February 11: Romans 3 27-31
Key Verse: Romans 3 31
Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.
Devotion:
How many Christians do you know who go around boasting? Bit of a trick question because I’m sure we are all guilty of boasting about something in our lives at some stage or another, maybe even every day! What this passage alludes to though, is not the boasting about the physical things we have, but the boasting about the religion! Yes, we have an Awesome God. Yes, we have a Saviour. Yes, we have the Holy Spirit – and we would be totally lost without them. Yes, we should be proud we can stand up and say we have God on our side and that we believe in Him but we must not do so through boasting about our lives.
I do hear of churches in various parts of the world talk about the amount of money they get because they believe ‘more than others’. I hear talk about churches prospering and the people within them prospering more but am yet to see proof all that go to those churches prosper. In reality, there are those who prosper and those who do not – life is like that; but the bigger the church congregation, the more people you may hear about who are prosperous, because they like to talk about it! It’s not about living right so God will give you money or belongings. It’s not about giving enough to the church so God will give you more. Yes, we should live right and we should give to the church but that is because the bible tells us we should do so.
God’s law gives us the answers as to why we should do things. God’s law gives us what we should be doing. God’s law is open to the whole world – and indeed it is as it has been translated into so many languages. But no matter how hard we try to live and how hard we try to do it all correctly, we will not get closer to heaven without believing in Jesus Christ! The law is there for a reason, but our faith is what will get us to live with God in heaven, not our works... The law can keep us straight and strengthen our faith, but Christ does the saving and our belief gives us faith to continue on and faith to believe that He will give to us what He thinks we deserve.
Points to Ponder:
Do you strive to do things right?
Do you strive to do what God knows is right too?
February 10: Acts 5 1-5
Key Verse: Acts 5 3
Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?
Devotion:
This is one of those stories in our bible we probably don’t like to remember or to go back to because it shows a side of God we don’t like to know about. When we talk about God being just, we like to think He is our protector and guide and will keep us from the evil around us; we like to think of Him as the one who will judge those around us who do evil things against us. What we do not like to think about is that He is also just toward us and will carry out judgement if it is us who break the law! I thank Jesus Christ He is my Saviour and I am looked after by Him and that He promised to take away all my sins that I lay down before Him; without that promise I would have been taken out a long time ago!
We don’t like to admit to being hypocrites, but that is something we have all been guilty of at some stage in our lives – we say one thing and do another. Ananias and Sapphira took it upon themselves to withhold a portion of the price of this possession they had and they did it before God. We may turn around and say we have not been so stupid as to do something like this before God, but in reality, we have because we have been hypocrites and in doing so we have done similar things in front of God! Christ reminded us that when we do things against our fellow men, we do it against God because we have been made in His image and He indwells us...
There is no way we can serve both God and man. We either serve one or the other because they are like two sides of a coin. Man is corrupt by default... we know that because we too are corrupt to start with. We only need to switch on the news for a few minutes to realise just how far corruption goes within our society because we see it right through governments around the world. Each one of us has to remember who we are doing this all in front of. Each one of us has to remember we are guilty, and we are doing this in front of Christ our King. Don’t be like Ananias and Sapphira... don’t try and hide something after God has already seen it!
Points to Ponder:
Do you always do what you say?
Just how much do you admit to God?
February 9: James 1 12-18
Key Verse: James 1 18
He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
Devotion:
It is not every person who suffers who is blessed, for suffering is something brought upon us through the sins of the world. Whilst our own sins may well bring us hardships or consequences, it is most often the sins of mankind which bring us the most suffering. Just because we put up with these things does not mean we will be blessed later; if you are seeking a blessing then you must be seeking God’s will. Being surrounded by suffering does not mean we have to give up our work for Christ but rather to stick to it more so others will see an example of faith. It is when we are able to continue resisting temptation through Christ’s strength we shine, and others will notice because we no longer seek to give ourselves the glory but to give it to Christ.
