Thursday Reading: Hebrews 13 1-6
Key Verse: Hebrews 13 5
5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Devotion:
I had to think about this one a bit because what I see in the teenagers that I teach now I certainly did not see in myself. Am I that old?!? There were times in my younger life that I would get all dressed up to try and make an impression, but most of the time we (guys) would expect the ladies to be the ones who would go out of their way to dress up and look good for the occasion(s). How times seem to have changed and how much we now see both sexes spending far too much time preening themselves for gatherings.
Maybe it was because I was brought up close to the bush or simply because it was Africa; but I don’t think I was that concerned with the way that I acted or the way that I dressed. Some of the youngsters that I have met lately spend far too much time trying to make themselves up into something that they are not instead of getting down and fellowshipping. I don’t mean jumping on the couch with your partner and ignoring everything else in the room but begin able to sit and talk openly and freely about things that should concern all of us. This is one of the reasons why I so like the teen groups that I teach because I do try to get them to be part of the discussion rather than just teaching them.
But it is not that type of conversation that we are talking of here but the way that we carry ourselves instead. If we are going to give in to pride and selfishness then we will find out that we cannot mix well with others. We will then find that we seem to have to do more to get involved with others. Sometimes God just wants us to be friends with people and to allow them to be part of your life. Just because He has given you a big heart that allows you to love others, does not mean that He wants you to be ‘in love’ with them all; God wants us to know how special we are to each other and for that to happen we have to be open and honest with each other.
Being open and honest for a man may well not be as easy as it is for a lady. It does not mean that we have to start acting like a lady but just to be a different person than our normal ways and to think about others instead of just ourselves. Why aim at men? Because we, I fear, may be the main culprits on this one! God has given us to be very different types of people so that we can find others to mix with and get on with but it does mean that we have to be willing to get on with others to start with!
Points to Ponder:
Do you mix well with others?
What strengths has God given you?
Wednesday Reading: Acts 2 36-42
Key Verse: Acts 2 42
42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Devotion:
What does church mean to you? I can guarantee that church has a very different meaning to men and women. Not so much as in it is a gathering of souls together where we can lift up and praise our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, but rather more deep than that. No I’m not going to get all philosophical because I can hardly spell that without a dictionary, never mind understand it.
The church is not about the building but about the people who gather together. In the early days of the church people would meet together in small congregations, in peoples’ houses or sometimes in a real building set aside for gathering. Nowadays we almost always have set buildings which are expected to have steeples or crosses to mark them as such – that is just the way we have pushed society along. What really matters, though, is what goes on inside of each one who is gathering together.
Some people will complain that the local church is too strict, or not strict enough, too old-fashioned or too modernistic. We will not be able to please all people all of the time – because we are different. And when it comes to that, we often find that men and women look for different things in church as well. But if we start trying to seek out the perfect church for us, we are going to be looking for a very long time without getting down and worshipping God! We need to be in church where we can worship our Saviour; and we need to be there with others and not try to go it alone. Temptation is far too great an escape to be able to stand up by ourselves. God wants us to be there for each other as a church family, supporting each other, growing together with each other.
Just like a real family, our church family is not going to be perfect. Each member has different feelings and different ways of life. Not all members are male and not all female. If we had a single sex church we will very quickly find that we compete against each other instead of working together. We can see, over and over again, that there has been fighting in families since the beginning of time – more often than not between same sexes. We need each other so that we can grow in Christ together. We need that ‘help meet’ that God designed for us. Then we need God’s Word and patience to grow together in His Word. Without the firm foundation of bible teaching I have had over the last decade, I should still be foundering instead of bring your these devotions. I praise God for His patience with me when others have given up…
Points to Ponder:
Do you feel like giving in rather than building up?
Where would you be if God gave up on you?
Tuesday Reading: 1 Samuel 1 9-18
Key Verse: 1 Samuel 1 14
14 And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee.
Devotion:
I am sorry that it has turned out three days in a row talking on this subject, but there is so much to learn from simply watching others, observing their actions and reactions and listening to what God is trying to do in spite of what we go through. I can remember sitting in a hotel a while back on holiday, listening to the various stories that other travellers told and wondering why they could not see what they were doing to themselves! But then I look back a bit further and realise that I too had been there and I still have much to learn. God continues to allow us to learn through others so that we do not have to experience all the heart-ache ourselves.
So let us not dwell on the loneliness or the heart-ache of not having children but rather on the reactions of the men around the house this time! Elkanah could not understand why Hannah felt so bad even when he was showing her more kindness that to his other wife. Is that just not typical of our reaction? ‘Are we not good enough then’ is something that we will band around long before we understand the situation! And then forget all about it after the situation has been resolved one way or the other. Ladies, beware… we just don’t get it until it is normally too late!
