Friday Reading: John 11 32-36

Key Verse: John 11 36
36  Then the Jews said, Behold how He loved him!

Devotion:
We like to think that we know that God loves us and we like to think that we know to some extent how much that love is – but in reality we can only guess or surmise because we do not know God’s heart. The very fact that Christ came to us as a human allows us to see some insights into that love through the very things that He did as a human. When He was confronted with the death of Lazarus we can see that He had real feelings because of the fact that His spirit groaned from within and then He also cried. Emotion is something that we let out that allows others to see how we feel – some do try desperately to hide that emotion because they see it as some sort of sign of weakness... I hardly think that Jesus was weak!

The love that Jesus has for each one of us is beyond that which we can think of. We can see one or two facets as we study the life and times of Jesus as He walked amongst us but we can never fully understand His love. The more that we get to know Him the more that we realise how much He loves us. The more we get to understand that the more that we love Him back. That is our relationship with Christ. It is a full, loving relationship that we continue to grow in. He is not bound by our limits nor our timescales so His love knows no bounds; but the very fact that He showed us His love before we even came to know Him speaks volumes to me.

When things go wrong in our lives we tend to look for someone to blame and whilst we are thinking of it we sometimes even blame God because He allowed these things in our lives. How can we really do that? How can we blame someone when we don’t understand them? When Mary blamed Christ He groaned in the spirit... He was hurt and He showed it. Do you suppose that He is hurt any less when any of us blame Him? Don’t take the love of Christ as a limited and fickle thing because He loves us is ways we cannot yet imagine. Each day I live I begin to add a bit more of that love into my life because I see how much He loves me more and more. Let us show our love for Him today.

Points to Ponder:
How do you show your love to others?

How do you show your love to God?

Thursday Reading: Hebrews 5 7-8

Key Verse: Hebrews 5 8
8  though being a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.

Devotion:
How amazing it is to know that God sent His Son into this world to be born as a human being so that He could live with us, die for us and be raised from the grave to show us that we too will have a perfect resurrected body someday too! But today I want to look at Jesus as being a human being, someone’s Son. Yes I know that being the Son of God is unique but the very fact that He was someone’s Son means that He had someone to look up to and call His Father. In doing so He had someone to obey and someone to learn from; and that He did in ways that give us hope and encouragement knowing that we too can lift up our prayers and God will answer!

Throughout His ministry Christ continued to set aside time for prayers and made His requests know to God. You may ask why He should have to do that because He was God; but in order for us to know just how important prayer is, Christ spent a lot of time in prayer, speaking with God and waiting for answers from Him. We need to remember that and know that we too are human and that we too have to lift up our prayers constantly to God. We too have to remember that we must wait on God for the answers to those prayers too. Trust Him because Christ has shown us that prayers do get answered!

Christ had the power to be able to do anything and yet He chose to be as human as He was so that we could learn that prayer was a very powerful thing! Christ could have prevented His own death and could have wiped us all off the face of the earth – yet He chose to give His life up for us and to show us that He loved us. He chose to show us about obedience to our parents and obedience to God our heavenly Father. He chose to use His suffering as an example through which we can learn about true obedience. Let us not try and force His hand but rather to lift up our prayers and be obedient to Him, waiting for His faithful words to come back to us.

Points to Ponder:
How often do you pray?

Do you ask from your heart or from a script?

Wednesday Reading: Romans 12 9-10

Key Verse: Romans 12 10
10  in brotherly love to one another, loving fervently, having led one another in honour.

Devotion:
When was the last time that you told someone that you loved them? Just how much did you actually mean by those words? I fear to many the words no longer mean what they should but rather mean something along the lines of “you’re ok” and they are used to support or qualify other phrases. To me those three words (I love you) should be reserved for the people in your life that you actually do love wholeheartedly. I not talking about a fling with someone or an infatuation but rather a commitment to remain in love. I have learned the hard way what it means to say that you love someone without truly loving them. I have also gritted my teeth and stopped myself from saying I love you when that is all I wanted to shout out.

God has shown me what love means through me being able to read His Word and I am sorry to say that I did not really know what that real love meant until a few years back. Yes I loved God and I loved my parents and children and that love is real, but the love that we should have for another person was a bit alien to me. I cannot and will not blame it on anything such as circumstances in my life because that would be passing the buck – I had not got serious with God and asked Him what it should be.

I move forward now in my life knowing that I know what true love is and knowing that God’s love is without reproach. Yes I will still make mistakes and I know that others may make mistakes too, but this time I will be able to compare what I feel with what God shows me is real and know if my feelings are love or not. Love should never tempt you. Love should never misguide you. Love should last forever. Love should be upheld. If you cannot love in honour then I put it to you that what you feel is not love but lust. Love will always find a way and that way will always be good and true.

Points to Ponder:
What do you look for in a relationship?

Do you trust your partner with God’s Word?

Tuesday Reading: Philippians 2 3-4

Key Verse: Philippians 2 4
4  Do not let each man look upon his own things, but each man also on the things of others.

Devotion:
Can you imagine what it would be like if we all looked up to others instead of looking down at others? I know that we are all guilty of doing that, looking down at others; and that seems to be the way that we are brought up nowadays with every variant of media informing us that we can be better than others if we want to be. Well how about trying to tell others that they can care for others instead of bashing them down? When was the last time you heard someone step forward and say that we should be looking after people instead of palming them off onto someone else?

Modern society seems to have this drive to make man better no matter what the cost. Oh we do like to say that we are looking out for others and that we do care for them, but if truth be told we are stepping on others to get our own way quickly. Communities need to take a step back and see where they are walking. None of us would willingly walk into a field full of things that would make us smell like a farmyard unless we had to – so why should we go about our lives bringing ourselves down spiritually and socially? Why go there is we know that we do not have to?

Most of this comes down to vainglory. We seek all that we can to lift ourselves up rather than taking a few minutes to lift someone else up instead. We go for that moment of glory for ourselves rather than taking a step back and giving someone else a chance. This is the type of thing that we are being force fed through our media channels as people seek for their own moment of glory because they know the media will reach many others. I challenge you today to take a step back and allow someone else to get your glory; allow someone else to feel special even if it is only for a minute or two. Show someone else you care for them and not just yourself! If Christ can lower himself to our level just to show us that He loves us, then we can dig deep to show others we love them too...

Points to Ponder:
Do you like helping others?

Do you know how much Christ has done for you?