Wednesday Reading: Romans 12 9-13

Key Verse: Romans 12 12

12  rejoicing in hope, patient in affliction, steadfastly continuing in prayer,

Devotion:

If you are going to say that you love someone, what else are you going to do about it? No, just saying that you love someone is not enough because we are human and do silly things. If you want to say that you love someone then you should go about showing them that you are willing to love them at all times and through everything. It is no good saying that you will love them but then change your mind when the going gets tough or when things go wrong – that is the standard fickleness of humans and should never be applied as an excuse when we talk about love. Love should be true, honest, everlasting and absolutely sure! If you, like me, have thought that you have been in love in the past and then found out the hard way that it was your worldly desires and not true love, then you will be one step closer to knowing true love when it does come your way.

But let’s not get hung up on talking about that one true love – because that should be God first of all. Let us rather talk about the love that we should have for each person that we meet. When Christ told us to love our neighbours and to love our enemies it was because He knew that we would be facing some pretty strange people in our lives – we may be very peculiar to others!

If you love someone then you are not going to wish bad things upon them. If you love someone you will not go out of your way to trip them up or to place stumbling blocks in front of them. If you love someone you will want to care for them and support them in ways which go above and beyond that which is called for by humans. That love should be what we carry round for everyone we meet. Yes it will be hard. Yes we will falter. But from it better things will grow. If you love someone, don’t follow them into temptation – that is saying to them that they should be ‘bad’ people… that is not love… God’s love does not lead us into temptation!

Points to Ponder:

“Do you love me”?

What would your answer be to Christ?

Tuesday Reading: Luke 21 33-36

Key Verse: Luke 21 36

36  Watch therefore, praying in every season that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things which shall occur, and to stand before the Son of Man.

Devotion:

One of the things that I never really looked at until later on in life was that as Christians we would still have to face up to many things in our lives. Just because of the fact that we are living in a world that seems hell-bent on bringing destruction upon itself, we will have to face up to many of the consequences of those actions. But just because we are Christians, it does not necessarily mean that we are going to have to face up to more than average Joe down the road – after all, we do have a God that loves and cares for us!

When we do get to know our bibles, we find out that there are so many truths held within them that we would explode if we were somehow able to consume all of the facts! There are countless warnings about the world around us and the grip that Satan has on many people that are living right next to us. Those warnings are there for a reason, that we might not be tempted to give in and go there. But they are also warnings so that we can avoid certain things in our lives. If we know death and destruction lie ahead, why should we even go there?

Yes, we do see so must death and destruction close at hand. Yes we are faced with many terrible things. Yes we have been warned about them. Yes we know that they lead to death. But that should not get us down and despondent. Instead we should be standing up straight with the knowledge that Christ can deliver us, with the knowledge that God cares for us, with the knowledge that we have a certain eternal and wonderful life with Him afterwards. Why then let the world get you down? Why then let others persuade you to go with them? Why then feel anything other than Joy that Christ is able, and willing!

Points to Ponder:

Are you carrying round a burden?

Are you actually trusting God?

Monday Reading: 1 Peter 4 1-8

Key Verse: 1 Peter 4 7

7  But the end of all things has drawn near. Therefore be of sound mind, and be sensible to prayers.

Devotion:

Probably the biggest temptation we face is from our peers, from those friends that we have around us. Just because we live in a world where we are surrounded by friends who do not stick to God’s Word, does not mean that we have to be like them; nor does it mean that we have to leave them behind and go off and live our life in spite of them… what it does mean is that we should not give in to the same things as they do. They will be the ones asking us why we do not join in with the way that they live their lives and they will be the ones tempting us to go along with them and have a good time – we must be the ones to stand up and be strong in prayer so that God will give us the strength to live with Him rather than with them.

That is not turning your back on your friends; far from it. What it is doing is encouraging them to live their lives in a manner that God would approve of instead of fighting against God each step of the way. Each one of us will have to stand up and be counted at the end of the day. We will be the ones that have to face up to God and account for all the things that we did when we knew that God had said otherwise.

Our prayers should be for strength to continue on in Gods ways in spite of the world trying to drag us along with them. Our prayers should be that we can stand up and be counted as Christians in a world that seems bent on leaving God out of everything. Our prayers should be that we are Christians who can glorify Christ our Saviour in spite of what we may be like on the inside. Christ has paid our debt and set us free so that we can be that example for others to see Him and His ways. We need to lift up our prayers to make sure we are asking God for the strength that He can give us to do exactly that.

Points to Ponder:

Do you feel like superman?

How big do you feel when you know God just saw you do that?

Sunday Reading: Matthew 26 39-41

Key Verse: Matthew 26 41

41  Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Devotion:

Jesus’ words to the disciples as they entered into the garden were that they should watch and pray so that they would not be tempted. We live as corrupt people in a corrupt world where we are always surrounded by temptation; if we do not sit up, watch and pray, we will find very quickly that giving in to those temptations then becomes the normal way. No matter how much we say that we will never go down that path, that we will not give in, when push comes to shove we find that just as Jesus described, our spirit may well be willing, but our flesh is the weak point.

Giving in to temptation is going to happen to all of us. It is not something that we will be able to totally avoid because we are weak. But with a few moments of reflection, with a bit of a watchful eye, and with careful steps we will be able to recognise those temptations when they do come up. Does that then mean that we can avoid them? Well, we can try, and try we should; but unfortunately we will still give in to some of them because of our weak sides.

Christ wants us to remember just how powerful prayer is and that is something that I would like to focus on this week. I suppose it will be something like “if we rest a week we will become weak, but if we watch and pray a week we will become stronger”. It is that prayer that will strengthen us as well as the grace and mercy of Christ because when we do pray and see how He is willing to answer our prayers we then become stronger within ourselves because we can know that what we are doing is producing results. When we then continue, we build up ourselves as well as relying on the strength that God gives us through His guidance and through His Spirit. We cannot do this alone because we are weak…

Points to Ponder:

How often do you watch and pray?

Are you expecting God to answer?