Monday Reading: Psalms 9 7-10
Key Verse: Psalms 9 10
10 And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.
Devotion:
I think one of the hardest things that we have to get our heads round is the fact that God IS. I mean He just IS, not was, not is, not will be, but has always existed from before time began and will always exist even after time could ever cease to exist. The very fact that we live inside of time and time rules our lives does not do anything to help us understand the everlasting nature of God. Scientists and evolutionists try their very best to come up with extraordinary figures about how old earth is and try to figure out how it could ever have started by itself when all they need do is to acknowledge that God did actually create things in the beginning – that God created this notion of time itself so that we could have a goal to aim for.
God has given us a goal to live for – to come to know Him and accept Him as being all powerful and all knowing. For as long as we try to invent stories so that we can be scientific and prove things one way or the other, we will continue to drive a wedge between us and Him. He has always upheld all that is right and good. He has always upheld the just. He has always brought down judgment on the unrighteous and unjust. Just because we have this thing called time does not mean that there is a limit to His justice or judgement.
God gives us a place to call our own when we come back to Him. When we live to please Him and glorify Him, we begin to see this place called Heaven as being the most beautiful and comely place we could ever imagine; a place where we no longer have to face the death and destruction this world seem to offer us each day. No longer do we have to search high and low for a place of refuge because God has given it to us already.
We may get to the end of our tether and think that things could not possibly get any worse for us but all we need do is look up and smile at our God in heaven knowing that He created the perfect place for us before we even got to understand that we needed a Saviour. He has always had that place for us knowing that we will eventually find Him and the truth; so accepting Him as our Lord and Saviour is the first step we need to take in the rest of our time – thereafter we will forever be safe in His arms!
Points to Ponder:
How long could you be patient for?
Do you test God’s patience?
Sunday Reading: Psalms 5 1-8
Key Verse: Psalms 5 3
3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
Devotion:
It is a while since I spent a week in the Psalms – so here goes! I thought it appropriate that we should start with a Psalms that David wrote lifting up the righteous through prayer to our God in Heaven; not so that I have someone to call wicked by any means but because we know that we are righteous through what Jesus Christ has done for us. So lifting up our prayers through this Psalms should be where we start for if we do not start each and every day in prayer, then we are missing the most important thing of the day. Each of our days should start in prayer followed by a hearty meal in God’s Word; forget about the ‘full English’ breakfast because it cannot reach the parts that God’s Word can and does!
When we lift up our prayers to God we must be doing so with a cheerful outlook because we should be doing so with the knowledge that He is our God who answers prayers! We lift them up to a God who abhors evil and deceitfulness, who sees right through us and knows our every thought. How can we not know that He does mean us good? How can we not know that He wants the best for us? How can we not know that He loves us so? He has already done so much for mankind using the Jews as an example for us and allowing His precious Son to come and display that love in no uncertain terms.
When we do come forward to God we know that He is the one who will have mercy on us, not just because of His amazing love for us, but because Christ has requested that God the Father have mercy on us just because we acknowledged Jesus as our Lord and Saviour and asked Him to forgive us of our sins.
If we are willing to come forward in fear of The Lord then He is willing to stand by us and lift us up to God the Father. We may be surrounded by people who can do many things to us and we may live in fear of them destroying our physical bodies or even mentally scaring us through the evil they try to bring down on us; but we can always know for a certainty that we have Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour who has already paid for anything that we do so that we will be presented as righteous before our God in Heaven. I wake up with a smile each day just knowing that I have a Saviour!
Points to Ponder:
How do you start your day?
How much of your day do you dedicate to God?
Saturday Reading: 1 John 4 1-6
Key Verse: 1 John 4 2
2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
Devotion:
One of the hardest things I was asked as a young Christian was “how do you know that is what God wants”. The answer is and was remarkably simple but hidden from me at the time though entirely logical! If it does not agree with God’s Word then it is obviously not from God. If more people would focus on that rather than focusing on what they can get out of working for God then I believe we would have a church that is stronger and displays a whole lot more faith than nowadays.
I certainly do not pick holes in any person because I know that I have had more than my fair share of moments when I denied Christ or lacked faith – so I am in no position to judge anyone. I rather pick holes in my own past and in what I did or did not do because I can see the lack of focus on God’s Word. I had never been a good reader and many of my devotions could be picked apart by any English teacher as being incorrect English – but I try hard to make sure that what I bring forward agrees with God’s Word. That is, after all, why we are here – to learn more about God through His Word.
