Tuesday Reading: Matthew 23 23-28

Key Verse: Matthew 23 23

23  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and you have left undone the weightier matters of the Law, judgment, mercy, and faith. You ought to have done these and not to leave the other undone.

Devotion:

The difference between the sacrifices of Cain and Able was stark and written down very early on in our bibles and yet man has continued to ignore the simplest of tasks of giving to God what is required by Him. If we can see a way of giving to God that does not require us to give everything but to give what we want to give instead, then we follow those ways and fool ourselves into believing that we are giving enough. What we are doing is placing a bounty on God’s requirement and limiting ourselves to that bounty instead.

Who do we think we will fool? What we are doing is akin to walking into a shop and giving the shop owner what we think we should give for a product rather than what the actual price is on the product. I don’t think we would get very far with that attitude in most shops; so why do we think we can get away with it with God who is Just?

We are not serving other people but rather serving our God. We should not be paying the right amount to allow others to see what we are doing or to impress others through what we do – we need to give to God what it is that He requires from us. God is not going to want to see you destitute or without anything just to give to others, but He does want us to be honest and willing to walk with Him and do His good will. His will and our will may well be totally different at first, but learning to walk with Him will show us how we too can be more like Him; then we are on the right road…

Points to Ponder:

Do you like giving?

Do you give to please God or to please others?

Monday Reading: Mark 10 36-45

Key Verse: Mark 10 45

45  For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

Devotion:

When James and John asked if they should be able to take up positions on Jesus’ left and right hands they did not understand the consequences of their request. Jesus wanted them to know that even though He would have loved them to all be close to Him; those positions were not His to give but rather His Father in Heaven’s. God is our Creator and our Lord and He alone deserves the right to call on us and to demand from us. As much as we would like to please Him in ways that we think are best, it is His ways that count because He is the one that does know what is best for us.

So many times in our prayers to God we ask Him for things that we think would be beneficial to us rather than giving Him free reign in our lives. Giving Him that free reign can be a hard thing for us to accept because His will and our wishes may not coincide as we would like them to.

But we can be totally sure that everything that God would have us to do is going to be for our betterment in the long run. We may not see the benefits immediately, but as long as we do look back and see that it was Him doing things in our lives, then we will be able to know that what He has done and is doing is for our God and for His glory. I can honestly look back in my life and see just how much God has given me whilst I have been faithfully following Him. When I was not following Him I can see the ways in which He tried to encourage me back to Him through; but whatever has happened I can see that it is His will in my life that is important and not my own wants and desires. Patiently waiting on God is great exercise!

Points to Ponder:

Do you have patience?

How much exercise do you allow God to give you?

Sunday Reading: Matthew 15 1-6

Key Verse: Matthew 15 5

5  But you say, Whoever says to his father or mother, Whatever you would gain from me, It is a gift to God;

Devotion:

When Jesus said that we should care for others He did not mean that we have to qualify just how much we are going to care but instead commanded us to love our enemies as we love ourselves. That in itself can be a very hard thing to do when faced with some of the people that we know. But there are also the people that are closer to us that we do often forget about – our families and close friends. Just how much do we forget about them?

You may well be saying that you never forget about your friends and family because they are constantly in your thoughts – well that may be so but have you ever studied just how much you do care about them? As we see here, religions do tend to tear us away from God’s Word because of the traditions and desires of men of the religion rather than the desires of our Lord and Saviour. The key factor here is to make sure that we do follow Christ and the Word of God rather than man’s desires!

Jesus gave an excellent example of how man’s words had corrupted God’s Word. The scribe had been teaching that everything was a gift of God. They then extended that to say that the love that a child has for their parents is a gift of God. That then got turned around somewhere along the line and we find them teaching that instead of children honouring their parents, parents should accept what they can get from their children because it is a gift of God. Whilst that may make sense from one point of view it is certainly not upholding God’s commandments in the beginning. Take God’s Word first of all!

Points to Ponder:

How much do you care?

Are you making sure God’s commandments come first?

Saturday Reading: Isaiah 50 10-11

Key Verse: Isaiah 50 10

10  Who among you fears Jehovah, who obeys the voice of His servant, who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of Jehovah and rest on his God.

Devotion:

God has tried to give us the warnings about following our own selves from the beginning. After seeing how Satan rejected Him and tried to get everything to worship himself instead of God, is it any wonder then that God continues to try to open our eyes to the evil and fruitless ways of Satan? God has seen it all before and tries constantly to warn each of us against following in Satan’s footsteps. He has done this from the beginning of time and has continued to show us through His Word – our bibles.

Each prophet that He has raised to warn us has repeated the same message – we need to have faith in God and not to try and have faith in our own selves. How are we expected to lift up ourselves when we are trying to depend on something to lift us up? We are His creation and as such we do need Him to continue watching over us because we are not gods and we will never be gods – no matter how many religions will try to teach us otherwise. Satan is the one who has convinced so many that they too can raise themselves up to the same heights that he wants to be raised up.

No matter how hard Satan tries, he reaches the same levels and comes crashing down only to find out that he was created by God too! How can we lift ourselves higher that our Creator? God is our Creator and He alone is the one that deserves all of our respect. Let us never forget God as Creator. Let us never lose faith in our Creator God!

Points to Ponder:

Are you trying to lift yourself up?

Do you not realise God created you as well?