Tuesday Reading: Luke 2 49
 
Key Verse: Luke 2 49
49  And He said to them, Why did you look for Me? Do you not know that I must be about My Father's business?

Devotion:
I know we are jumping ahead a few years after Christ’s birth for this one but some things can only be revealed over time and that is one thing that we definitely need to remember! I can understand exactly what Joseph and Mary were going through at this time being in a big rush to get things packed up so that everything would go smoothly – but it is during those times that we tend to leave God behind instead of making sure that we take Him first. Thinking your child is nearby and then suddenly realising that they are nowhere to be seen does tend to stop and make you think!

Christ was born as a human so that He could ultimately and finally pay for the sin debt of the whole world through giving His life in our stead but it is not that fact that we look at today but the act or serving. Christ came to be a servant of God the Father. Whilst we cannot fully grasp how He can be Christ and God and Holy Spirit all at once we do understand each part. We understand how He came as a man to serve His heavenly Father. The first words that Luke recounts of Jesus are these words “...Do you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” What a statement!

How many times have you dared to tell others, sorry, but God comes first? Well, sadly we do not do that enough. It is no mere coincidence that the first commandment is that we love the Lord our God first of all. The surest way of showing that love is to willingly serve Him in our daily lives. Christ came to serve, and serve He did. Throughout His ministry He made sure that everyone knew that God came first. If we are willing to put God first in our lives then just maybe we will be able to expect Him to lift us up when we need Him to. If we only treat Him as an after-thought, then should we expect anything from Him at all? I praise God that I am able to meet so many people willing to serve Him so that through their example I may find strength to continue serving Him first of all too.

Points to Ponder:
Who do you serve?

What do you think God thinks of your attitude towards Him?

Monday Reading: Luke 2 13-14
 
Key Verse: Luke 2 14
14  Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
 
Devotion:
Have you ever gone through the events that unfolded when Christ was born and thought a bit more deeply about what actually happened? Each year as we get closer to Christmas people of the world look forward to the ‘holiday season’, ‘Santa’, parties, food and what seems to be a very stressful time for many too. Each year, Christians all over the world try to bring Christ back into Christmas to remind people of the true meaning of Christmas. We may have got the date wrong, or people may have changed the date over the years but we must not forget why we celebrate Christmas. So for the next few days I want to pick some small points that we may often overlook and hope that they will remind us all of our Saviour and King, Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is the time of the year when we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, of the lineage of David, born of God, foretold in scriptures and here told to the shepherds. The shepherds were locals who were not terribly well educated but they dedicated their lives to looking after the sheep of their flocks. We can read all manner of things into this but it is not the ‘why’ that I am looking at today but rather the ‘how’. It was not a single person who came rushing out to tell them of the birth of Christ but the angel of The Lord who came to bring them this very important news. Then what followed was something for us all to hear and remember!

“Glory to God in the highest!” The first thing the host of angels sung out was their praise to God in heaven above. That is where we need to hold God, above all, highest, first and only! Praise Him for His unspeakable gift! The next phrase was of peace and good will toward us. The heavens rejoiced that our Saviour was now born. Our road to Salvation had entered the stages when we would no longer have to make our own sacrifices because our own sacrifice was now born to die. Our time of grace had been born and the heavens wanted us to know all about it. So next time you look for a sign... you missed the biggest one by a few thousand years – but we can still read it and apply it every day!

Points to Ponder:
Read any good signs lately?

Read God’s Word lately?

Sunday Reading: Romans 5 1-5
 
Key Verse: Romans 5 4
4  and patience works out experience, and experience works out hope.

Devotion:
When we do truly trust in God He changes us from the inside. Not only do we become Christians but we have the peace of God within us from that moment on. It may not seem like it at times because of the trials that we will continue to go through, but all we need do is call on God and He will make sure that we do know His peace. That is all it takes, for us to call on God. It may seem like a small thing to do but what we are demonstrating is faith in our God. When we call on God it should not be a shout for ‘help, is anyone out there’ but a direct and explicit call to Christ for His help – that is when He answers directly.

If you are calling out for anyone to help, who do you think is going to help? It may well not be the One you expect because He wants you to acknowledge Him as God and not to call on some random god out there. But far too often we start to give up hope because our faith is dwindling and we start to call for anyone to help us. God wants us to have patience. He did not promise us that all of our prayers would be answered before we ask them; He promised us that all our prayers would be answered... in His time. God wants us to learn patience because some of our prayers will be answered when we begin to realise just what we are asking for – for us to realise that we may well have to go through trials before we know that.

God wants us to understand that when we ask Him for things in prayer, He is the one who is going to answer them. That means that we have to understand that when we ask amiss, we may well get something very different as He brings us round to the way we should be asking. God wants us to make sure that we do know that He is our Lord and our King. That means that we need to show Him all the respect that is due Him. That means that we must not be flippant in our asking of Him. That means we need to be humble before Him, even in our prayers. When we do listen to Him we will find all manner of prayers being answered – but listen to Him we must. Not our hearts which fail us, but Him!

Points to Ponder:
What are you looking for this year?

Are you keeping God in the picture?

Saturday Reading: Romans 8 31-32
 
Key Verse: Romans 8 32
32  Truly He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Devotion:
When you read your bible, do you conform to the ways that others have said you should or do you read it and wait upon God to enlighten you? As a young Christian I have great difficulty picking up my bible and reading it; my god parents even bought me a bible that was easier to read – which helped a long way. God’s Word is a lot to take in at first and we have a lot to learn, a lifetime of learning.

But the most amazing thing is that no matter how little we actually know in the beginning, as long as we are willing to turn to Him, He is willing to support us wholly. This is not some ‘stand up to your convictions’ saying but what God wants us to know. The more you read through His Word the more that you will understand just how much He is willing to give to us. There cannot be any greater demonstration for love than giving your life for another and that is something that we can only do once. Once we give our life, that is it. Christ knew that that is what had to be done in order to secure our souls with God. He knew that we could never do this by ourselves because of the sin nature that He continues to see in each one of us – but He also knew that He could pay for our sins in our stead!

If we have a God that is willing to give that to us, then how can we not know that He loves us more than anything can? When we do fall in love with someone else it seems like there can’t be anything so special and so true. That love take hold of our lives and our minds and fills us with joy. When we realise that God’s love for us is so much greater than that then we have to stop and take notice. In any relationship we need to make sure that the love that we have is shared and not selfish – we need to know that that person that we love loves us too. In God’s case He has already shown us His love and now it’s time for us to show Him our love too...

Points to Ponder:
Are you in love?

Do you know God’s love?