Friday Reading: Matthew 18 32-35

Key Verse: Matthew 18 34
34  And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.

Devotion:
It is probably not too often that we do take into account the wrath of our God but that is one thing that we should never forget. Our God is not only Holy but He is Just. That means that we cannot ever approach Him with sin for He is Holy; but it also means that if we are going to live in sin then we must not expect anything other than justice from our God. If we want to flaunt our sin in front of Him then we should expect to have to live up to the consequences of our actions.

God is not vengeful in that He will not seek out those who have sinned against Him in the past, so long as those have repented of their sins and asked for His forgiveness. You see, there are two sides to the justice of our God in that we should expect His wrath when we sin against Him but we should also expect His love and forgiveness when we seek it – that is His promise to us, that he will always love us and be willing to forgive when we ask for that forgiveness. That is the extent of His love!

Jesus wanted us to know that God is Just and that He will carry out those punishments if we are not willing to turn away from the sinful life. If we do turn away and try to walk with Him, then we can expect His total love and support. Now we shall never succeed in living a life without sin and we shall never be able to turn away from all temptations in our lives, but with Him by our side we are going to have a much better chance at being able to do more things right than without Him there with us.

God wants what is best for us and He wants to be able to share the best with us, but we must be the ones who are willing to allow Him to lead us and to guide us so that we know which way we should be headed with Him. We live in a world of sin so we don’t really know the right direction – too many distractions and temptations are in our paths for us to see clearly. But when we do trust Him for guidance and support, then we can see the road ahead and live more for Him instead of against Him. God’s justice is not something to be tested but rather something to be remembered and feared. When our bible says that we need to fear God, it is reminding us that we need to remember His wrath should we choose to try and go against Him. It should be a no-brainer!

Points to Ponder:
Do you get into trouble much?

How do you act in front of your Lord?

Thursday Reading: Proverbs 30 15-16

Key Verse: Proverbs 30 15
15  The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:

Devotion:
There are a couple of things that get me reading my bible and then trying to think things through; the first is half a sentence and the other is something that I can’t figure out just by reading it. This passage fits both! The horseleach is not something I have come across but I know what a leech is and I know that they never seem to be satisfied with all that they take from you – so having something described in terms of a leech to me describes something that is not going to be satisfied; whether it has daughters or whatever (which causes much discussion amongst scholars apparently) still gives an insatiable appetite crying out for more followed by a count of three or even four things that should also show up as being without satisfaction.

The things listed are somewhat different and not what I would have thought about, but clearly the writer has a much brighter mind than mine!  No matter how many people are placed into the grave it is never going to be full because people continue to die as time goes by. The second is so much more controversial in that a barren woman cries out unceasingly for a child. The third is like a desert which is never going to be a fertile field with plenty of moisture. The last is a fire which continues to consume all that it is fed.

So what would this have to do with us? Well we may not be anything like any of the things described but we certainly do have vanities and desires that may well never be fulfilled by things in this earth just as these things. God is the one that knows that we do get carried away with things and that we do get side-tracked by so much. He also knows that we will turn our minds off to many things and pretend that we have not problems or issues with what we have – we do like to bury our issues so that we will not have to face them and the more that we bury things the more we wish to bury so that we will not have to face up to things in the future.

God is the one who puts things like this in our path so that we will stop and think. He is the one who knows us from the inside out and continues to try to make us stop for that brief moment so that we will not continue to try and sweep things under the carpet. God wants us to face up to things and to stop hiding behind vain imaginations, daydreams, whatever you wish to call them. God wants us to face reality. He wants us to think about situations and not just to plough on without regard. God wants us to embrace life but to do it by following His will, always.

Points to Ponder:
What makes you stop and think?

Has God got your attention yet?

Wednesday Reading: 1 Corinthians 7 10-16

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 7 16
16  For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?

Devotion:
You may well ask why I have suddenly jumped into one of those ‘subject we should not discuss’, or at least that seem to be how so many feel about talking about death and divorce! But the reason why I have come here is not to harp on about how we should not get divorced unless Christ allows it but rather to look at the world from a realistic point of view instead of the ideal that we know it should be.

None of us live in an ideal situation – or at least I am yet to meet someone who does. Yes we can trust as much as we do in Christ and we can live our lives as much as we can according to His will, but there will still be mistakes, concerns and departures from the ideal – no matter how hard we do try! Just as divorce seems to be of manic proportions nowadays, there have been many times in the past when the same was true of both Jews and Gentiles. Why else would the Apostle write about such things if it were not so then? We need to be able to focus on what God wants in our lives and some of those things may well not agree with our ideals about life!

When I was young and first employed, my ideal life did not have God in it unless someone else wanted me to be with them in a church somewhere. Yes I knew God back then and He knew me – but my life did not involve Him in everyday living. Instead it was not the normal thing to have God as any portion in my life other than on a “seldom Sunday” event. How then should He be allowed to work in my life when I was specifically excluding Him with the way I was living? How then was I supposed to be able to see that He was trying to work in my life? How was I supposed to know how much He cared for me?

The more that I have trusted in God, the more closer walk I have had with Him and the more that I have been able to place my trust in Him and in His ways. I was the one who had to start walking back to Him as He patiently waited for me (and it was with extreme patience I kept Him waiting). I was the one who had to make the move so that I could see the hands that He was holding out to me. I did not know how much He could do in my life until I trusted Him properly with my life. So I chose these verses to make us think, not in terms of what we normally see as black and white but in terms of the unseen things that God continues to have an effect on in our lives. We don’t know how much He can use us until we submit to His ways properly.

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you are doing enough?

Have you actually allowed God to do something in your life yet?

Tuesday Reading: Ecclesiastes 6 7-12

Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 6 7
7  All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

Devotion:
Have you ever thought about what you work for, or what you will be working for if you are still at school? I used to look forward to being able to have money in my pocket so that I could do anything that I wanted instead of being limited by what my parents would allow me to have. And when I started work I was fortunate enough to be able to have a reasonable wage and I would go out and have a good time not thinking about where the money had come from or where it would be going; of course I would always find myself short at the end of the month but that did not seem to matter back then. But when you have people that depend on you the table turns and you have to think about such things!

Unfortunately even earning enough money can still get you down because you never seem to be satisfied with what you have, always looking for bigger and better things. I think my attitude only changed when I started looking for bigger and better things for other people instead of myself because that was one of the few ways in which I could be satisfied.

I should not be all about what we are aiming for or what we think we can get. It should not be all about what we can give to others either, no matter how good that will make us feel. It should be about looking at what we do have and thanking God for what He has allowed us to have! It certainly is no use for us to compare ourselves with others and what they have because we are all very different people with very different needs. Just seeing that someone seems to have everything certainly does not mean that they do have everything or that they are content! I have learned to be content with what God allows me to have, and I have also learned that I have to do a lot of work to be able to get some of that too.

Our lives on earth can be described as being but a vapour, or as a shadow; in other words they are here today and gone tomorrow and we certainly do not know how long we will have them on earth. Our aim must therefore be to be happy with all that God allows us to have during the time that He allows us to live with that. What we do with it and how we thank Him for it are what will count for more than what we think we have or have not.

Points to Ponder:
Are you happy with your lot?

Are you trusting God for your needs?