Saturday Reading: Psalms 72 1-4
Key Verse: Psalms 72 2
2 He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment.
Devotion:
I guess there are stages in our lives when we think that we depend more on God than at other stages and it seems to be a common thing that the more fragile we are the more we look to God for help. It may be that we call on God more when we are older or shout out to Him when we are not well, and then turn away from Him when we are fit and enjoying ourselves. It may be that we think that we need Him more when we are poor or living in poverty and less when we have lots of money. If I am honest then this does reflect my early walk with Christ because when I was successful I turned away from God and embraced the world, but when I began to lose it all I turned back to Him. It was quite a surprise to find out that God was still waiting patiently for me to come back to Him!
I have chosen this passage for this devotion, not because it is a plea for help but because of the target of those pleas. We often think of God being there for the people that need it and as I outlined above we think of those people as the poor and needy people. So why is this Psalms asking for God to help the king? Simple. We all need God in our lives. We all need His guidance and His help. Kings and Queens need Him just as much as the poor and needy; in fact they may well need Him more because of the temptations and distractions that they will face.
The more that I walk with Christ the more I realise just how much I need Him in my life. I have been through many things in the last decade, through rough and tough times, through times of prosperity and through times of great happiness and yet I look back and I realise that I continue to need Him every day and in every circumstance. I need Him during the highs and I need Him during the lows, not because that’s when I need Him most but because without Him I lose my way! I lose my way when I am distracted by things that are good and also by those things that feel like they are pulling me under the water.
So this is my reminder that we all need Christ in our lives and we need Him every hour of every day. We must not “put Him in a box and shove Him in a corner” as we sing at kids club. Instead we need to include Him in every step of our lives, or in other words we need to be in a proper relationship with Christ no matter what the circumstances of our life. Being in a relationship means going through things together both in the good times and in the bad times. God wants to be there, always; let Him be there for you.
Points to Ponder:
How can you identify when you need someone?
How can you say when you need God?
Friday Reading: Psalms 69 1-4
Key Verse: Psalms 69 1
1 Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.
Devotion:
Sometimes when you read through the Psalms you begin to get a very good picture of just how distraught David would get with the trouble that he had to face. We can then see just how he handled these situations and apply those same recipes for success just as he did, knowing that God will continue to be as faithful and just as He has always been! When we have the rest of the world acting against us or building up a case against us, we can know that God is still on our side and that He will continue to uphold justice in the face of all other adversity we come up against.
When the world is turning round and saying that it hates us, or when our friends seem like they are turning their backs on us, God continues to walk with us and hold our hands every step of the way. Now we may choose to ignore the fact that He is there and we may choose to not hold on to His hand, but that does not mean that He is not there!
David would bring up all the bad things that were happening but he would also bring up the good things that God had done. David would lay down the cards and tell God that he was tired of being put down and being trodden upon. David would be honest about his feelings and about his lack of strength to fight against an enemy that always seemed to get the better of him. But David would never say that God was not able to fix things; quite the contrary, he would call out to God and ask for His strength and His mercy knowing that He was listening to every prayer that David lifted up.
That is what God wants us to do. He wants us to depend on Him and to know that we can always call on Him to help us when we need it. He wants us to know that He is also going to answer that call for help. If we will have faith and believe that this is what He will do, then we can count on Him doing more than we would expect! When we see just how much God can do for us we begin to see why David would always praise God for His tender mercies (Psalm 69:16) and would often end up singing God’s praises (Psalm 69:30). David also knew that the personal relationship that he had with God was worth far more than any sacrifice that he could come up with (Psalm 69:31). So let us praise our God who is willing to come into a personal relationship with us, the least deserving people we know…
Points to Ponder:
What gets you down?
Do you still lift up God?
Thursday Reading: Psalms 66 18-20
Key Verse: Psalms 66 18
18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
Devotion:
This may seem like a bit of a strange verse to pick on but if you do what God has ordained and take the whole word instead of just a phrase here and there we then see why these words are used. Just like you may think that some words may sound out of place in a conversation you jump into half way through, jumping into the middle of God’s conversation with us will not help as much as hearing the whole conversation!
This Psalms is about declaring the power and might of our awesome God. He is the one who has done so many things not least of which is creating the world! It also is David declaring that he will continue to offer sacrifices as are required by the law at that time as well as to lift up his prayers to God. But it is not to be a one-sided relationship because that is not going to get us very far. We have to believe in our hearts that He is God and that He has actually done what the bible tells us He has! We have to believe that in our hearts and not to just say that we do.
