Sunday Reading: Psalms 103

Key Verse: Psalms 103 1

1  Bless The Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Devotion:

You have time today, sit back and read through Psalms 103 a few times and then read through it verse by verse thinking about the things in your life that you can lift up to God for all that He has done for you! I could sit here and get quite carried away with all that He does for me and yet I still feel that I do not bless Him enough for all that He does for me. The fact is that we will never truly be able to bless Him for all that He has done until we are with Him for eternity – that then should give us enough time!

Yesterday I heard a preacher describing how God has given us our soul – He has breathed into us the life that we have. When we die our bodies are the things that expire and our souls go back to be with Him again. It is a year today that my Mum passed away (though will be a week or so later when I get round to posting this bread by faith on the site) and I KNOW that she is finally at peace and is living a peace that nothing will ever take away and nothing can ever touch because she is in God’s hands right now!

If, on the other hand, we were to look back at all the things that we have done wrong and to see just what we do deserve instead of His love we may well begin to think why God should even care about us. The fact is that we are separated from Him because of our sins and it is only because of what He has done that we get the chance to be able to be back y His side. It is through Christ that we live and because of what He has done for us that we are able to be with Him in heaven after we die on earth. To God be the glory!

Points to Ponder:

What great things have you done?

How much more has God done for you so far?

Saturday Reading: 2 Samuel 23 3-4

Key Verse: 2 Samuel 23 3

3  The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spoke to me: he who rules over men justly, ruling in the fear of God,

Devotion:

How would you describe any of the leaders of our land; either our own countries or others? Would you be able to describe them as a ray of sunshine or would you have a whole string of other words to say about them? I cannot think of many good words to describe most of the leaders I can think of because the ones that we hear the most of are the ones who are in the news because of the things that they have done wrong. We don’t tend to hear too much of the good things that leaders do but we sure do hear a whole lot about the bad things.

When King David’s life was coming to an end there were many good things to say about him because of his life with God. Yes we could read through the books of history in our Bibles and see how many bad things he did and dwell on them (just like our news media people dwell on the bad things) or we could look at his life as a whole and weigh up the good and the bad. We should not be trying to judge him because that is God’s position – and He has already given us His Word telling us how great King David was.

But it is not just the leaders of our lands that should be thinking about the ways in which they lead the countries and the world. We should be thinking about the things that we do and how those things influence others as well. Are we leading a life that would attract the attention of the new media or are we leading a life that would lead to God putting in a good word for us? Christ has already shown us all that He was willing to do for us – should we not be the ones who take a stand now and show the world that we are willing to live with God in our lives as an example to others?

Points to Ponder:

How would you describe your life?

How do you think God would describe your life?

Friday Reading: Hosea 11 1-2

Key Verse: Hosea 11 1

1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him and called My son out of Egypt.

Devotion:

Isn’t it amazing how quickly some things can change – one minute everything seems to be going according to plan and the next minute everything seems to be falling apart! Today has been one of those days when things have seemed to be falling apart most of the time and I now feel like I have not spent enough time with the Lord today! The more things seem to go wrong the more we seem to pull back from doing our normal things we do and end up fire-fighting most of the time. God would rather that we start our days off with Him and finish our days with Him.

That does not mean that we can then spend the rest of the day doing what we like because that would then be like trying to live two lives, one saying that you serve God and the other serving our other gods. When the Israelites came into foreign land they were told not to go after the local people and not to follow their gods. God knew that many would give into the temptation of the land but He also knew that they would not realise just how much they could damage themselves until they did the wrong thing and things fell apart!

What will He have to do for us before we will realise that we are doing the wrong things? What will He have to let into our lives before we see how wrong we have gone? How long will it take before we see how far we have strayed from His path He has laid down before us?

No it is not all doom and gloom! God has light up the path that we should be walking; He has given us His Word, the instructions, the solutions to our problems, His love, His peace and His forgiveness! We just have to take that truth and believe it, use it and aim for what He has before us. He has loved us from the beginning; we are the ones that have walked astray.

Points to Ponder:

Are you running after false gods?

Are you ready to follow God in everything?

Thursday Reading: 2 Corinthians  6:10-18

Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 6 12

12  You are not restrained in us, but you are restrained in your own affections.

Devotion:

I have a new-found admiration for missionaries! The work that they do in going out and reaching out to the people of the world, saved and unsaved, is amazing. But what is even more amazing is that they continue to walk with God even when they seem to be surrounded by people who do not believe God or even say that they hate Him. Most of us will be able to recognise sayings such as “if you can keep your head whilst those around you lose yours, then you are a man my son”; but I think that should be more like “if you can walk with God and keep His commandments when all those around you are breaking them, then you are a Christian!”

I thank my God that He is the one that has my salvation firmly in His grip and that He gives me the strength each day to go forward in His name and face unbelievers with His Word. I thank Him for His strength during times of my weakness. I thank Him for His guidance during times of confusion. I thank Him every day for what Him allows me to do in His name.

When we go forward and try to reach out to people that do not want to be reached, they put up barriers and cause chaos just so that they can get the own way; that is human nature. Before we get to know Christ we seem to have a need to go out and prove to the world that we are better than them in some way; but when you get to walk with God you will find that that need goes away and is replaced with a need to give others the same chance and you have been given. God has given me a big heart to go forward in His name and reach out to all sorts of people – sometimes it is really tough! But as long as we separate ourselves from the worldly ways and focus on Gods ways, we will find that reaching out then becomes the natural way of living.

Points to Ponder:

Do you fight with the world or with God?

Are you walking with and trusting God?