Saturday 2 Jan 2010


Saturday Reading: Isaiah 41 10-11
 
Key Verse: Isaiah 41 10
10  Do not fear; for I am with you; be not dismayed; for I am your God. I will make you strong; yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness.

Devotion:
When God speaks to us we can be sure that it will be tender though strict, harsh but just, reproving but loving. What we do have to remember is that God is always with us; no matter how much of a pickle we get ourselves in, no matter how much we let others down, God is the one who will never leave us nor forsake us. How awesome is that! Just think about it... How great would it have been to have someone by your side when you were heading for a fight you knew you could not win? How great would it have been to have someone to bail you out when you hit hard times? If you have ever been in that sort of situation then you know exactly where I am coming from!

But when God says “Do not fear; for I am with you” then you need to know exactly what He is saying. He is not saying, yes I am over here watching over you like a parent at the edge of a pay area. He is not saying I am watching you and will bail you out when you have hit rock bottom. What He is saying is that He is right here, right now! It is not just because He is everywhere, all powerful and all knowing... it is because He wants to be with you, right here and right now! His promise is not just to be here but to give us the comfort strength and guidance that we need at this exact time. He is giving it all to us and saying that He wants us to have it – just because of His awesome love for us!

When people come up against us and we place ourselves squarely in God’s hands, then we are not only in the safest place but He has also promised us that He will make things right. It’s not a case of we must do something for Him so that He does something for us. It is not a case of us getting something out of the deal – far too often we do think in that way. No, it’s just a case of His love covers our sins and through Christ we are able to commune with God. Through that communion we are able to receive, quite openly and fully, His grace, mercy and love.

Points to Ponder:
Are you sparing some time for God?
 
Why not commune with God instead?

Friday 1 Jan 2010

Friday Reading: Proverbs 3 5-6



Key Verse: Proverbs 3 5

5  Trust in The LORD with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding.



Devotion:

When we hear others say that we should trust in God we often think
about all the things that we need and think how wonderful it would be
for Him to be able to supply us with those needs. But what exactly are
those needs that we identify? Mostly we think about the physical things
that we think we need to keep us going and we pass those requests on to
God. Then we think about the strength and wisdom that we need and we
ask Him for those too. But again these are physical needs that we get
from the world around us... Each one of our requests is normally based
from mans own heart – and how many times are we reminded that we are
the sinners; how can we be asking God to supply our human wants?



Our trust cannot just be faith. Our trust cannot just be love. We need
to extend our love beyond earthly love and embrace Christ for all that
He is. We need to place our trust in Him because of who He is. We need
lift up our hearts to Him and place them squarely in His hands. When we
place our hearts in others hands we always make mistakes and are even
let down at times, or worse, we let others down. But when we place our
hearts in Christ’s hands we can be sure that He will never let them go!
With our hearts then firmly placed in His hands we can enjoy the mercy,
grace and fellowship we have with Him knowing that He will never turn
His back on us!



We cannot grasp just how awesome a thing this is until we try it. We
cannot understand the Fathers love for us until we trust in Him. We
cannot understand Christ’s mercy until we receive it. We cannot
understand the Holy Spirit’s guidance until we accept it. God wants us
to be safe in His arms. He wants us to be totally secure in Him. He
wants us to rely on Him. He wants us to lean on Him. He knows that we
will have troubles, that we will fail Him, that we will fail others;
but He knows that He cares for us in ways that we cannot yet
understand. Praise God for being a God of second chances!



Points to Ponder:

Are you ready for a New Year?



Are you going to trust Him WHOLEY?

Thursday 31 Dec 2009

Thursday Reading: 1 Peter 5 10-11
 
Key Verse: 1 Peter 5 11
11  To Him be the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen.

Devotion:
As we draw to the close of an old year and look forward to the new year we can definitely look back and wonder at the things that God has done for each one of us. Even if we have faced a year in which everything seems to have gone wrong from our point of view, God has been close by as we have struggled. When things have got too much for us to bear, He is the one that has born that extra load. When we have called out for His assistance, He has supplied what we need. We may not necessarily think that He has done enough for us because what we need and what we want are probably going to be very different things!

