Sunday Reading: Psalms 5 8-9
 
Key Verse: Psalms 5 8
8  Lead me, O LORD, in Your righteousness, because of my enemies; make Your way straight before my face.

Devotion:
What do you seek from God? Where would you have Him to lead you? The Lord’s Prayer says “Thy will be done” Is this what you really mean when you pray to God? Sometimes we get caught up in things and say things just because others are saying it – I know I was like that when I first went to church; but gradually it sunk in and then I knew what I should be doing and what I should be asking for – His forgiveness first of all.

When we do become children of God we do have to think about what we are doing. What is the use of saying you are a child of God and then acting and behaving just the same as you did before this time? Just who are you going to encourage to seek God if you are still acting like a hooligan instead of seeking God’s ways. When we pray for His will to be done, that is exactly what we should be seeking. King David was all too well aware of the empty promises people were making around him and he did not want to get caught up in their lifestyles. If we continue on in our own lifestyles then we will be encouraging others into that old lifestyle too instead of encouraging them to seek the God that wants to change us.

God still gives us a choice, even when we are in His arms. He will not restrict us because He wants us to follow Him in faith. He wants us to demonstrate our love towards Him through what we do. That does not mean we are left alone because He is always with us and we can ask Him to guide us every step of the way – but it is still our choice. We need to seek Him will in our lives to show Him that we are willing to leave our old world behind and follow His new world for us. He will make it a whole lot easier if we are willing to listen to Him rather than rebel every step of the way. We have to choose whether we follow the distractions of the world around us or concentrate on God’s will in our lives...

Points to Ponder:
How has your life changed?

Are you seeking God’s will?

Saturday Reading: Psalms 8 3-4
 
Key Verse: Psalms 8 4
4  what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man, that You visit him?

Devotion:
It does not take a whole lot of looking at things to find yourself in awe at some of mans achievements but then you can look all around you and be amazed at God’s creation too. King David was no stranger to God because he tried to live his life for God and to lift up God when everyone else was losing grip. Throughout all of his life David continued to be amazed at what God could do and when he started to grow weary his prayers simply got stronger.

If we look at some of the pictures that we are now able to get from the best telescopes of the world we see so much more than just the flickering spots in the sky we see with our eyes. We see galaxies and nebulas that defy belief and that we could never have dreamed of in minds if we had not telescopes. But it does not have to be looking far out into space because we can the many more wonders by looking at the microscopic level of our bodies and things of this world. If we take the intricate details of what we have in our bodies and then expand that into the size of a universe we begin to see just how complex the universe really is.

And within all of this God has chosen us. He established man on earth. He continues to support us because of His love for us. We can look at the summer sun, the winter snow and everything in between and realise that God is supporting a finely balanced planet that seems to be able to defy normal rules and keep going even though man seems intent on destroying all that he touches. What are we that God should look out for us? We are His creation. He is our God. Let us lift up His name above all and praise Him alone for all that He does for us every second of every day. We truly do have an awesome God!

Points to Ponder:
How much glue does it take to hold your table together?

How much creation does it take to hold atoms together?

Friday Reading: Psalms 5 11-12

Key Verse: Psalms 5 12
12  For You; O Lord, will bless the righteous; with favour You will surround him as with a shield.

Devotion:
No matter what lies ahead of us now and no matter what we can read about that will happen in the Tribulation period we can be sure of one thing, Christ will always stand by anyone who calls on His name to be saved. Anyone who is willing to admit that Christ has died and taken on their sin debt that they should pay and to ask for His forgiveness will be forgiven.

Some may think of Christians as living a life without problems and without sin but that is far from the truth. We as Christians do still sin and we do still get things wrong. But the amazing thing is that Christ is still willing to forgive and to forget those sins if we are willing to admit to them. When we beg for His mercy and His protection, He will answer our prayers; it may not be in exactly the way that we were thinking about it, but Christ is faithful to answer then nonetheless. We can be sure that Christ will guide us and will continue to try to get us to live the best life we can for Him so that He will get the glory and honour. And for that He can and does in many cases give us honour and glory above others – but we must never let that go to our heads!

God wants us to live a life that will be an example to others and that will allow others to see Him through us. If we are not doing that then are we doing our best for Him? We should not expect Him to do His best for us if we are not willing to do our best for Him. But the amazing thing is that His love far outweighs ours sinful ways; even though we continue to sin, He continues to support and protect us because of His amazing love for us. We certainly do not deserve that love, but that is the way that He has chosen to show us His love. Let us then surprise others in a similar way by showing them a part of His love through what we can do. It is what God wants of us!

Points to Ponder:
How do you lead your life?

Do you see God’s rich blessings?

Thursday Reading: Psalms 3 1-4
 
Key Verse: Psalms 3 2
2  Many are saying of my soul, There is no deliverance for him in God. Selah.

Devotion:
One thing we can be certain of is that our deliverance is not dependant on anyone else other than Christ Jesus. If it was then we would be in big trouble... Even when we are with friends, or people we call friends, they are apt to call us names, mock us and even put us down. Most of that is in jest but some of it will hit you hard because you don’t see yourself in the same way as others see you. Christ is the only one who has a view of you that is perfect and nothing but the truth.

Does that mean we are perfect? Certainly not! Nowhere near perfect and always straying from the truth – but Christ has the ability and faithfulness to forgive us of our sins so that we can come to God in a perfect light. When we are without Christ in our lives we are nowhere near the light. We may think that we are and we may think that the things that we do are righteous but we cannot be further from the truth because we are being fooled by the god of this world.

As David noted, we are surrounded by people who seem intent on mocking us in any way they can because they can see something different in us. When we are physically different, people mock us. When we are spiritually different, people mock us. That is just the way of the world. We need not look any further than the people around us to see just how much sin is in the world and how much of the world is run by sin or sinful people. The more these people are in charge the more they want others to be in the same boat as them because they cannot stand the truth being brought to the surface! But that is exactly what we need to do, bring it to the surface so that someone can see that there is light in the future and that that light is Christ Jesus. If we do all of this just so that one person can come to know God, then we have done a good thing! Christ is the one listening to your prayers and He is the one who will act on them...

Points to Ponder:
Do you feel rejected?

Are you still lifting up Christ?