Reading your bible may well be one of the hardest habits to start, but it is going to be the only one that lifts you up continually and strengthens your spiritual walk with God. I am not talking about being brain-washed or being brought up by a bible basher. I am talking about using the common sense that God has given each one of us to be able to discern that truth when we hear it.
The more I am able to compare the bible with things in life the more I am able to see how man has lost focus on so many things. The more I do read the more I want to read because it brings forward truths that I have been seeking for much of my life. Being able to come to the conclusion that what I have read is God’s truth is an amazing feeling and one that brings far for peace to my life than anything else. I am not a ‘Solomon’ who has gone out and tried everything in life, but I am now able to spot a lemon when I see one. Without the knowledge that God’s Word has given me, I would be continually lost and in a hopeless situation. With God’s Word I have more than hope, I have the truth!
Points to Ponder:
Where do you learn your common sense from?
Do you know God’s Word as the truth?
Friday Reading: John 8 39-47
Key Verse: John 8 42
42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Devotion:
I have always found it interesting how Jesus used the words of those around Him to bring their own faults to the surface. So very often we are so focused on what we do or what we want to believe that we lose focus on the truth that God is trying to get us to see. When the Jews were saying that they were of the seed of Abraham He turned those words right round and made them see that if they were actually committed to Abraham then they would be doing the will of Abraham. And by the same token He then tells them that if they were focused on God then they would be doing what God’s wills them and not following their own will.
Quite often it will take the words of rebuke such as these for us to see that we have got things wrong in our lives. But, by the same token we take these words and try to turn things round for our own good or for our own gain. This is not what Jesus is doing; He is rather trying to open their eyes to what they are focusing on when they lose focus on God.
Jesus drew their attention to the fact that they knew more about the laws of man than they knew about the laws of God. They were building up man’s laws instead of building up and holding up God’s perfect laws. Many of them had probably been born into the positions they had or had been given them by other men. Jesus, on the other hand had been given His position from God and He wanted them to see just how important it is to follow God’s calling rather than man’s calling.
The religious men had begun to depend more on the changes brought in by man than the original laws as laid down by God. They were losing their focus on God and broadening their knowledge and dependency on man’s laws. Jesus’ answer to this was to allow them to see that they either server God or they served man; and if they served man then they were against God. In other words they were effectively serving Satan because he is the master of deceit against God. He then made sure that they knew that He was not a sinful man like all of the religious leaders but was rather a perfect man lead by God alone. How could they then hope to be able to trip Him up with any sin – for He knew no sin!
Points to Ponder:
Who do you think you follow?
Do you think God would agree with your choice?
Thursday Reading: Psalms 119 152-153
Key Verse: Psalms 119 152
152 Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.
Devotion:
It is through our constant and meditative look at God’s Word that we will learn the truth and that truth is God’s Word. The scriptures give testimony of our God from the very beginning through to the very end. It is known that we do not know the start date of our existence and we shall not know the end date of our existence or our time on earth, but that does not stop us from knowing it as the truth.
David was a man who continued to learn God’s Word, whether it was from studying himself, being taught by others, through God’s dreams He gave to David or through the example of others, we know that David clung to the scriptures throughout his life. Yes there were times when he had lost his way and there were times when we may well have like to keep him on track ourselves, but David always kept in touch with God through His Word.
God has continued to make sure that we have the scriptures and that we have someone that is willing to teach us what they mean. He has continued to make sure that we have the Holy Spirit to guide us when nobody else can help – and all this just because He loves us so!
The more that we are able to look into the scriptures the more we will be convinced of their truth. There is nothing like looking into the truth to allow us to learn more about the truth and it is God’s Word that gives us that truth.
The more that we are able to find out about God’s Word the more that we do realise just how close His is to us through that Word. The more that we find out, the more that we want to find out and the more that we begin to understand His love for us. It is that help and guidance that we get through God’s Word that we cling to and it is that strength that draws us closer to Him as we read. The more we understand the more we realise just how close He is to us. The more we understand the more we know His promises and the more we can depend on those promises.
Points to Ponder:
Do you like hearing promises?
Are you depending on God’s promises?