Hannah took her problem to exactly the right place – she took it to God and offloaded her burden there. Men do not always see the problem in the same light and will often question if it is a problem instead. To top it all, when she was in the temple, Eli the priest watched her and immediately assumed that she was in a drunken state because she did not do things in the normal and expected way! Trust a man to get it so wrong; but then that could be counted as normal for us. Without man ‘offhandish’ attitude to offset woman’s deep seated feelings we would probably both end up in a terrible place with no way out – we would dig ourselves a hole that was far to deep to fall into safely, never mind getting out!
But God, once again, was just and gracious. He heard Hannah’s prayers and allowed her to be comforted with children. Never give up on God because He is continuing to work through us all the time. When us men have an attitude that winds you women up, just try and imagine how much worse it could be if we were really winding each other up! God has given us different attitudes so we can work effectively together!
Points to Ponder:
Are you finding your workload too much?
Just how much support do you request from God?
Monday Reading: Luke 1 5-25
Key Verse: Luke 1 20
20 And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.
Devotion:
To the man, this is probably one of those ‘Oh well, that’s life…’ moments whereas to the lady this may well be one of those ‘I told you so!’ moments! How is it that ladies can more often than not spot when things are going wrong before we do? It is quite simply that they are more in tune with what is going on because of their longer standing and often deeper feelings. Do I envy women for being able to understand many things before we can? Sometimes… But then I marvel at my ability that God has given me to be able to do many physical things that ladies cannot. Sometimes I find that I am too logical for my own good and seem to lose track on what should be said or done because I think I have already thought things through.
In reality I have fallen very short of thinking things through. For the last few years I have been doing a reasonable amount of writing things down and I can see how many times I have fallen short and how many mistakes I have made over the last few years… but this time I have a reminder about those mistakes because they are written down. It does not mean that I am dwelling on them more than I should because ‘I am still a man’ and seem to be able to move on, though with a greater understanding than in the past. Does this prevent me from making mistakes? Well, I like to think so!
God is simply amazing for what He has done by creating two very different types of people in man and woman. The longer that I live, the more I am able to see just how much we are meant for each other – God’s perfect design. And yet we still have our moments when we think we can do things without God or go against His design and hope to succeed! When we start to doubt that God can do things, we often find out the hard way that He has already started doing things and we just need to catch up with Him. It is not our task to doubt Him but our task to depend on our faith and allow Him to demonstrate just how awesome He is.
More than one thing has shown me that I need to do some studying to prepare some devotions on just how Awesome God is and who He is to us. Let us not think that we have been given the ability to go out and do anything but rather know that He can use us to achieve anything. But it is not man or woman alone, but both of us working together that demonstrate just how Awesome He really is!
Points to Ponder:
Are you trying to achieve great things for God?
Are you allowing Him to work through you?
Sunday Reading: Genesis 18 9-15
Key Verse: Genesis 18 12
12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?
Devotion:
I know I shall probably have to put up with a lot of stick over the next few devotions, but here they come anyways because this is what The Lord has laid on my heart… Did you know that men and women are different! I say that not as a question but a statement because we all should already have realised that. But I want to be able to look a bit deeper at some of the differences – and yes, it may well be a bit biased because I am a man! I don’t pretend to understand women other than through what has happened to me and through what God has taught me (and still teaches me) through His Word. Beside reading God’s Word the one thing that I have learned to do is to write things down so that I can go over them at a later stage.
That then brings us neatly on to the first of our differences. Men seem to be able to shake things off rather quickly whereas ladies continue to be affected by things that have happened or have been said in the past. If this is a failing on our side, then there are times when I welcome such failings for the ability to shake off some of our past experiences. Are we then lucky? I don’t know yet…
One of the things that I have seen affect many people in the past is the inability to have children. God has given us together so that we may have children and when we are robbed of that privilege for any reason, it is probably the female who is most affected normally. I have two wonderful children who have all but grown up already so they may soon be thinking about starting their own families; I can only pray that God will be gracious to them as well when the time is right.
This must have been something that was building up on Sarah’s mind for some time, but both Sarah and Abraham had been able to live through it up to this point. It had probably been many years since God first promised Abraham numerous children so they had been continuing in faith for that time. Sarah’s first reaction was to try and fulfil God’s Word by giving Hagar to Abraham – not an easy decision I am sure. But now as the child grew, Sarah’s feelings were still strong. Being reminded about her barrenness was not something she cherished. Once you have had children you can relate to just how much she was missing out on not having children and how much she must have envied those around her. But God is always Just and gracious! He always delivers on His promises – even when us men forget and move on!
Points to Ponder:
Are you impatient with God?
Are you feeling like your faith is being exercised?