Wednesday Reading: Psalms 130 1-5
Key Verse: Psalms 130 3
3 If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
Devotion:
I wonder how many times you have had that sickening feeling of being found out or being discovered whilst doing something you ought not to have been doing! Well, let’s not go there but instead just think on this one thing from these verses – if God were to take account of every little thing that we did wrong, who would be able to stand up and say “I’m ok”?
We’re not talking about God turning round and suddenly seeing what you have been up to for the past few years; what we are talking about is the fact that God is continually aware of every little thing that we get up to – from those times when you have done something very wrong, right down to the ‘I hate you’ thoughts that you may have had briefly when someone wronged you. If God were like us at all (thank heaven that He is nothing like us!) then could you imagine the thoughts that He would have about us for the things we get up to whilst we are standing right in front of Him? Could you imagine what it would be like if your best friend suddenly started going off the rails while they were with you?
Instead, we have a God that has known about our problems from the very beginning. He continues to be aware of all the things that we get up to but, much more than that, He has already done all that is required for us to be forgiven for those things that we are yet to do wrong! How Awesome is He who gave us a way out of our predicament before we even realise that we were in a hole!
Just about the time when we think that we have done too many things wrong, he steps forward and reminds us of what He has done to set us free. Just when we think we cannot sink any further, we realise that we are even deeper than we first thought – but he has supplied the exit strategy already! When we talk about a loving God, it is not just a God that says that He loves us or does something for us now and again, we are talking about a God who has already given us the freedom and the everlasting life. Whether we accept that freedom and life is another thing entirely! He has laid down the truth for us and has given us the opportunity to come to Him and live in that truth. Are we then going to continue ignoring Him and walk on our own merry path to destruction or are we going to stop and ask Him for direction so that we can get to the goal He has already set up – should we choose it…
Points to Ponder:
So you think you are stuck in a hole…
Have you looked up to see God standing over you yet?
Tuesday Reading: Psalms 119 113-120
Key Verse: Psalms 119 114
114 Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word.
Devotion:
One thing I never get tired of is telling people just how wonderful God’s Word is and how much they too should be reading it daily. How much they actually take in and apply in their own lives is an entirely different matter! Once you do settle down into a regular patter of reading your bible you will get to see a whole new outlook on this world, other people and even yourself. No matter how much you think you know about other people or about yourself, you will get to learn something new just by reading God’s Word – that to me is the most amazing part of living with Christ.
It is not just about finding out new stuff but so much more than that because, as I was trying to tell some teenagers last night, we all need to have a root of truth that we can depend on in our lives. If we are lucky enough to have good parents then we may well know just how good life can be because of the truth that they have shared with us over the years. Can you imagine what it would be like to not know the truth? Can you imagine how distraught someone must get trying to find out the truth when they can see so many lies and so much distrust around them?
God’s Word stands out as the single truth that we have in our lives that we can trust in and depend on. What a glorious comfort that is for each of us to know that we have an absolute truth, a rock, a defining thing in our lives! No matter what is going on in the world around us, no matter how many white lies, half-truths, distortions and other strange behaviours we have in our lives, we can trust in God’s Word as the single unchanging and perfect place for us always to seek out. And that we should, every day; we should be seeking out that truth and allowing it to encourage us, nurture us, correct us and build us up into something or someone that God would love to call ‘a child of His’.
We are going to be faced with hardships, temptations, evil and whatever else you can come up with – but each of those will never stand up to God’s Word. We know that the truth will always dig so much deeper into our souls than anything else. We know that the truth will tear us apart if we try to live a lie. We know that God wants to separate us from the world and set us free so that we can live in His Word. God wants us to have the best, but unless we want to receive that truth upon which to build the best, we are not going to get very far with it!
Points to Ponder:
Do you have a quiet place you like to go?
Do you make sure to take God with you when you go there?
Monday Reading: Psalms 19 7
Key Verse: Psalms 19 7
7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
Devotion:
One thing we can do is pick fault in the bible… Let me qualify that! The bible as we now know it is a book that has been translated and gathered together from the words written down by some pretty amazing people who had been inspired by God to write down His Law. What we can never do is to pick any fault in His Law because it is perfect. We may find a spelling mistake or two in some bibles and some even go a bit ‘off the wall’ in their translations of the original text; so much so that we may be lead astray by them rather than being brought back to God through them. Now I am sure that God will make sure that people will get the right message when He wants them to, but having a good and firm start is always the best way.
When Christ came to us in human form, He was still without sin and what He said to each of the people He spoke to was exactly what they needed to hear. For all those men who have written God’s Word down for us to now read, He made sure that they got the right message up front. As we see when we are introduced to the disciples, not all of them were clever or scholars but quite the contrary. God wanted to make sure we did get the message plain and simple – that it is His Word that will make us wise and not the fact that we chose to do something with it by binding the words in a single book.
