January 27: 1 Corinthians 10 6-13

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 10 13
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Devotion:
The more we give in to things in our lives, the more we are likely to give into them in the future. The more we do something without thinking, the more habitual it becomes. We continue to sink into a state where we habitually give in to our carnal desires; and the more we do, the stronger those desires get. We need to stop them before they get to the stage where they are our lives! This is why we do have God’s Word; so that we can know what is wrong.

So many stories can be read from the Old Testament about the evil which people did. Each book highlights many facts about the times people rejected God and the times when they followed Him. The books of Kings and Chronicles will tell of the kings who followed God and those who rejected Him. When the people were ruled over by evil kings who rejected God, they would fall into evil or hard times. The prophets write about these times and recount the evil which was going on. Each time God would send warnings through the prophets to warn the people and kings to turn from their evil ways and to follow God’s ways; each time He would get rejected because it was the kings making the choices for themselves rather than for or from God. The harder they tried to stand by themselves, the harder they would fall...

Each one of these times is given to us as an example so we will not have to go through the same things. All we need do is to read about them and find out how bad things can get when we go it alone. We need to take into our hearts what was done wrong and to turn our backs on that which is wrong; we need to turn and face Christ because He alone is our Redeemer! He wants us to come to Him and depend on Him so He can show us His never-ending love. He will not allow us to get deeper than we can handle when we do get things wrong, but He will encourage us to get things right!

Points to Ponder:
Do you have many bad habits?

Do you not fear what may happen to you?

January 26: Psalms 106 13-22

Key Verse: Psalms 106 13
But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his plan to unfold.

Devotion:
How many times have you been in a position where someone has told you to be patient? When we have to wait for things we start to get into a position where we no longer like to wait but want to hurry things on instead. When we start to push and shove and get our own way, the things that were planned may well start to fall apart as we get our own way instead. That is exactly the lesson we need to learn from God taking the Children of Israel through the desert. We have to have patience concerning God’s Word!

We do live in a world which is governed by time and we expect things to go according to our plan! God is the one who is in charge of time and He alone is the one who knows what is best for us and the exact time that it will be best for us too. There are going to be times when we feel like things are moving too slowly but that is when God is trying to teach us something. We must not act rashly and start demanding things of God in these cases because He is the one who is in control. It does not mean we should just sit back and do nothing either because it may well be that He wants us to realise just how much we do depend on Him. We do need to remind ourselves by continuing to ask of Him but not to expect things to be done in our own time but in His time.

When things slow down, our lusts seem to take over and we give in to them far too easily. Our desires then stem from our lusts rather than from our needs; undue desire becomes sin. No matter how much we want to make things happen in our own time, there are some things that need to happen in God’s time so that He can get the glory and not us. If we are willing to have faith in Him and trust Him to answer our prayers, He will show us just how much He does love us through helping us at the right time. Every day we are learning things by obeying Him. Every day He sorts things out. Each day is a new day for us to show Him we do depend on Him.

Points to Ponder:
Do you get impatient?

Are you showing God you depend on Him?

January 25: Romans 4 1-3,23-25

Key Verse: Romans 4 3
What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Devotion:
It may seem to many that the Old Testament is a book which was written for the people who lived before Christ and the New Testament was written for those of us afterward. But, in truth, the whole bible was written for all. They may not have had the New Testament back in the days of Abraham, but they certainly had the same truth we have nowadays; it’s just that we now have hindsight because we have the knowledge of what Christ did for us on the cross to look back on too. God has not changed the law from being one way before Christ and another way after Christ; we are the ones who seem to want to read something new into God’s Word.

God has always required faith in Him. Adam and Eve were required to have faith in following what God had said. They may well have been able to walk with Him in the Garden of Eden, but when it came to their time alone, they had to believe what God had told them and trust in that. Yet they, like us, chose to take a different path back then! Abraham was not justified because of all the work he did; he was justified by the fact he believed in God. Each one of the great rulers and prophets have shown us we have to believe in God before He will consider us. That does not mean He does not love us before we believe, far from it. Why else would He have sent His Son to die for a sinful world if He did not first love us?

Our bibles are here for us to learn the truth and to know God is real and through our belief in Him, we will be justified. Our bibles are here so we can know the law and learn we have made mistakes. Through those mistakes we can learn about how much God loves us. When we know this truth, we can see just how He has an ultimate plan for everything and that gives us the wherewithal to believe in Him. With that belief comes trust and our faith in Him is built up. That is when we can see how precious a gift Christ gave to us on the cross and will strengthen our faith even more. We are justified through our faith, through our belief, just as everyone before us. God does not change!

Points to Ponder:
What does it take for you to believe in something?

What will it take for God’s Word to sink in?

January 24: Romans 3 19-26

Key Verse: Romans 3 21
But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.

Devotion:
When we do come to believe the Word of God, we quickly find out a terrible truth; that we are all guilty before God! As bad as that does sound, there is always hope, and for us that hope is a certainty when we believe who Jesus is and what He did for us. No matter how hard we try to work our way to heaven, we will never get there by our own strengths. No matter how much we try to lift ourselves up, the only place we will lift ourselves up is in man’s eyes. God continues to see right through the things we build up and knows the truth. He is Just and cannot accept lies...

But God already knew we would need a Saviour because He knew we could not find our own way to heaven. He knew we would get it all wrong and that gave Him the ultimate opportunity to show us just how much He does love us. He was able (and willing) to allow His only Son to come to earth and die in our stead. We are the ones who are guilty before Him. We are the ones who deserve the punishment for being guilty. And yet He allowed Jesus Christ to come to earth and take on our sin debt. Jesus did not do anything wrong, so He did not deserve to die. But He gave His own life on that cross so we could live through Him!

We know God is just. We can look back on the whole history of earth and find out that each time He has promised something, He has carried out those promises. In this case, He has promised us we will not have to pay for our own sin debt so long as we truly believe Jesus took on our sin on the cross and paid for our sins once and for all! That promise will be carried out, just as all others have. This is why we can be sure Jesus Christ is our Saviour and He alone can save us from our guilt before God.

Believe on Him and bring your sins before Him. Even when we are sure that He knows us, we still need to bring our sins before Him to stay in a truthful relationship with Him and Him alone.

Points to Ponder:
Do you feel guilty when you do things wrong?

Are you bringing your issues to Christ?