So when these words are now read it shows us that if we are going to be the ones who doubt, or bring disrepute into an otherwise pure relationship, then we should not expect anything other than an adverse reaction from God. Time and time again we saw how God allowed many things to happen to the children of Israel as they allowed all manner of thoughts and distractions to come between them and God; each time God tried to get them to realise what they were doing and tried to get them back on track in the relationship.
You see; God never shut His ears. God never looked the other way. God never shut His eyes. God continues to listen and to hear our every plea and prayer. God continues to be there no matter what! What better partner should we ever expect than one who will always be there attending to our needs? Should we not therefore praise our God for everything that He has done and for everything that He continues to do after all He does answer our prayers and shows His mercy when we expect everything else to fail?
Points to Ponder:
Where do you draw the line in a relationship?
What would you do if God drew the line for you?
Wednesday Reading: Psalms 63 1-11
Key Verse: Psalms 63 6
6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
Devotion:
There are many ways in which we seek God, but unless we seek Him earnestly we shall always be wanting more. That may sound like a bit of a catch 22 in that you have to want Him to seek Him but it’s not about finding God or finding religion but about your own personal walk with Him. It is not about how much you get out of going to church or how much you get out of doing things for God but about how much you are willing to commit to a relationship with Him.
Before we get into a relationship with someone else we will probably notice a few things happening in our lives. First we will probably want to spend a lot more time with them so that we can get to know them better. The more time we are able to spend with them the more we either like them or the quicker we find that they are not right for you or you are not right for them. When we choose to spend more time with God we quickly find out that we are meant for each other and that He wants to be able to be in a serious relationship with us; if we are willing to commit to that serious relationship then we should do exactly that.
So what does this relationship mean? What exactly are we committing to? We are saying that we want to be totally honest with God, just as He is with us. We are saying that we want to know Him better each day just as He knows us. We are also saying that we want to be able to trust Him more each day; should He not want to trust us more each day as well?
Spending time with God does not just mean going to church at the right times and going to bible studies or whatever other meeting you can get to; it means making sure that you spend one-on-one time with God. Spending time alone with Him will allow you to draw that much closer to Him. Spending time alone will allow you to open up more to Him which is often something that we do find hard to do (even though He already knows us inside out!) The time that we should spend with Him should also be quality time and not just quantity. If we are going to have distractions surrounding us whilst we try to spend time with Him should we really expect that to be quality time? Quality time means shutting out those distractions and temptations so that we can concentrate on the relationship and on any conversations we have with Him after all, we would not get very far in a relationship with someone else if we choose to ignore them instead!
Points to Ponder:
How do you meet with God?
How often do you meet with Him?
Tuesday Reading: Psalms 62 1-7
Key Verse: Psalms 62 3
3 How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.
Devotion:
Has there ever been a time when you have wondered how a friend could turn round and do something to you like they just have, or wondered how you could call someone a friend after they have done something to you that you have been hurt by? Or maybe what I should be asking is how often rather than if there ever was a time!
This is something that is going to be raised by everyone whether they are Christians or not and is something that you have to learn – often through what we think is the hard way, bitter experience. But when we are able to look back at what has happened we should see a very different story to what we thought about at the time it all went wrong! When we can look back and see what else was happening in our lives we will probably wonder how we ever were able to get away with as much as we did rather than the one or two things that we were upset with at that time.
When we look back and see just how much trouble we could have gotten into, or how much we should have, we will then see the grace and mercy that God has shown us over the years that He has been patiently caring for us. As long as we are willing to depend on Him and to build our lives on His ways we will begin to see the Rock that is Christ alone. We will see just how many of our friends break down and give in in comparison to the sturdy, steady, firm, just and loving God that we have carefully watching over us – always!
I shall always remember singing about the foolish man building his house upon the sand and the wise man building his house on the rock when I was in Sunday School as a young toddler; but it is only after getting to know Christ as my Saviour and my Rock that I really appreciate just how much of a Rock He is. It is then with great delight that I can turn to the youngsters that I teach and sing those special words.
We have one God who gave us His Only Son to die on that cross for all of our sins so that we could get to be with Him in heaven, a very special place that He has prepared for us who trust in Him. That trust is based on a firm foundation and one that has stood the tests of time, temptation and various terrors that come our way. We know Christ. We know our Rock. We know our Saviour!
Points to Ponder:
Who do you turn to in times of trouble?
Are you really trusting in Christ?