Friday Reading: Psalms 147 5-11
Key Verse: Psalms 147 5
5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
Devotion:
One of the things we are reminded of (or should be reminded of) every day is that God is all powerful and all knowing; He is Omnipotent and Omniscient. Not only does He know about all the hairs (or lack of hairs) on our heads but He knows exactly how many stars there are and how far we can see and reach into the skies at night. But even though He knows what is in the distant galaxies that we see as faint stars, He also knows what is in your heart and mine; and what is more is that He cares about what is there!
As we start to look forward to all that will be happening in the Olympic Games we can imagine the pomp and ceremony as well as all the praise that will be showered on the fastest and strongest. And yet, even though these people are the most remarkable people we have on this earth, God still cares for ‘little old me’! Isn’t that fact just so wonderfully awesome! That God cares for the unknown, the unseen, the unborn and the forgotten. God cares for all because He loves us all. So whilst the world will look to lift up and praise the few, we can be safe in the knowledge that God knows and cares for the rest of us!
But then we also know that God delights in those that seek after Him, His strength and His mercy. Without Him we are just like everyone else on this planet; a human being waiting for an end, waiting for the final curtain and hoping that somewhere along the line we may even make it into the list of those that have lead. But what hope do they face after their race is run? What hope do they have after they have completed their course? If they have finished first or even last, their race is still finished.
We can delight in our Lord and in what He has prepared for us because we know that He has reserved a place for us in eternity with Him. When our race on earth is done, we only just begin our eternity with Him. Whether our race on earth is won or lost, we know that we will share glory with Him. No matter how fast or how far we have managed to run on earth, eternity will be so much longer!
Points to Ponder:
Do you try to keep up?
Are you making sure you are running with Christ?
Thursday Reading: 1 Peter 3 1-4
Key Verse: 1 Peter 3 4
4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
Devotion:
How many times have you been faced with having to pick between things, the ones that look good and the ones that you think actually are good. Many times in our lives we are faced with making decisions to figure out what we should be doing. Many of those times we are going to be persuaded by how things look on the outside rather than what they are like on the inside and many times we will make the wrong decision just because those ones looked the nicest! I am not trying to bring women down to any level seen by men of this world but rather taking this passage and applying it to more than just wives and their husbands – so please don’t shoot me down yet…
When I was younger my eyes were easily led by the girls that looked the prettiest and those that dressed accordingly. It is only after you have made a choice that did not agree that you find out that God wants us to look on the inside just as He does. Just because something or someone is very pretty on the outside does not mean that that or they should be what you should aim for. God wants us to live a fulfilling life and not one that just fills those earthly desires instead.
The whole of the advertising world revolves around making something look the best so that people will choose that in preference to other things – and it is successful because that is what man does. But just because that is what man does, it does not mean that we have to be like the rest of the people. God is the one who is putting the right desires and wants in our hearts – so long as we are willing to listen to Him and to attempt to follow His will. When we do focus on God and on His ways, we will begin to see the merit of His ways as well. We will see the exceptional qualities that remain hidden in people and the wonderful love that is found in people that trust in Him.
I am not one to look back and wish that I had lived a more Godly life or that I had followed His will earlier in my life because that would be counter-productive. Instead, God has allowed me to live the life I have for a reason. I am now willing and able to help others through things in their lives because of what has happened in mine. I am more prepared to be able to face up to things because of what I have been through – Christ has strengthened me even when I was not doing His will!
Points to Ponder:
Do you prefer gold or silver?
How much will you take with you to heaven?
Wednesday Reading: Ephesians 6 5-8
Key Verse: Ephesians 6 6
6 Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
Devotion:
I wonder how many times you have gone ahead and done something just to please someone else, not because you actually wanted to, not because you knew that it would please God but just to please someone else. Many of those times that we do that, we were probably looking for some sort of reward to come back to us for doing what we had just done as well. How fickle man can be. But there is a big difference between just doing something to make someone happy and shut them up and doing something because you want to please them from your heart.
God has set many things in our hearts that we should want to do for others and doing those things is right. How we go about doing those things and what we expect from them are different though. God wants us to be willing to do things for others, not because we have to but because we want to. It is no small thing that God has changed our hearts so that we will be more willing to please Him and please others. It is no small thing that we should then use what God has given us for good.
