Saturday Reading: Job 1 1
Key Verse: Job 1 1
1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
Devotion:
The two people that stand out to be as being described as being perfect in our bibles are Job and Noah (Genesis 6 9). And when we read up on each of the men we do find that they did not do everything absolutely perfect and right, but rather that their hearts were set on being perfect. That was their spiritual aim, to walk perfectly with God, to be constantly looking to Him and depending on Him for their whole lives.
So when God tells us that we need to be perfect we should not give in and admit defeat before we start knowing that we cannot ever hope to be perfect like Christ was; but instead we should aim to make our lives more in line with what Christ would want. We should aim to please God at all times. We should aim to be faithful to Him and not the world. We should aim to glorify Him in and through everything that we do. That being said, we will never actually reach perfection, but that must never stop us from wanting to please God.
If God had thought for one second that we could be perfect, He would never have allowed His Son to come and die for us but would have demanded that we were perfect. Instead, Christ willingly came to the cross in our stead so that we would be able to be presented as perfect to God even though we fall far short of the mark. His love for us went far beyond what we could ever hope for. But now that we know that love we should aim to lift Him up at every opportunity because it is the right thing to do.
Satan is going to try to throw many things in our paths just as he did for Job. He does that so that he can discourage us and try to stop us from aiming to be perfect for God. Because Christ has already died for our sins, we are able to be presented to God as perfect so long as we are willing to allow Jesus to stand up for us in our stead. That means that we need to believe in Jesus, what He has done for us and that He has already achieved that just because He first loved us. Once we go to Christ and ask for His forgiveness we will receive it as well as our perfect way to heaven; but then the task is just begun for us to reject evil and reject Satan’s ways and follow Christ’s path instead – that is where we continually need Christ’s strength.
Points to Ponder:
Are you rejecting the evil ways of this world?
Will you be presented perfect before God?
Friday Reading: Genesis 17 1
Key Verse: Genesis 17 1
1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
Devotion:
When people say that God’s Word never changes they not only refer to the fact that what God has presented to us is something that does not need revision but that right from the beginning God has been trying to get us to understand that we are the sinners and that what He is teaching us is the absolute truth that we need to trust in and believe; and not just the parts that we want to, but all of it.
God’s promise to Abraham was not said one day and enacted the very next day. That would not have been to God’s glory. But instead Abraham would have to wait on God and not to try and get things done through his own means! Too many times in our lives we are not willing to be patient and wait on God for the things that He has promised us. We try to get things done in our own time so that we will not have to wait – after all, we don’t like to be kept waiting.
But when we look at how God has continued to uphold His ways and teach us to be patient we should be realising by now that God wants to be given the glory and not have it torn away from Him by our greedy and prideful spirits. When God gives us a promise it is something that is going to happen and not just something He has said at the heat of the moment or to get a reaction out of us. When we look back on our lives we can probably spot many times in our lives when things were said that should not have been said; and looking back to those times we begin to see how we tried to dig ourselves out of holes by saying something nice or saying something we did not actually mean at the time.
One thing God has taught me is that patience is going to save me from many tight spots and many awkward moments. Yes there are still going to be times when I dig very big holes and jump straight into them, but there are also going to be many times when I can now look back and say thank you to Him for not letting me give in and say things that I did not mean at the time. This last decade, as He has been patiently teaching me about the love that I should have had from when I first got to know Him, and not something that I only picked up after breaking things for a couple of decades before that, God has given me many insights into His immense love for us and how we can be perfected through following His example.
Points to Ponder:
Do you think you will get everything right the first time round?
Do you trust and obey so that you can learn quicker from our Master?
Thursday Reading: Matthew 5 48
Key Verse: Matthew 5 48
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Devotion:
Another emotive verse... If we are all being called sinners and we have already been told that none of us have any hope of being perfect, then what should be be aiming for? The answer is within the verses that surround this verse – the very reason why I have left them out is so that you will spend just a little time to look them up today to find out what I am on about. It is far too easy to have everything put on a plate and to eat from that plate. It is far too easy to have everything explained so that you don’t have to think. But sometimes we need to take a step back and think about what is being said to us so that we can understand more!
The bible is complete – but it is not the complete works of and instructions from God. Yes it is God’s Word and we don’t need people adding to it or taking away from it. But God has placed us on this little planet in this little solar system so that we can learn more about His Majesty and His ways. God does not want us to be robots who just follow what is written down to the tee and do nothing outside of the box. God wants each one of us to grow up into our own individual selves so that each one of us can make our own personal decision to follow Him and believe on Him.
