Tuesday Reading: Ephesians 5 1-2
Key Verse: Ephesians 5 1
1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
Devotion:
I do like using scripture from the various letters in the New Testament because they are real letters that went out to real people and as such we, real people, can most easily relate to what they have in them. Now it is a very hard thing to live up to the position of someone else whether it is an older brother or sister or even your parents; it is a hard thing to live up to the reputation of someone who has gone before you. So when we are told that we should be living up to the reputation of God or Christ, we find it impossible!
Christ has already shown that it is possible so we cannot turn round and say that it is impossible; but, for us, it is not possible because we live in sin and we break so many laws along the way. It is not possible for us by our own selves because we are nowhere near strong enough to lift up anything, never mind ourselves. It is impossible for us because we are not Holy and Just like God but sinners and unclean like every other man is.
When we are told to come to God as dear children it is not the child that is so innocent, because once you have had children yourselves you begin to realise just how easy it is to spot them when they do anything amiss. It is, rather, the innocence that they stand for because they are not yet fully corrupted by this world that we live in. They still have some innocence within them – even when we fail to find it within ourselves because of the barriers we are putting up around ourselves.
Children need adults to look after them until they can become as adults and learn to live by themselves. We, on the other hand, remain as children until we die; we need our Heavenly Father at all times and we continue to need Him right through our lives. We need that guidance, strength and compassion that only our true Father can show us. Our earthly fathers can love us more than we realise, but they can only love us until such a time as one of us dies, then our earthly link dissolves and we need someone that is not limited by time and life on earth. That can only be God. And when we stop to think about all that He has done for us we then begin to see just how much of a Father He is to us. We begin to realise just how much love He has already poured into the relationship and how much we need to do from our side to respect that love.
Points to Ponder:
Do you know what a father should do?
Do you know how much God has already done for you?
Monday Reading: Matthew 13 10-16
Key Verse: Matthew 13 13
13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Devotion:
When I first had children I found it quite interesting to see all the children’s stories from the other side of the page as it were. As a child I used to love having stories read to me but I did not care too much for having to read things for myself. As an adult I did enjoy reading some stories to my children and now as a Christian I do enjoy being able to find new ways of telling Christ’s words to those around me.
The most successful children’s books are those that engage the children the most by reaching to their ways of thinking and bringing the story to them rather than trying to teach them a new story. The most successful teachers at school were the ones who were able to take me to the knowledge rather than forcing the knowledge down my throat. When we are faced with circumstance like that we all tend to do the same thing – we reject anything that is forced upon us because we like to think that we are in some sort of control.
So Jesus would talk to the unbelievers in parables to make sure that they listened, not as learned adults or scholars, but as children. I can relate to people who say that the teacher was talking so much gobbledygook that they got lost at the beginning of the lesson. Sometime we are like that in trying to explain things to others; we get so caught up in the explanation that we forget to tell them about the most simple truths. Jesus wants us to know the simple truth that He loves us. Let us not get too caught up in finding out about all manner of laws just to prove that He loves us; let us rather take His Word as the truth and trust Him like a child would trust their parents.
When our hearts are hardened, when our ears deafened or when our eyes blinded, we need to turn to the One who is telling us the story and simply believe what He is saying. That is when we will be filled once again as we learn to understand His love and care for each one of us. It is a love that has inspired people to write about Him. It is a love that has inspired people to show their love for Him. It is a love that has inspired us to share our love for Him. It is a simple truth but it does need to be told!
Points to Ponder:
Do you find it hard explaining God to others?
Have you tried starting with how much He loves you?
Sunday Reading: Matthew 18 1-5
Key Verse: Matthew 18 3
3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Devotion:
Have you ever had someone say something like “Grow Up!” to you? I am pretty sure that everyone who reads this will have had some sort of saying like this thrown at them at some time or another; but have you ever thought about what people mean by that and then why Jesus would tell us that we need to be more like children…
Well the obvious answer to the first part is that we have been behaving in a manner that is not what would be expected of us or from us and that the person throwing the remark thinks we should be a bit more mature about our reaction. Well, just sometimes, being mature about some things is not always the best way forward. If we take a step back and think about the life that we had, or we have if you are lucky, as a child, then we will see that the life of a child a somewhat carefree when compared to the life as an adult. As a child we may not have had to have the same responsibilities as we do as an adult.
So when we begin to think on those lines then we realise that we are not as bogged down in so many things as a child as we seem to be as an adult. So if you are still growing up, then relax and take it easy – don’t be in such a rush to grow up because it may not be what you expect it to be! The more things that we get thrown at us the more we reject things and the more we think of ways to not have to face those circumstances again. So we build up these barriers to protect ourselves but in doing so we find out that a few other things also get blocked by those same barriers.
