Friday Reading: 1 Corinthians 13 3-7

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 13 3
3  And though I give out all my goods to feed the poor, and though I deliver my body to be burned, and have not love, I am profited nothing.

Devotion:
When you read these few verses, change the word charity to love and read again... No matter what we do in our lives, not matter how much good we think we are able to do, if we are doing it without love then we are doing it for nothing! Yes people will have things and be able to do things because of what we have done for them but it will be a meaningless hollow thing that we do. If we want to be able to understand what it is all about then we have to first experience the love of God and then apply that love in our lives.

These verses talk about the properties of love so that we can be helped to identify what we experience so see if we do love or whether we are resting on lust. If our love fails these steps and properties then we have to question whether it is love or not. It is not a case of us changing our ways to match in with these properties but rather looking at our relationship and seeing if it matches them. They are not a goal to aim for but rather a goal that should already be reached through our relationship.

Christ gave us the ultimate example of love through living His life and then giving it willingly on the cross. We do not have to do that because nobody should ever call us to do that, but are we willing to? Love means being willing to do things and not to back down because we think that others are seeking something or because we think there are other motives. Love does not brag about itself nor lift itself above anything. Love is honest and decent. Love knows that things are sure and dependable. Love lives up to the truth and hides away the mistakes. Love is unique and absolutely pure. Stop pretending things are love and live with the truth! Stop pretending that things will be and live with the truth! Love is what Christ showed us...

Points to Ponder:
How do you match up?

Do you know God’s full love?

Thursday Reading: Ecclesiastes 2 10-11
 
Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 2 11
11  Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done, and on the labour that I had laboured to do; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit; and there is no profit under the sun.

Devotion:
There are those who will say that this is the most depressing book in the bible because of the constant reminders that everything is vanity; but I rather look on it as a constant reminder of how much more God can give us than the world! When we do all we can and work all we can we will receive our just earthly reward as can be seen by a few very rich men and women in this world but how many of them have inner contentment? There is a contentment that can only come from God, one that is so wonderful that we assume that it cannot be.

How many people give up looking after they find that the things of this world just cannot satisfy the soul? How many will try all manner of other things like Solomon did to find out how they can find some sort of a reason for their existence? How many will take their own life because they suddenly realise that what they have been living for is just not worth it? My heart goes out to every one of those listed above because they are the ones struggling to find that secret of life that God gave to us. If we are not willing to explore God then we will not find that secret either. If we are turning our backs on God just because we think it is a weakness rather than strength, then we are the fools.

No matter what the world has got to offer, it will never match the inner peace that we can receive from our God. Nothing will ever attain to that which we receive from the God that loved us even whilst we were going wrong to Him! That love that Christ showed us is without reproach. That love that God showed us is true love. That secret that God wants to know is that He wants to share that love with us always. To share that love means getting to know Him and allowing Him into our lives. When He can come into our lives and commune with us, we will be able to share in that love and to know what life is all about. Praise God for being God!

Points to Ponder:
What do you seek?

Do you God is seeking you?

Wednesday Reading: Ecclesiastes 1 13
 
Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 1 13
13  And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all which is done under the heavens. It is a sad task God has given to the sons of men to be humbled by it.

Devotion:
Have you ever set a goal and gone to reach that goal with gusto and with all perseverance? If you have not, then now is the time to try because without setting goals and going for them you will not know what it is to succeed or to fail. Why would anyone want to fail? Well, without failure we would all be weak and would give up on things as soon as they looked like they were going wrong. Failure in things leads to a new strength to work against that failure for the next time. Failure does not mean rejection but rather enlightenment as to how not to do things in the future. God will allow failure into our lives so that we can be strengthened by what we have to face up to. God wants us to be stronger so that we can face up to more.

Solomon set about trying to find wisdom outside of God. He was on a mission to find out how anyone could ever obtain wisdom without having God in their lives. What a goal to set! He knew it was a certain failure because true wisdom can only come from God. God was the one who had given him wisdom in the beginning so trying to seek out wisdom was a losing battle. He did that all so that we could see how much we need to depend on God. He did that all so that we could see the futility of seeking wisdom from the world. If someone else has already gone there and failed then surely we need not ride that same path to see if we can fail too...

We need to realise that our God is above all. We need to realise that our God is wise and that He has a perfect plan for each of us. We need to realise that we must follow His wishes for our lives in order to do His will. When we start to humble ourselves before our great God and know that He is GREAT then we have taken our first lesson in wisdom from Him. We don’t have to try all manner of things like Solomon went through; we can be wise and read what not to do without having to do it!

Points to Ponder:
DO you need to experience everything?
 
Do you not believe in God?

Tuesday Reading: Acts 7 9
 
Key Verse: Acts 7 9
9  And being jealous of Joseph, the patriarchs sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him

Devotion:
The brothers of Joseph saw how their father favoured Joseph and were constantly angry with him because of that. They allowed their anger to dwell within then and build up until it overtook them, so much so that they conspired to kill him whilst they were out. Fortunately God was with Joseph and protected him constantly. We may not see it as such because of all that Joseph went through, but by the time we get to the great famine we start to see why God allowed things to be so. Joseph was close to God and God allowed him to see many things because of that.

Joseph was sold as a slave into Egypt but eventually because the head of Pharaoh’s house being much more than the twenty pieces of silver that he was sold for in the beginning. No matter what man does to another man, it is God who is looking out for each of us in His timeline and in His terms. We may well think that we have destroyed a man through various means but we have not touched the man of God because he is safe in Christ’s hands and not in the hands of the world! When we do things to others we do not think of what that may be doing to Christ; as children of God we are all in His arms and He sees everything that happens to each of us. Could you imagine breaking the law in front of a judge and then expecting him to let you off when you appeared in court? Why then do we continue to sin in front of our Judge and expect Him to forgive and forget everything that we do!

The amazing thing is that Christ is willing to forgive and to forget. Joseph was an example through which we can see just how Christ is willing to do the same. Joseph knew what would become of him in the end and he continued to trust in God. God continued to look after him throughout all the hardships that he endured. It does not mean that he did not endure those hardships but rather that he was always in the safest possible place! Praise God for being the God of Salvation!

Points to Ponder:
DO you feel safe?

Are you resting in God’s arms?