He is the one who has called out to us to come to Him in faith. He is the one who has been the constant Rock upon which we have been able to stand firm. He is the one who has been there to guide us. If we have not used out faith to depend on our Rock and trust in Him then we are the ones falling short and Not our Awesome God. There is nothing that He has put in our way that made us stumble or anything that made us weaker. There is nothing He held back from us and no guidance that He kept from us. What we have been through this year has been for a purpose; His purpose.

As we look toward the new year let us all lift up our Father in heaven with whom we can look forward to our eternal life by His side. Whilst we are still here on earth we can look forward to His perfect ways in which He will continue to confirm His presence, strengthen our faith and establish our ways. We can do these things with the uttermost confidence knowing that He is the one who has been in charge all along and will continue to be in charge all the days of our lives. Let all honour and glory and might be to Him and to Him alone. Amen.

Points to Ponder:
How would you sum up your year?

How would you sum up God’s part in your year?

wednesday 30 Dec 2009

Wednesday Reading: Psalms 25 15-21
 
Key Verse: Psalms 25 21
21  Let purity and uprightness keep me; for I wait on You.

Devotion:
Trust is something that we sometimes find hard to do, not because we don’t want to but because we are let down so many times in our lives by others; we too let down others at some stage as well. But trust needs to go further than just a once off because trust is something that has to endure. It is no good trusting in someone and then dropping that trust at the first sign of trouble otherwise we would never trust anyone. We think of trust as being something that has to grow over time but trust is something that should start at one point and continue on from that point.

When we trust in The LORD we will find that we are never let down by Him. There may be times when we think we have been let down by Him but is we are willing to take time and look back at those times we may well find any number of things that we have been let down by, none of them being God. When we take our trust away from God and place it in someone else’s hands then we are at their mercy rather than God’s; that is when we may well find the weak spot! God’s mercy endures through everything. He continues to show us mercy even when we do not deserve it.

Our trust in God must be absolute otherwise we are always going to feel let down. He is our Rock. He is our Salvation. Nothing will ever make God change; we are the ones that change around Him and we are the one who let each other down. Our trust in Him is totally secure but we are the ones who have to keep in that trust. We are the ones who have to start that trust and depend on in always! Once we do that we will see that our trust is secure and He never lets us down.

Points to Ponder:
Who do you trust?
 
Do you realise how secure your trust in God is?

Tuesday 29 Dec 2009

Tuesday Reading: Psalms 27 11-14
 
Key Verse: Psalms 27 14
14  Hope in The LORD; be of good courage, and He shall make your heart strong; yea, hope in Jehovah.

Devotion:
You have heard it often said that there is nothing our God cannot do and in that we must trust. Our prayers are not something we should lift up when things are good or things are bad, our prayers need to be constant and true because God has been constant and true to us through the ages. God has not made our lives full of woe; that is the sin that is in the world that does that. God has not deprived us from things; that is the greed of the world that allows us that. God will continue to offer us everything but unless we actually accept it we will not receive it...

God’s Word is full of knowledge and wisdom given to us through men of God who has been inspired to write these words through what God has told them. They have not sat back and waited for some revelation from God, they would have been in constant prayer to God and would have listened to everything God has lead them to listen. That is how we need to live our lives too so that we too can get the most from His Word. God will not allow you to be taken over by your enemies unless you give in to them and give up on Him. We need to stay strong in God and fully rely on Him!

Just think back over the things that have happened and wonder whether you would have been able to survive without God’s protection. His protection has always been there and continues to be ever present in our lives; but that should not stop us from continuing in daily conversation with Him to ensure that He knows our needs. Trusting in God means exactly that! What use is a rope for mountain climbing unless it is used? What use is an old rope when you can have a new one each climb? Our walk with God needs to be that, a walk WITH God and not a walk in the general direction that we think He may be going! Praise God for giving us the courage, strength and wisdom to continue our walk with Him in faith.

Points to Ponder:
Who do you trust most in life?

Are you fully depending on God?