Wednesday Reading: Hebrews 4 15-16
 
Key Verse: Hebrews 4 16
16  Therefore let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Devotion:
So very often we may think of God as being out of touch with us because we may feel like He is not with us; but that is where we are so very wrong. Jesus came down to earth as a human with all the frailty that that entails. He was confronted with all the same sorts of temptations that we face and He rejected them. He rejected them because He knew the truth and He knew He could count 100% on God the Father. We are the ones who have doubt and we are the ones who allow those doubts to control our lives.

We need to remember just what Christ went through and to remember that he went through that all as a human and He felt all the troubles and all the worries; He does know what we are going through! What we need to do is to continue in prayer, lifting up our worries to Him just as He did to His Heavenly Father. Taking a leaf from His book and depending on God will allow us to experience the truth as well. We cannot hope to understand His love until we can say that we are depending on Him.

How can you know that a rope is going to hold you up until you try that rope? People can tell you that it will hold until they are blue in the face, but that is going to do nothing compared to the knowledge you will gain through experience. Christ has given us the example whereby we can e sure that we will obtain His mercy in the same manner as He was shown from God. We need to come forward boldly knowing that God is great and that we have Christ on our side!

Points to Ponder:
Do you always believe what you are told?
 
Are you trusting Christ yet?

Tuesday Reading: Luke 11 9-13
 
Key Verse: Luke 11 9
9  And I say to you, Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you.

Devotion:
How many times do we have to be reminded that we need to be constantly lifting up our prayers to God through Christ? Christ Himself reminds us on many an occasion through His Word and this is just one of those places. It’s not a case of us asking once and expecting a reply so we can go about our own business again, it’s more a case of we need to bring those prayers forward constantly until He does answer them. As young children we would badger our parents by constantly asking them for things; when it came closer to Christmas we would throw in a few more reminders just in case. We did not always get what we asked for but our parents certainly knew what we wanted!

Christ expects us to bring forward our prayers continually so that we know that He knows our needs. Yes He does know without the asking but if we do not ask then we become doubtful as to whether He does know! We are the weak ones who lack faith and need the constant reminders. He is the strong one who can answer and does answer our prayers when they need to be answered. Does He sometimes wait before answering so that we know He is answering? Who are we to question the might and wisdom of our God? We are the ones who depend on the time created by Him and we are the ones who need to remember that we bow down before Him!

Christ’s reminder remains: Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you. We are able to give to each other and answer requests between ourselves without problems so how much easier shall it be for God who is in control of all things and is the Master of all? Trust and depend...

Points to Ponder:
Have you started asking things for Christmas?

Are you continuing in prayer to God?

Monday Reading: Exodus 20 4-6
 
Key Verse: Exodus 20 5
5  You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them. For I Jehovah your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation of those that hate me,
 
Devotion:
There is one law that is acknowledged as being one of the worst and that is high treason. For this people will get punished more than other crimes and not so long ago were put to death for it. If we have that sort of punishment for a crime against King or country then should we really expect anything less for a crime against our King, Jesus Christ? God has warned us from the beginning that there is a punishment waiting for anyone who chooses to hate Him because that is just as we see high treason. God has always made sure that we know what constitutes hate against Him and has given us the second commandment written in stone so that we will remember it.

Yet people still chose to forget about what was written down and call upon every law that they can to try and get out of having to pay for the crime of working against God. Indeed we now have laws around the world that say that we should not tell others that they are breaking God’s laws! Man is trying what he can to bury God’s laws just so that he can do what he wants to do. For those of us who believe in God, we do not have a problem with making sure that we strive to keep the commandments, but for those who hate His laws there will always be ways that they make themselves look righteous. How can we expect to make our own laws and be right just because we keep them? The original law is God’s Law and there can be no other to replace it because that would be man’s own making. This is the exact reason why God made sure we knew His laws up front...

God wants us to know that the punishment we heap upon ourselves is not nice; but it is us that bring it upon ourselves because we want our own ways instead of God’s ways. Keep God in the picture, keep Him in control.

Points to Ponder:
Do you make your own rules?

Do you favour your rules or God’s rules?

Sunday Reading: Exodus 20 1-3
 
Key Verse: Exodus 20 3
3  You shall have no other gods before Me.

Devotion:
It really is amazing to listen to how many people will say that Mother Nature did this or Mother Nature did that and yet they will not say God did this or God did that. Most dictionaries will describe Mother Nature as the personification of nature or putting a personal face onto anything that happens naturally. If only people would think about what they are saying and understand that it is God!

The more the scientists try to figure out nature the more they dig up and the more complex it becomes; the harder they try to simplify it the more they realise there is to it. We already know this construct through our bibles; so simple on the outside because it is in a single book cover, but so complex on the inside and the more we look the more we find. God has given us an understanding of many things in our lives and will continue to give us understanding of things that we need to know about. Yet man has this insatiable desire to find out more about anything so that he does not have to admit to God being real!

God’s rules in the beginning were quite simple. He is God and we should never look to anything or anyone else as being in His place. Yet we still seek to replace Him! When things go wrong people blame Mother Nature because they are scared to blame God just in case He is real! When things go well they lift up anyone and everyone just to make themselves look good. Why can’t people just admit that God is the one who is in charge and in control? Why can’t people put a little faith in the God of this universe? He is our God! Let us go forward and lift His name up high!

Points to Ponder:
Do you remember what Sundays are all about?
 
Are you lifting His name above all today?