Wednesday Reading: 1 John 4 7-11

Key Verse: 1 John 4 11
11  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

Devotion:
Matthew Henry says of these verses “The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love.” Whilst I agree with those words I believe that they do not say enough because, as God’s Word tells us in verse 8 “For God is love.” To diminish that phrase in any way whatsoever would be like taking away from the Word of God but let us not get hung up in how we can describe God as loving or as love but rather what we should be doing about it. I know many will say that God does not love us because of the terrible things that happen around the world such as the recent earthquakes we hear of but we can also see that earthquakes have been a part of our sinful lives ever since Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden – so why blame it on God?

God has continued to show us that He loves us in so many ways, not least of which was through giving us His only begotten Son. Without that sacrifice we would still be struggling to keep up with the sacrifices that we needed to cover our sins. But as we also find out from our bibles that that does not work because so many people turn their backs on the sacrifices because they seem like too much hard work. People expect so much for so little – it is like they do not believe in a bit of hard work anymore and expect things to be given to them on a platter. So God did that – and we still expect more? Can you not see how we are the ones behaving like spoilt children?

God has showed us His awesome love. He continues to show us His love through things that He continues to do for each one of us. Whilst God also wants us to love Him, His major concern is that we love one another otherwise the love that we have for Him will not be shown to anyone else. How can we love Him and yet hate His people? How can we love with one hand and cast out with the other? Unless we are willing to act more like Christ and show our love to all – sinners included – then we are falling very short of what we should be doing. God has set the standard; we need to lift up that standard!

Points to Ponder:
Who do you love?

Are you reaching out to new people with love?

Tuesday Reading: 1 John 4 4-5

Key Verse: 1 John 4 4
4  You are of God, little children, and you have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 

Devotion:
We can really thank God that we have Him on our side, or rather that we are on His side! When we look at the world around us and see the hate campaigns that are going on all over the world we can see the work of the evil one. When we can turn and see Christ in other people then we can know that God is real; being one of those people is not always as easy as it may sound. Satan certainly does not like it when we stand up for Jesus. He certainly will do what he can to trip us up or to even lay us flat so that we can do no good – but as long as we stand on Christ, we are not only secure but the evil one cannot harm us.

If we need to figure out what is false and what is not then all we need do is compare what we wish to know with God’s Word because that alone is the standard by which we can know. God’s Word must always be at the centre of our faith because that is our proof of what has happened and what is still to come. When we compare God’s Word with what has happened we see that it has always been the truth, therefore we can know that what is still to come shall be. That gives us a powerful tool by which we can not only know God but also know that He will continue to uphold His people – us.

When a Christian speaks up in God’s name, not many people want to hear them because the world would rather hide us in a box in the dark. When a brash and worldly person gets up and speaks the world will take notice because they believe that they can trust them because they speak of the same things. Just because people come from the same place or have the same background does not mean that they can be trusted. Just because someone says they are a Christians does not mean that they are. We need to be aware that there are pretenders out there and we need to be aware that Satan is going to use everything in his power to force them upon us rather than those who uphold God’s Truth. Trust in His Word...

Points to Ponder:
How strong do you feel?

How much do you rely on God for?

Monday Reading: Philippians 4 5-7

Key Verse: Philippians 4 5
5  Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

Devotion:
One of the biggest problems we normally have as Christians is the lack of patience. Patience is something that we have to grow used to because God is not bound by time as we know it and hence will not be kept to any time either. If we are imposing time constraints on God then we are trying to force His hand at things rather than making our requests known to Him and waiting with patience. The Lord wants us to know patience because He knows that things will not always work to our wants and desires – how could He make sure that everyone’s requests are stuck to in time when we are all asking for things at different times?

God is all powerful and He is able to do everything, but hurting us intentionally is not on the agenda. At this stage you may be raising your eyebrows and saying “but I know that He hurts me”... Well, start digging into what is actually hurting you and you will find that it is NOT God but rather other people or circumstances that are hurting you. If it is not other people then it may well be natural disasters that hurt you. God did not say that He would prevent all natural disasters from happening to Christians – He told Adam and Eve that they had to be prepared for a rough life when they left the Garden of Eden because they would be facing the real earth by themselves and all that it entails.

God would rather that we had kept our ways righteous in the beginning but we did not. We are now the ones that have to wait patiently for Him to fulfil His promises. That is the thing. God’s promises are exactly that. Promises. He is just and will make sure that all His promises come to fruition. He has not set time limits on all of those promises otherwise we would run off and sin until the time was right and then return to Him and pretend that we are sorry! It does not work like that! God wants us to come to Him now and admit that we are doing things wrong. He then wants us to try and live our lives for Him and that other people should see that we are living our lives for Him in patience – what better example could we be than a generation waiting on God... How I wish we could be so!

Points to Ponder:
Are you patient when someone has set you a promise?

Do you wait for God or try to hurry Him up each day?

Sunday Reading: Psalms 8 1-9

Key Verse: Psalms 8 6
6  Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

Devotion:
What is man that God has given him dominion over all the earth? That is a question that man has all but forgotten over the years! It is not just a question by itself because it is also an acknowledgement that God is real and that He did create the heavens and the earth. Man likes to think that the earth is his and he can do with it what he wants, but if we look at what the words actually mean then we see that the sovereignty or rule of the world is given to man; this means that God has given man temporary rule over all things in the world. Does this mean that man can do with it what he wants? Well yes it does, but as owner of everything do you think that God is going to allow things to continue sliding before making a change?

The one thing that we must never forget is that God is still our Creator, or Maker, our Saviour and our King. Temporary rule is given to man so that he can take care of things physically? Does this mean that God cannot? Far from it but if we were simply placed on this earth and not allowed to make our own choices as to what we should do with it then we would be the ones complaining saying that God does not allow us to do anything! God is not a dictator, nor is He a tyrant. If He wanted to He could quite easily make everything come to nothing but because of His love for us He does not.

That is the amazing point. No matter how much He tried to set things right in the beginning, we managed to mess things up. No matter how much He showed people in the past that He was an almighty God, people still managed to find things to complain about and to belittle Him by. Nothing has changed because we are still surrounded by people who wish to continue doing that. But throughout this He has continued to show His love for us by continuing to allow us a large amount of free choice, not because He knows we can do it right because He knows we will get things wrong. He does it to show us that He cares for us in ways in which we don’t seem to care about. He love is without question. Our way of living is!

Points to Ponder:
How do you live your life?

Does God still feature in your daily life?