God will not send us temptations to test our resolve and see if we are worthy of His love. He has already shown us He is willing to give His love and mercy to everyone who is willing to believe on Him. Yes, He may allow temptations to come our way, but these are the temptations everyone around is seeing too because they come from the world and not from God. We are to separate ourselves from mainstream mankind by depending on God for the strength to resist these temptations. Though those around us may give in and be led away, we are to remain strong in our faith Christ will give us a way out of those same temptations. He will not allow us to be consumed by temptations which He knows we will not be able to resist because He knows our limits.
When we give in to temptation we are seduced by worldly things and turn away from God. That is when we bring sin into our lives and with it comes our death. Christ has given us the way forward so we will not have to pay that death penalty because He has already paid it for us. God is the one who supplies us with the positive and righteous gifts which will lead us away from temptation. We are the ones who have to take what He gives us and know He is protecting us all the way. We are His and He will not let us go.
Points to Ponder:
What do you give in to most?
Are you asking for His protection and strength?
February 8: Romans 9 14-21
Key Verse: Romans 9 16
It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
Devotion:
Whatever God does must be just. We look at ourselves and we find fault. We look at God and we cannot find fault. If we think we do find fault, then we are comparing what we think with what God knows. God is the one who is in control of this planet; He is the one who is in charge of things and not us. Just like a pot cannot tell the potter how to make itself or how to form itself, we cannot tell God what to do with us. Unlike the pot, though, God has given us choice so we can make our choices after He has created us.
We are initially created in His image and then we make bad choices. We are the ones who bring sin with us and allow sin to take control of our lives. God can use each one of us for His glory and that is His choice too. He was the one who chose to use Pharaoh for His glory by continuing to allow him to have a heart set against God. Pharaoh was the one who was being treated like a God by his own people because he demanded it and yet God was still able to use his as a symbol by which all of mankind would be able to remember God’s wrath and power.
God is the one who chooses to show His grace to us. We certainly do not deserve it and yet He is still willing to show us grace and mercy through everything He does do for us. As the scripture says, it is not the one who is willing, nor the one doing the running around, but God Himself who is able to show the mercy and grace. Since He is the only one, we need to show our thanks and respect to Him alone in our lives... Yet we are the ones who make the bad choices in our lives which lead to further choices and finally to self-destruction. The potter will make vessels from the same clay; those vessels will be used for good or bad through our choices of how we use them. God created us all in His image and we make the choices about how we turn out in our lives. If we are willing and able to listen to the truth, we will be able to make the right choices and turn out the way God wanted us to – but if we continually ignore that truth we don’t have much hope at randomly choosing the right path!
Points to Ponder:
Do you think you have made bad choices?
Are you looking forward to making the right choices with God now?
February 7: Romans 6 1-7
Key Verse: Romans 6 6
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin
Devotion:
Just because we know Christ is willing and just to forgive us of all of our sins we bring before Him, does not mean we can go out and sin a bit more so we can show just how much He does love us – that would be counter intuitive. We need to separate ourselves from sin and we do that by following on in Christ’s example. No, we don’t all have to go and be nailed to the cross so we can die, nor should be take our lives and make sure we do die. What we do need to do is to give up one life so another may reign.
We started out living in a life of sin. That life was the only one we knew about until someone was kind enough to tell us about God. When we then found out more about God, we wanted to bring Him into our lives, and we did so by admitting we were sinners and asking Him to forgive us for those sins. At that moment we can say we let go of our life of sin, or we died from that life of sin. Just like there are marvels of science and medicine which can now bring people back from the point of death, we may not fully let go of our life of sin but rather cling to it because we don’t know any other life. But we will never move on until we do let go of it.
Baptism is our way of showing others we are letting go of the life of sin and are being buried under Christ’s cleansing blood. When we come back up again, we are being born into a new life where we are not bound by sin. The physical act of baptism does not do this, Christ does the forgiving! The baptism is just our way of showing people we are willing to let go of our sin life and take on our new life in Christ. It is God who gets the glory and we are the ones showing everyone else we are willing to take on our new life in Christ with all to see... It is by God’s grace that we are saved from our death penalty and it is through His mercy we can continue to live, but let go of that old life of sin we must...
Points to Ponder:
Do you find it hard letting go?
Are you depending on God to help you let go?