If you ask someone to do something for you and they resist, make up excuses, or do it with a long face, you may well feel bad about asking them in the first place – you certainly will not have much joy from them doing your bidding. God does not want us to have that attitude toward anything that He asks from us, whether it is to do something for Him directly or to do something for someone else. He wants us to show a happy face and a willing heart to lift up His name and glorify Him rather than to throw doubt on our sincerity. When Christ went to the cross it was not with a long face and complaints all the way; instead He went willingly and glorified God through all that He did.
We cannot hope to be able to please both man and God and God knows that. But our aim should be that we aim to serve Him first of all with a singleness of heart; in other words we should have a single aim in our hearts to please God. If we do listen to Him then we will be asked to please men as well by doing things for God for them, hence still giving God the glory. Should we be asked to do things for men who do not know God, doing their bidding as a Christian will still allow us to glorify our God even though we are doing earthly deeds. Keep God in focus. Keep Him first in your minds.
Points to Ponder:
Do you say yes to everything?
Are you keeping God’s will in focus?
Tuesday Reading: 1 Peter 4 1-2
Key Verse: 1 Peter 4 2
2 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
Devotion:
No matter how many times we read it, it is still a hard thing to accept – that we should have to suffer for anyone or anything else. It is not something that most of us would cherish in any form, but we have to be aware of the fact that we may well have to face ‘a bit of uphill’ or ‘a spot of bother’ as we may prefer to say. When we give our lives to The Lord and say that we are willing to follow Him, we do have to face up to the fact that we will come to grips with others who will reject us or may seek harm on us just because we say that we do love our God!
It does not mean that we will all have to face up to having our heads chopped off or to be hanged for Christ. It may just mean that we are laughed at because we dare to say that we believe the Bible as the whole truth. But we can be sure that there will be someone who does reject us in thought or in deed when we tell them that we believe and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ. When we are given the title of ‘new men’ it is not that we are turned overnight into the latest ‘Spiderman’ or ‘Captain America’ but rather that we no longer are trapped by our sin; we no longer have to give in to that sin because we now know different!
As humans we will have to face up to many things in our lives that we do not call for or desire (floods, earthquakes, diseases but to name a few) but we will have to face those things just as the people around us have to face them. There are also a whole lot more temptations that we face that we do not ask for either, but we certainly do not have to give in to those temptations just as the people around us do! Christ is the one who has paid for our sins and has set us free from those temptations. It does not mean that we will no longer face them, just that we should not have to think that we should give in to them any longer – because we now know the difference between what God wants and what man wants.
God’s will in our lives is going to be very different to the life that the people around us want us to live. There are going to be people we call friends who will still try to lead us away from doing God’s will because they have not yet been released from their sinful ways. We are able to petition God for help to get us through those temptations so that we can glorify Him and allow others to see that there is a choice for them too!
Points to Ponder:
Do you roll over and accept everything others do to you?
How often do you ask God for help to stand tall in His will?
Monday Reading: Matthew 16 21-27
Key Verse: Matthew 16 24
24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Devotion:
There are many positions in life that we sign up for without fully preparing ourselves for what lies ahead and being a Christian seems to be one of those that so many people just do not think about. When Christ showed us all that He was willing to do because of His amazing love for us, it was not just to lift Himself up and glorify Himself and God the Father but also to show us that there are going to be things in our lives that we do not like but we may still have to face up to them.
Many types of work require an extraordinary input from the people in those positions; one such vocation being serving your country. When you join a service to serve your country, be it fighting for your country in the army or trying to save civilians as a police officer, you are putting your life on the line for others. You accept that as part of your job even if you have second thoughts after facing the real danger that you never thought would come to you, you still face that danger. What we do when we face that danger is what counts.
Christ was trying to tell His disciples about some of the things that He would have to face over the next short while before He was crucified. The disciples did not want to accept that because, after all, He is Christ! But Jesus did not play it down not boast about what He should have to face. Instead, He told them the truth and that they would have to accept what would happen because it was right in God’s eyes and it was what God wanted.
When we face some difficult decisions as to whether we should be doing what we think would be best for us or to follow on what God is asking of us, we often crumble at the thought of what may lie ahead. We try to seek some way in which we can hold off the things that we don’t like so that we can continue enjoying the things that we do like. When we do that we are giving in to the very things that God wants to take out of our lives. God does not want us to build up an earthly kingdom that we can enjoy for as long as we live but rather to aim at building up heavenly rewards that will last for eternity. What use is a reward on earth that has a ‘shelf-life’ when we are destined for an eternal life with God?
Points to Ponder:
Do you like to build up treasures for yourself?
Are you ignoring the treasures that God wants you to build up with Him?