Saturday Reading: James 3 9-10

Key Verse: James 3 10

10  Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

Devotion:

If you work in a kitchen of any sort you very quickly get to learn that things should not get mixed up because of the risk of germs crossing between foods, surfaces and just about anything else. Kitchen workers get to learn that certain things get used for certain foods and should not be used for others; raw chicken should never be handled by the same utensils as other foods – none of us would like to go down with a case of food poisoning just because we were not careful in the kitchen!

Now if we take that sort of philosophy back to our own lives we would be in for a bit of a shock. Our mouths are used for some of the most noble things like beautiful singing and also for some of the worst deeds that we can imagine – gossip and lies! How can we justify using that same mouth for the best and the worst? How can we hope that during those beautiful moments that our mouths will not spring into one of those lies or other profanities?

Scary when you imagine it in that light – but sobering as well. Our mouths are the major source of our communication with everyone; and that means with God as well! How can we justify using the same mouth for some of those bad things that we have said as well as to lifting up praise to our most Holy and Just God?

I guess the answer is that we should not go there in the first place; we should not be using our mouths for anything other than the good and just things that God initially intended it for! But we live in a sinful world and we live in a world where we are surrounded by evil and corruption – that is why we need all the advice we can get from God’s Word!

Points to Ponder:

How is your speech?

Would God approve with everything that comes from your mouth?

Friday Reading: Ecclesiastes 7 21-22

Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 7 22

22  For also your own heart knows that you yourself have also cursed others many times.

Devotion:

Is it all about taking advice from others and giving it to your friends? Certainly not! No matter where we are we are always going to hear things from others around us. If we are the nosey type then we may well listen in to the conversations going on around us and when we do we should not be surprised if we eventually hear someone talking about us! What we may hear from others as they talk about us may well not please us as much as we would like to believe. None of us go around thinking about how bad others think we are – if we did we would get depressed quite quickly!

The excellent advice we hear here today is that we should not go round snooping in on other peoples conversations because we may well be confronted by people talking about us and saying things that they do not want us to hear! It only takes a couple of words to make us realise just how bad we can be hurt by what others are saying about us.

If we then turn that round and think of all the times that we have said something bad about someone else then we will start to realise just how much we can hurt others. “But they can’t hear us” I can hear you shouting. How do you know? How do you know they have not heard you and have gone away quietly being totally distraught by what you have just said? Ok so it is not very likely if they are on the other side of the world, but what if someone was on the phone to them and they overheard what you just said out loud? We can never be certain whether people will get to hear what we have said so the only good advice would be not to go there in the first place! Don’t gossip. Don’t put others down. Don’t make it difficult...

Points to Ponder:

Do you get hurt by what others say?

Have you thought about what you say about God?

Thursday Reading: Proverbs 27 6 

Key Verse: Proverbs 27 6

6  Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Devotion:

Advice that we never want to hear is advice that would have us hurt in any way whether it be physically, emotionally or spiritually. Being hurt may be low on our list of things we want done to ourselves but being hurt by a friend has got to be even lower than that. On the other side of the coin, hurting a friend in any way is something that we wish we never have to do; but once in a while it is unavoidable through circumstance.

If our friends are going where they should not or doing what they should not, then we may well have to step in and tell them off in some way in order to get them back on track. Hurting them by telling them off is going to hurt us as well but will not be anything as bad as watching our friends sink deeper and deeper into sin and their own destruction. But as we are reminded in Proverbs 17 17, as friends we must always be there and should not turn our backs on our friends.

It’s not just the being there for friends or the keeping friends on track that we are reminded about through our bibles but also that fact that we need to make sure that we do not follow the advice of the evil people around us. So how are we supposed to tell the evil from the good? That is in our bibles too and that is yet another reason why we have to read our bibles constantly. Just knowing that the advice is in our bibles is not good enough. We have to extract that knowledge and get it into our heads and bury it deep in our hearts. Without taking in that knowledge it is just the same as any other book on the shelf. By reading and taking in God’s Word we then get to hear from God about what it is that He wants us to know so that He can continue to guide us in our lives. He is our friend and He wants to keep us straight!

Points to Ponder:

Do you like being told off?

Are you going to listen to God’s advice first of all?

Wednesday Reading: Proverbs 2 9-12

Key Verse: Proverbs 2 9

9  Then you shall understand righteousness and judgment and honesty, every good path.

Devotion:

You may well be asking “so why all the advice?” round about now. The answer is itself found in God’s Word in a few places but all will give you the same answer: That we may learn the truth, what is righteous and just, that we may be protected by that wisdom and that we may be saved from the ways of the world through applying God’s Word.

First we gain head knowledge through reading our bibles. The head knowledge allows us to see the difference between all that is right and all that is wrong. That head knowledge will allow us to be able to build up in our heads the things that God will expect from us and the things that we can identify for ourselves as righteous and just.

As we build up that knowledge and wisdom we then can apply it into our own lives and as we do we begin to realise that it is the truth and that it is God’s Commandments to us. As we take that on and make it personal so that we realise that it is Him Commandments to us, personally, then we can build up our faith in believing this truth and trusting in it. The more we trust in it the more we realise just how much peace we can get from knowing this truth.

The more we then build up ourselves within this truth and wisdom the more that we can evade or walk away from the ways of the world. There is nothing quite as good as the Word of God to protect you from the ways of the world. Jesus Himself used God’s Word to rebuke Satan when he tempted Him in the desert. But to make sure we can depend on it we must have that head knowledge in the beginning that can then give us the confidence in the truth and that all important faith in that truth. God is Good!

Points to Ponder:

Are you ready for your advice?

Have you taken God’s advice personally?