him at every opportunity and not just when things get pear shaped!

Points to Ponder:
What does it take for you to ask for help?

Do you know God wants to help you?