So when He tells us in these words that we need to be perfect just as our God in Heaven is perfect – how are we supposed to be able to do that? It is all in the words that come before this verse and even those that come after it. Last week we were reminded of the tremendous love that our Father has for us and the awesome love that Christ displayed for us. And it is within that constraint of love that these verses are aimed at us. We need to strive to be perfect in our love for others.
Even the vilest of men have friends whom they greet kindly and even treat with respect. So why should we not be able to show kindness and respect for those around us? Christ showed us the ultimate kindness and love when He went to the cross even before we started sinning. He died for ever person that is going to wrong Him. He did not say that He would only die for those who first believe in Him, but rather died and then reminded us that we should believe in Him. Christ was willing to serve the sentence before the crime was committed – and that crime was not even committed by Him, but rather by us! What perfect love He displayed – a love that we need to aim to attain!
Points to Ponder:
Do you aim to be perfect in Love?
Are you looking back to see what Christ actually did for you?
Wednesday Reading: Psalms 14 1-7
Key Verse: Psalms 14 1
1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Devotion:
There are some verses in God’s Word that bring out emotional responses when they are read out to people and this has got to be one of them. To the atheist this is probably a pompous verse where the believer is lifting themselves us. To the person who has not quite made up their minds, this may well be a turning point. For the strong believer, this is simply the truth. And then for the young believer (young in belief and not age) this is something that they have to try to get to understand.
Christ teaches us that we should not be judging others, and yet this Psalms is quite clearly saying that there are people who are sinners, are corrupt and so many that are not following God’s Word. Is this us judging? Far from it! This is God’s Word we are talking about here – the very Word that teaches us right from wrong; and to have that truth presented to us in the clearest way possible is what we need.
Each one of us has got to come to terms with the fact that we are sinners and that we are doing things which God does not like. We also have to learn that He is our Creator and that we would simply not be here if it were not for Him. We are certainly not alone as can be seen from countless people that have gone before us and countless more that will follow us too. What do people seek if they are not seeking the truth? Well, each man seems to want to seek his own destiny nowadays rather than seeking the truth. Each man wants to find something that will lift him up into a position of praise. We all seek our own gain until such time as we do find out the truth about our Lord Jesus Christ. Even the Jews of old would seek their own works instead of seeking Christ, and yet so many more people ask what all the fuss is about.
Even after Easter when people should have heard the truth and should have had time to digest that truth they continue to shun God’s Word as something that man has come up with! Well if I were going to write about myself I would want to describe myself in better ways than a fool and a sinner. It is only when we start to study what God has given us that we then begin to understand how we have failed in so many ways. But then Christ has given us that path along which we must follow Him, believing in our hearts that He is the Son of God and that He will forgive us for all the things we have done wrong if we ask Him to. Don’t be put off by how God views us because we do have our ambassador Jesus Christ who is willing and able to present us to God the Father as clean as freshly driven snow.
Points to Ponder:
Are you fooling yourself?
Have you remembered that Christ has already paid for your sin?
Tuesday Reading: Zephaniah 1 12-14
Key Verse: Zephaniah 1 12
12 And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.
Devotion:
What sobering words were written by so many prophets, and yet Israel would not listen to God’s Word. Pride had set in and continued to steer men away from doing what was right in the sight of God and led them down some pretty evil paths. We can look through the chronicles of the kings and find out just how many of the kings went their own way instead of following God’s way, but we must also remember just how many people continued to follow those kings down the path of destruction. Each one of us has been given a choice as to what we do in our lives and the path that we will be following – so let us choose wisely!
God is Just! That means that when He sees something wrong in our lives He is not going to turn a blind eye toward it and allow us to continue down our path of destruction. He is going to try to get us to turn around and follow Him and His ways before we fall of the edge. When we find out the lengths that He has already gone to to turn us round, then maybe we should take notice when He first puts something in our path to turn us! Why should we continue to allow terrible things to come our way when we know that by following His ways and His path we will be able to live a much better life for Him.
This does not mean that we are going to turn into millionaires or find untold treasures that will make us rich; far from it because monetary wealth will turn us away from God’s ways and make us follow the ways of the evil one instead. God wants us to leave the worldly ways behind and to follow on in His ways because He does know which ways would best suit us and which ways would best profit us!
Our ways are the easy paths that we chose to allow for the least discomfort and the path that we think best suits what we would like to do. God’s ways are just the right ways. When we are able to set aside our preconceptions and allow God to show us His ways then we are able to build ourselves up in His might and in His wisdom. When we do do that we then begin to see just how amazing He is and how much of our own interest He actually does have in His heart. If we allow ourselves to follow His ways and mould our lives to His ways then we will find out that His ways do actually suit us if we want to live for Him!
Points to Ponder:
Do you try to mould God’s ways?
Or do you mould yourself on God’s ways?