Saturday Reading: Exodus 16 18-20

Key Verse: Exodus 16 20
20  But they did not listen to Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning. And it became rotten with maggots, and stank. And Moses was angry with them.

Devotion:
Ok, how many of you had great hopes of building up your hope but failed to make it past the first post? Well you are certainly not alone because man has failed in faith for many years and he will continue to do so because of our sin nature. That sin nature makes us weak and open to temptations and it is those temptations that get us into trouble. When Moses told the people that they should not collect more manna that was necessary many people did not have faith that they would get more the next day and so they tried to do things for themselves.

When we try to go it alone for ourselves we too will find that things get out of hand pretty quickly and we lose much of what we think we are going to gain. But when we are brave enough to believe that what God has said will happen and we then place our faith and trust in Him, we will find that He will supply our daily needs. And if you start getting scared that He may not, then rather admit that fact to God and ask Him to strengthen you. It is no use trying to short-cut God’s ways because we will always fall very short of the mark.

God has promised to look after us on many occasions and we need to believe that. We need to listen to what He has said in the past and what He is trying to say to us now. We may not think that we can get along with what He is trying to say to us now but as long as we do trust Him, He will continue to show us the best possible life for us. That life will probably not be the life of a millionaire but rather the life of someone who is willing to wait on the blessings of God. God will supply what we need if we are willing to devote our lives to Him; taking that first step may well be a hard step to take for you, but you will never look back.

Points to Ponder:
What are you waiting for?

Are you following Him yet?

Friday Reading: Matthew 6 31-34

Key Verse: Matthew 6 33
33  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.

Devotion:
It is very hard to depend on others for everything and I fear that if ever I was in that sort of position it would send me up the wall; but God has given many people to go forward in faith as missionaries and to trust Him for everything. That is not to say that we should only depend on Him if we are missionaries but rather that we should all take a leaf out of their books and build up our faith in God too. A missionary goes forward not knowing that they have a fixed salary because of the work they are doing but rather they go forward willing to do God’s work and expecting God to supply their needs.

God has given us so many examples of this throughout history and it is even recorded for us in our bibles. Time after time He has proven just how much He is willing to do for us so long as we place our faith and trust firmly in His hands. Time and time again He has shown me just how much He is willing to do for me when I place my faith and trust firmly in His hands. But that is where we tend to fall a bit short because when we see how good things are going we tend to forget about just who is the one behind it all and lose our focus on God.

God is Just. That means that when we do do things wrong, we have to pay the consequences for what we do wrong in one way or another. Now we can choose to follow God’s Word and realise that Christ has paid for our sins and that we can now live for Him, or we could just ignore that hope and everything that goes along with it. If we are willing to follow that hope and change our lives to support that hope, then we will see just how much God is willing to do for us when we do put our full hope and trust in Him.

Points to Ponder:
How much do you have to do to survive?

How much do you hope in Christ?

Thursday Reading: Hebrews 11 1-6

Key Verse: Hebrews 11 6
6  But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Devotion:
One of the things that people forget about is that God is actually God! I mean, He is not just someone to pray to, someone to call upon when scared, someone to thank when happy, someone to cry to when sad, someone to call God; He actually is God, our Creator, our Awesome omnipresent, omniscient God!

If we can get great gifts and surprises from our friends and families who are just human beings, then imagine just how much we could get from God. And now make that happen! We have to have faith that God is going to do things in our lives and not just say so. We have to believe that He is able and willing to do all those things and not just say that He is.

Hebrews 11 starts out with the words “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” This is what it is all about, us having faith in Christ. We have not personally seen Him but we have all the hope in the world that He is true. Yes we have evidence through all sorts of things but it should not be about having that proof, it should be about us having Faith that He is God! We don’t need to see Him in order to know Him. We just have to know Him. We don’t need Him to answer all our prayers first before we get to know Him; we need to know Him first. If we are willing to try to get to know Him first then we will find out that He has already done everything possible for us to get to know Him and to have all our hopes fulfilled.

Points to Ponder:
What do you hope for?

How well do you know Him?

Wednesday Reading: James 1 4-6

Key Verse: James 1 5
5  But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and with no reproach, and it shall be given to him.

Devotion:
Have you ever been on a course to learn something and thought that the course seemed to be a waste of time because you thought that you knew all that that was taught? Well, when I first started my career in computers I was sent on a computing course which everyone seemed to think was a waste of time because I knew how to program before being sent on the course. But what I learned on that course and how it changed my life makes me realise that sometimes we have to do things even when some may think it is a waste of time. It is our limited knowledge and lack of wisdom and understanding of God’s ways that restricts us from doing our best for Him.

God is always trying to get us to stretch out and do more knowing that we can do more. He is always willing to put something else our way so that we can learn more. It will not always be in ways that we think God should work, nor ways that we think are acceptable by our standard, but God is the one who does know what is best for us and He is the one who is doing that good work in our lives. Accepting what God wants in our lives is not just a case of sitting back and waiting for Him to do things but rather us getting involved in His will. Getting involved means a two way thing instead of us simply waiting on God for everything.

Our task should be to bring our requests to Him continually. Just like Cornelius was a man who continually prayed, we should be bringing our requests to God continually. How else are we to show that we are willing unless we say that we are? If we keep quiet about everything then we are simply acting like we are hiding things and not putting our whole hearts into God’s will. Does this mean that we should all change our lives overnight? Well, yes and no. Yes we should change so that we are constantly talking with God. No we are not all called to go a live a life as a missionary no matter how admirable and worthy that is! God wants to use us all in very different ways, we need to be willing to listen and talk back...

Points to Ponder:
Do you quietly accept everything in life?

How often do you talk with God?