I am not sure what the disciples would have thought of being able to carry the whole Word of God round in their hands rather than just parts of it in sacks and cases. Quite what they would have thought about people who would not want to read the bible, well, that is another matter. They knew just how special God’s Word was to them and they made sure that they got to tell as many people as possible. When these words were written down, David did not know that we would eventually all have ready access to those very words – but He knew just how special God’s Law is and he wanted to make sure that others would get to hear it; so God inspired him to write down so much for our learning nowadays.
How could we think anything less of God’s Word than the perfection that it is? How can we ever hope to be able to get to know God when we live in such a corrupt world? How, by taking a step back from our worldly lives and reading about what God wants us to know about. God’s Word has been written for us!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you use things made for you?
Do you get personal with God’s Word in your life?
Sunday Reading: Ruth 3 1-5
Key Verse: Proverbs 3 5
5 And she said unto her, All that thou sayest unto me I will do.
Devotion:
This is one of those things that I did not spot reading through Ruth just a few weeks back, but one that I got from reading someone else’s advice. The advice I read was that I should read chapter 3 to find out what Naomi did for Ruth and that would help to understand how we should be more willing to take good advice from others... How many times have you been confronted by something that you did not quite get or did not quite know how to handle? Did you seek advice, or did you do the ‘man thing’ and storm ahead and see what happened?
How about a scenario that goes something like this? ...”but asking for advice is not always as easy as it sounds for some of us.” “Is it because we are too proud to ask?” “Well, not always.” “Well, is it that we are too shy to ask?” “Well, not really, it is more a case of I don’t want to mess things up by asking and getting a negative response; I mean, they have offered but I still don’t want to chance breaking the friendship that I have now”...
I wonder how many times you have been confronted by something like that or indeed have gone there yourself. Ruth was a stranger in a strange land but she was doing what she knew was right by following Naomi and following her ways. She had seen the good side of Naomi’s God through her actions and she wanted to get to know more. Ruth did not go ahead with all of this just because she was afraid and in a foreign land but rather because of her love and respect for Naomi. It was that love and respect that allowed her to follow Naomi’s advice in order that she could find happiness in her life. And it was Naomi’s love and respect for Ruth that encouraged her to show Ruth their ways and to explain how she would be able to find a husband.
This does not mean that we all have to be in a position where we are looking for a partner before we will get the help that we seek from those around us but it does show us that people are normally more willing to help us than we do realise at first. When God brought Eve to join Adam it was not just a case of supplying a need but rather fulfilling a joint role in the perfect way. God is the one who does know what is best for us and He is the one who will supply others to give us the support we do require and seek from others. Trust Him to allow someone to give you the advice you seek. Look for that support in the Christians around you that He has brought into your life. He has done it for a reason and we need to start trusting Him to see why...
Points to Ponder:
Do you find it hard to ask for advice?
Are you inadvertently turning God’s advice down?
Saturday Reading: Romans 14 16-19
Key Verse: Romans 14 17
17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Devotion:
I wonder what the arguments were like about the food that was to be eaten or was not to be eaten; whether it would offend others or not and just what they would do about it. It must have been a big thing at the time because of the numerous passages where we find that the Apostles were trying to calm down the situation between the people who would and the people who would not. Nowadays there seem to be much more offensive things flying around – but then we could look at it from the same point of view as sin. A sin is a sin…
There is nothing that we eat or drink that will exclude us from God. How we handle what we eat and drink may well lead us into situations that are not at all good and certainly will not lift up Christ or glorify Him in any way whatsoever. Those are the things we should be thinking about to make sure that we do not go there in the first place. Neither would it be good for us nor good for our relationship with Christ if we were to run off and work against His will once again!
It is not the things of this world that we need to focus on in order to walk with Christ but rather the spiritual things laid down by Him that we need to focus on. If we focus on things of the world then that is where we will end up – deep in this world. But if we are spending more of our time with Christ and doing more spiritual things that will ultimately lift Christ up, then we are working towards the Glory in Heaven and not to the glory of this world. Christ did not come and do what He did so that we could tie ourselves in knots in this world. He came so that we could be freed from the trap that is sin in this world. He came to save us from that sin.
When we are doing all that is acceptable to God, then we have a surer walk with Him than those people around us who are purposely focused on the world instead. They may well get all the money and the praise of their peers, but they certainly are not looking at the praise that God is waiting on in the future. If they continue to ignore Him then they will have to face Him and be rejected of Him on that day of judgement; and not us. So let us step back from the world and allow the world to see that we live for Christ. Let us lift Him up and allowed them to see we are not ashamed. Let us stand firm and bring them closer so they too can see the Awesome love that Christ has for us instead of waiting for them to face His wrath in the end!
Points to Ponder:
Are you drawing others to Christ?
Or are you pushing a wedge between them and God?