What am I on about? Well, if we try to block circumstance out of our life so that we don’t have to face up to certain personal problems, we build up barriers so that we don’t have to face anything in that area. We are, therefore, blocking a big chunk of life out and not just the problem we thought about. The more we do things like that the more we block out and the more stubborn we become in our ways as well. The more stubborn we are the less likely we are to allow things in our lives; and unfortunately that includes listening to the truth from God’s Word. We block things out to such an extent that we find we can no longer find comfort in the things we did as a child. Jesus wants us to be more like children so that we can accept the love and comfort He offers instead of being ‘big’ about it and dismissing so many things in our lives.
Points to Ponder:
Do you block uncomfortable things from your life?
Are you blocking God without realising?
Saturday Reading: Psalms 103 8-11
Key Verse: Psalms 103 8
8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
Devotion:
After a few days of looking into just how awesome our God is in His mercy and grace for us, we end the week with a reminder that He is patient with us as well. How often do we blow up at the first sign of trouble or the first sign of anyone doing something that we don’t like or even agree with? If we are honest we will admit to having very little patience with anything that does not go exactly according to the law of “us”!
We know just how much God loves us by what He has done for us in allowing His only begotten Son to die on a cross in our stead. We know that He is merciful in that He has promised to forgive us when we come to Him and ask for forgiveness. We know He is just in that His promises have stood the test of time. We know that for someone to love us means that they will not just give us a cuddle and say that everything is all ok because part of loving someone is also keeping them on the straight and narrow by correcting them when they are at fault. If we know this all then we should never forget the fact that God’s love for us means that He is also going to be willing to correct us when we do do things wrong!
It may well be that God is much more patient than us and that we do see Him go above and beyond that which we think is normal; but we should not forget that He is Just and that He must do the correcting when we do fall foul of His laws. If we are going to continue doing things wrong even after He has reminded us that we are doing it wrong – we should not expect anything else other than loving correction to bring us back in line with His will!
What gets me is that even when I do get it all wrong, He does not always correct me in ways that I would expect; again His mercy goes far beyond what I could imagine. If we were to receive all that we knew we deserved for what we have done wrong we would be more than knee deep in trouble. But when we come to Christ and ask for His forgiveness He is the one that separates us from that sin and from that debt so far that we will never have to look back on that debt ever again. It is not just the fact that He is saying it does not matter but the fact that He has completely taken us away from that sin debt and set us in a place that will never remind us to go back there. Let us therefore take that lead and walk away from our old lives of sin and walk with Christ, forgiven and clean!
Points to Ponder:
Do you still feel guilty?
Do you know His forgiveness?
Friday Reading: 1 Timothy 1 13-16
Key Verse: 1 Timothy 1 13
13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
Devotion:
When we are angry with others or with the world we will always find fault with so that we don’t have to be the only one who is angry – just maybe we can wind someone else up enough for them to be angry too! When we are in the wrong we will always try to find some way of involving others so that we are not the only ones who will get the blame. Somehow we always want to share bad things so that we are not alone, but we don’t always want to share good things when they do come round! So if we are honest with ourselves we then get to admit that we just don’t like being found out.
Sometimes we think of it as being ok until such time as we are found out, or if we can get away with it then it must be ok to continue getting away with it. How can we get away with thoughts like that? Simple, we justify it by saying that what others don’t know about will not hurt them. How often we do forget the truth that God does see everything!
That is the most amazing thing that we find out from God’s Word – that God is willing to forgive us no matter what we have done wrong in the past. So when we do find out that we have been doing it all wrong or that we have been working against God’s will for so long, we can still know that Christ has paid everything in full and that we can be forgiven! It is not the fact that we were ignorant but the fact that God is merciful toward us that counts. He is the one who is going to have to do the forgiving and just because we did not know it was wrong does not mean that it was not wrong. I can remember putting my fingers into a pot of oil to grab the chip that was still in the oil; just because I thought that it did not look hot did not mean that it was not hot! My fingers started to fry as soon as they touched the oil!
The grace of our Lord goes far beyond anything that we can imagine, far beyond anything that we can extend toward others and far beyond what we would think of as necessary. His love for us is without limits. Our thoughts cannot go deep enough to fully realise the depths of the meaning that Christ came into the world to save us from our sin – we are, after all, rotten to the core before He picks us up and cleans us!
Points to Ponder:
How deep is your sin?
How much has Christ forgiven you?