Tuesday Reading: Matthew 5 4

Key Verse: Matthew 5 4

4  Blessed are they that mourn! For they shall be comforted.

Devotion:

There are times in life when we just need to stop and think for a bit; maybe this is a day like that for you. Time to Stop and think about the past, about what has happened, about what you have done, about what others have done is one of the most valuable commodities God has given us. That time should be spent with humble thought and careful consideration. That time is time that you need to spend with God, getting things right in your own mind so that you can move forward.

Being able to remember special people who have been through your life, special times that have passed and all those other good things is always fun; but we also have to remember those things which may not be so much fun. It is great thinking about the fun you had on holidays and the great time had with friends, but being able to stop and think about those who are no longer with us and those times we don’t really want to remember can be just as important. Being able to mourn openly and honestly with God is a great privilege and one that I have learned to embrace. They may not be fun time but they are just as important and special as others…

Bringing to mind the things that we have done wrong is never an easy task either because those are the things that we would rather forget or sweep under the carpet. Being able to admit that we have done wrong openly and honestly before our God is a necessity that must never be ignored – for as long as we do ignore our sins we are ignoring the power and might of our God. God has allowed us to live and continues to make sure that we are able to find His love no matter what happens to us in our lives; if we are going to ignore Him then we are turning our backs on the very love that He shows us. Being able to say sorry for the things we have done wrong has got to be part of our lives because we do continually get up to no good. Imagine what would happen to us if God were to ignore us when we did things wrong – we would have no hope whatsoever! But God’s grace and mercy continue to support us throughout everything. He has given us time so that we can use it wisely. He has given us the opportunity so that we have the chance to come to Him. Let us not only mourn for people that we lose from our lives, but let us mourn for the things we have done against our God. He wants to forgive us so that we can be with Him in heaven, just like his faithful servants passed are right now…

Points to Ponder:

Is something holding you back?

Are you bringing everything to God?

Monday Reading: Matthew 5 6

Key Verse: Matthew 5 6

6  Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness! For they shall be filled.

Devotion:

How many times have you really sought after God’s opinion rather than imposing your wants or wishes upon God? It is a hard thing to do at first because we do have so many wants and desires that we exclude that small quiet voice and listen to that inner desire instead. So many will think that it is that desire inside of them that is God’s voice and find out that they go along with their own desires instead of with God’s wishes in their lives. It can take a long time to get an answer from God as well, so you have to be very patient!

If we ask something righteous of God then we must expect Him to give us a righteous and just answer. We should also expect to have to wait on God for the perfect timing for what we ask rather than expecting it up front. Just maybe God will require something of us before we get to see the wondrous answer that He has lined up for us! If you have given up waiting after a few years then just maybe you do not have your heart entirely set on God answering your prayer… Does that mean that we should all have to wait a decade before God is going to answer our prayers? Far from it! So many times I have started in prayer only to find out that God has already started answering before I got down on my knees… But just once in a while we have to wait a decade or even more…

Do not ever be discouraged that God is not answering your prayers in your own time. Do not ever be discouraged that you may think that He has forgotten your prayers; continue on faithfully asking Him because it is His promise that He will faithfully answer our prayers! I can remember praying for some things when I first got back with God after many a year apart – is it any wonder then that I should have to wait after I made Him wait for so long? I’m not saying that you have been making Him wait, but when we put things into perspective we will see that He is entirely justified in everything that He does! He does know the perfect timing and He does know what our real needs are. Our real needs may not be the perfect job as we might see it but rather a lowly job of serving Him faithfully that He has lined up for us instead. Don’t ever give up on God because He has never given up on you!

Points to Ponder:

Are you growing weary waiting?

Are you faithfully following and asking?

Sunday Reading: Matthew 4 18-20

Key Verse: Matthew 4 19

19  And He said to them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Devotion:

Unless we study to find out what is behind many of the things that are said in life we will get a very strange view of it. If we only hear half of what is actually said then we will only know half of the truth. When I was first introduced to this passage I thought that it was a bit strange that these two brothers should immediately drop their livelihood and follow Christ after a simple saying “follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” But the more you think about it the more logical it is that Simon and Andrew actually knew a fair amount about Jesus at this time already.

We are fairly certain that they knew of Jesus through the teachings of John the Baptist and that they themselves were taught until their teacher was taken into prison; whereupon they returned to their fishing. So when the opportunity came to them that Jesus should invite them for further teaching, how could they say no? And yet we look at the world around us and we see so many people being given that same opportunity to follow Christ and they continue to reject Him day after day. What is it in this world that could ever seem anything like as good as what God is promising us? The sad truth is that sin is something so very deceitful that it looks far better from the outside than what it actually is.

God gives us the truth and He gives us opportunity, He gives us time and He has supplied the place… What we do with these things will govern our lives with Christ. If we are willing to drop our worldly ways and pick up His ways, then we shall enjoy all the privilege that that will bring to us. If we, however, turn our backs on Christ then we may well have missed the boat. Jesus made sure that the path that He walked was one which would lead to meeting the right people at the right time, giving them the truth, opportunity, time and meeting them at their place. When He makes things happen in our lives, if we are not listening we will miss out on much of which is said and even done. We need to be ready to take up the challenge that Christ gives us and follow Him, leaving behind those earthly trimmings that we have longed for for so long. Following Christ is not just something we say we do but should be something we do after we say yes!

Points to Ponder:

Have you said Yes to Christ?

Are you continuing to say Yes to Him?

Saturday Reading: Isaiah 64 8

Key Verse: Isaiah 64 8

8  But now, O Jehovah, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our Former; and we all are the work of Your hand.

Devotion:

Remembering that God is our Creator should be central to our belief because without that acknowledgement that He is almighty God and that nothing is impossible for Him, we are at a loss to explain so much in this world. If we ignored that central truth then we would not be any better than the people who are trying to invent and promote evolution as a way in which we could have developed from dust. Well, my faith is built upon the fact that God is the one who created us from that dust in the beginning after first creating that dust to start with!

I cannot but feel sorry for those who are trying to convince themselves that they have been formed over a very long time from a random selection of events that just happened to have happened in the exact correct order. The confusion that they hold just over their heads in the hopes that they can define the impossible would simply do my head in! As long as we are willing to admit that there is a God and that He is our Creator, then my life becomes a whole lot easier to explain and that peace of mind helps me to live a better life…

After a rough night with teenagers in a youth club you always try to figure out why they act the way they do. But when you start to hear what they have to put up with as an explanation for their existence, I begin to see that their lives are seated on the unknown. Then we look into the lives of the youth of today and find that their family lives are in similar disarray because of a constant stream of unknown or ill-defined events being pushed their way. What hope do people have if they cannot get to know the basic truth to start with? What hope do we have of reaching a generation who has been lied to the whole of their lives? The answer is, and must always be, that we step forward as a lighthouse with that truth that will never change. Each person will see that it is the truth when they stop to look carefully – Praise God for showing us the truth to start with!

Points to Ponder:

How do you think you were created?

How long would it take you to describe your beginnings?