Wednesday Reading: 2 Timothy 2 1-5

Key Verse: 2 Timothy 2 2

2  And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit the same to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Devotion:

So what do we do when we find out the truth? Do we sit on it and wonder at it, marvelling at it, or do we share it with others? God wants us to understand His Word in our hearts and because of that He wants that we should meditate on it; in other words He wants us to read it and take it in. But He does not want us to stop there because taking it in is only the start – we have to apply what we take in so that we can know it as the truth and not just have a head-knowledge of what we think of as the truth.

I fear that many people may fall short in their walk with God simply because they do not apply what they learn. I know, because I have been there and I know what chaos that can bring into your life. It’s not an easy situation to be in because you cannot see what is happening whilst being in the midst of it. I thought that I was doing what was right and continued on doing things as I saw fit. But from the outside others were beginning to see me doing things that I used not to do, things that would be taking me away from God. Fortunately my Pastor stepped in and reminded me about God’s Word and how I was walking away from what I thought I was working towards.

So when God’s Word says that I should be the one taking in the knowledge and then spreading that knowledge, I understand that it is not just a right and a privilege to be able to share God’s Word, but it is also our duty to make others aware of this truth. Taking this truth and throwing it out into the wind is going to be much like sowing seeds on a windy day – we will not be sure of where the seeds are going to end up. We should be more picky about what we do with His Word and open it up to those who are willing to listen.

Yes we do need to take God’s Word out to all who have breath, but we also have to be careful to give it to those who we know can make full use of it. I give you God’s Word!

Points to Ponder:

How often do you read God’s Word?

How often do you share God’s Word?

Tuesday Reading: Proverbs 28 4-5

Key Verse: Proverbs 28 5

5  Evil men do not understand judgment; but those who seek The Lord understand all things.

Devotion:

We have two sides in this world; those that seek God and those who do not. We like to partition people into groups and to give degrees of innocence or guilt according to our judgement or to our ways of thinking – hence we come up with many degrees of guilt and many different sides when we try to do things our own way; but there are only two sides – those for God and those against God.

Whilst many are going to jump up and down and complain that we cannot simply say that the world is black or white we do have to come to some place to find out the truth. That truth for us is God’s Word. God’s Word is exactly that. It is His Word. By definition it is the truth and in it are no lies or deceitful ways that He teaches us; we know this because we accept that God cannot and will not lie. So if His Word is such a rock that we can always depend on it as the truth – then surely it is the definition by which we can define the world.

Now I don’t know about you, but when I read God’s Word and it tells me that things are black and white – then I believe it and I depend on it. I do this because I cannot accept one part of His Word and not another part just because I think of things as being different or being woolly. There is nothing woolly about God’s Word; the wool is in our heads when we try to decipher it because we get distracted and waylaid by all manner of things when we try to discover the truth. God wants us to know the truth and He has done what is required so that we can know it – He has given us His Word in a precise and bountiful way... we just need to take it in!

So when I say that the world is black or white, I do say that we either work for God in everything that we do or we don’t. That does not mean, unfortunately, that we are going to be able to do everything right from now on because we are still weak and we still sin; but God’s Word continues to be the Rock that is the Truth. We need to take His Word in daily and meditate on it so that we learn all that is righteous. Once we know the difference then we are able to separate the two and to aim at doing the right things. That is what we have to do, to aim at obeying God and fulfilling His will in our lives. If we seek Him with our whole hearts then we will find the truth and we will understand His ways. But if we seek Him half-heartedly then we shall not be looking at the whole truth but some corruption that we have made up...

Points to Ponder:

Do you accept the truth when you know it?

Are you accepting God’s Word, entirely?

Monday Reading: Acts 26 12-18

Key Verse: Acts 26 18

18  in order to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the authority of Satan to God, so that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.

Devotion:

One thing we can all be certain of is that God wants each of us to be a Christian, a follower of Christ. He is not going to announce Himself to each of us like He did for Saul/Paul, but He does come to us with the same vigour – whether we realise it or not! God knows what is in each of our hearts and He knows what makes us tick. If it is going to take something drastic in order to gain our attention, then just maybe He will allow something drastic to happen in our lives; but why should we tempt Him into doing something drastic when we can so simply and lovingly turn to Him with open arms.

If you are willing to make this year the year that you make a difference then you have to start with a change in yourself and your own ways. If you are not willing to make that first change, then how is anything else going to change around you? Paul was a man with a mission against God and he was not willing to make any changes, so God had to do something to get his attention. I don’t think Paul really knew just how important that moment was until after things had begun to change. Many times in our lives we don’t realise just how important God actually in and we tend to leave Him out of those moments when we should be drawing closest to Him.

God wants us to be able to stay close to Him at all times so that we do have the best possible chance at getting to know Him, getting to hear Him and getting to do His will in our lives. If we are going to be running off in the opposite direction like Paul or Jonah, then should we really expect to be able to hear God’s will? Our walk has got to change within us so that we focus on Christ. Once that focus has changed from being a focus on the world to a focus on Christ, then we will be able to see more of His will in our lives. But notice that that change starts with you doing something. When we look back in our lives we will then see that God was the one who made the first move and that He gave us the opportunity to change – we just took that opportunity and made that change. You see, God has already set things in motion so that we can achieve all that is good. God has already made things possible for us through all that He has already done for us. We need to grab His opportunities with both hands and show Him that we are ready for change and ready for Him to work in our lives. Once we do that we will see the changes that He brings into our lives and we will experience a whole new life with Him. Let that be your aim this year!

Points to Ponder:

Are you ready for change?

Are you willing to do God’s will?

Sunday Reading: Proverbs 16 1-3

Key Verse: Proverbs 16 1

1  The ordering of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from The LORD.

Devotion:

Not is this just a new day, a new week and a new year, but it is also a chance for us to have a new start. Each new day that God gives us is a chance to get things right once again – we are not bound by our sin nature so why should we give in to it and allow that sin nature to rule our lives? Why not let us try to break the mould that we have made for ourselves and start afresh once again!

The New King James bible translates the first verse as “The intentions of the heart belong to a man, but the answer of the tongue comes from the Lord”. It is one of those statements that does get a bit lost in the translation so needs us to look at it and to meditate on it as well. I have spent a while trying to come up with the right words to say so that we can unravel this together, but the more that I try to come up with the more of a hash I seem to make of the words... and I feel that that is exactly what God is trying to reveal to us here.

We may think that we are able to come up with great philosophical debates and hugely important statements, but if truth be told we do tend to say one thing and mean another; quite often getting ourselves into a right pickle when we try to come up with something intelligent! So being able to take a step back and allow God to guide us in what we do and say is a tremendously important step for each of us to take – to be able to take that one step away from life and from our own imaginations and allow God to take those next few steps for us as we strive to say something important!

When we start to talk we quite often hear a string of words come out that we cannot explain or worse still a string of words that make us cringe and shy away in shame! I have really put my foot in things at times by trying to say things before I have asked for guidance and I have learned the hard way that what I say is not often the right thing! So how am I able to give you these daily devotions? Simply by giving them over to God and allowing Him to give me the words to say to you. Long have I trusted God to do this because I know my English is not as good as it should be – I failed English a couple of times! But when we stop our mouths from opening before our brains are in gear, then turn to God and ask for His guidance, we then find that He is able to guide our mouths just as He did to Moses and many that have gone before us! Trust God and He will give you the right things to say at the right time – it is the only way! He is the only way!

Points to Ponder:

Do you think of yourself as a public speaker?

How often do you give God control before speaking?