Tuesday Reading: Psalm 49:15-20
 
Key Verse: Psalms 49 20
20  Man in honour, but without understanding, is like the animals; they shall perish.

Devotion:
No matter how great a position we can gain socially, if we do not understand that position we have achieved nothing. Similarly, no matter how much praise we will get for doing the right thing, unless we understand our position with Christ we have gained nothing because we cannot take anything with us. Yes we will compare well with others but when we compare ourselves with the righteousness that God requires, we fail on all counts; unless we have Christ standing up for us!

There is nothing that anyone on earth can do to take Christ away from you and there is absolutely nothing that anything or anyone can do to take us away from Christ! No matter how great a position someone may reach here on earth, they cannot do anything to our relationship with Christ. Yes they can make it really uncomfortable for us and they may even take our lives, but they cannot separate us from Him. Man may think that he has got it all right and sorted out in his mind, but unless he understands what Christ requires then he has achieved a hollow victory because death will undo everything that he has done!

Christ continues to want us to realise that we work for things above and not for things on earth. So long as we aim to glorify Him we can be sure that He will allow the correct things to happen here on earth to achieve that goal. If we are going to go off by ourselves then we are no better than animals – they live for themselves and nothing else. God created us to be different. He created us to be able to know Him personally. He created us so that we can understand His ways. He created us so that we can see the difference between right and wrong and aim for things eternal rather than just the here and now. He wants us to have an eternal life in Him. Trust Him.

Points to Ponder:
Are your victories hollow?

Do you think about Christ’s victory?

Monday Reading: Psalm 49:6-10
 
Key Verse: Psalms 49 6
6  Those who trust in their wealth, and their many riches, boast themselves.
 
Devotion:
Cultures around the world give rise to differing goals for people when they live in different countries. Even within Europe there are vastly different qualities and standards that people live towards. Here in the UK people do what they can to get to buy a house as soon as they can so they can have their own ‘little castle’ in which to live. Just across the channel people look to rent and not to buy rather spending their money on luxuries around the house. But, sadly, people everywhere are turning away from God and looking towards earthly wealth to try and fulfil their yearnings for stability and peace.

The more that people strive to build up their own wealth, the more they are striving to build themselves up. Just like the people at Babel found that working towards building themselves up to God, man will find that building himself up towards his own god (wealth) will do nothing but leave him short in the end. The more we focus on building ourselves up the less we will focus on building up God within our lives and the less we will find we can walk with Him. When Adam and Eve tried to build themselves up through eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they found themselves suddenly short of their own expectations.

We cannot take anything earthly with us when we go to be with the Lord but what we leave behind is going to be our legacy. If we leave behind untold earthly riches then that is how people will remember us with many fighting over what we do leave behind. If we leave behind many people who have come to know God through us then we have built up a stronghold of God’s Word that will continue to live on. It really is a case of where we want to build up our riches; whether it is for a little while on earth or forever in heaven. There is nothing wrong with being successful on earth so long as we do not exclude God in favour of our own success.

Points to Ponder:
How do you measure your success?

Are you working for God or for yourself?

Sunday Reading: Micah 4 4-5
 
Key Verse: Micah 4 5
5  For all peoples will walk, each one in the name of his god; and we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God forever and ever.

Devotion:
The more that we see the damage that wars do to people on both sides, the more that we wish that the wars will end. The more that we wish for such things the more that we will look for someone who will step up to the mark and make a difference! We don’t like to see people suffering and we certainly do not like leaders who force their people to suffer; so when one comes along to give peace to all nations, many are going to follow him because he is spreading peace where no one else has been able to. It is a sad fact that many will turn to such a one just because of peace; but even our bibles tell us of that time.

They also tell us of a time when people will continue to follow their own gods in spite of being shown the truth. How we have seen that so many times and how we will continue to see that. There are religions around the world that profess to know the truth and yet will worship someone else instead of God almighty. There are many people who will continue to ‘worship’ their idols and their lifestyles just as they do now – even when the world is at peace.

We walk in a world where we can see all of this happening around us. We know it is happening because we can see it. We know that God has warned us that this will happen and so we can continue to believe in the truth. We must be careful to make sure that we do follow God’s Word and not to get caught up in the things that are around us because that would be our downfall. God has warned us that there will be imposters coming that may look like they could be gods but we need to stick fast to the absolute truth and keep His Word deep in our hearts. Only by walking with God will we be able to stand against the principalities that will try to stand against Him. Walk with Him, stick with Him and He will be with you forever!

Points to Ponder:
Are your friends always friends?
 
Are you walking with God?

Saturday Reading: Colossians 3 16-17
 
Key Verse: Colossians 3 17
17  And everything, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.

Devotion:
Are you fond of following instruction manuals, or do you just get on with what you want and see what happens? Most of us do the latter because we think that we know how things work. For the majority of appliances that is true; they are made so that we don’t have to re-learn how to use them. But there is always something new where we have to go back to the manual and find out how it works... If only we had the time and energy to read through the manuals beforehand...

Guess what. Life is like that too! We like to think that we know what is what and just live life to the full – as we see it. Then we see others doing things differently and we try to do things their way because they look like they may be enjoying themselves. Each time we take a few steps forward and learn a whole lot more about how not to live through finding things out the hard way. Life does not have to be like that because we do have our instruction manual which we should be using all the time.

God’s Word was given to us so that we would not have to go through all the rough times just so we could find out the wrong ways and eventually arrive at the right way (if we haven’t run out of time before then) . God has given us all we need to know through His Word and we do need to take notice of it all. We need to live by it and through it. We need to learn what God wants us to know so we can apply it in our lives. The most important thing that it teaches us is that we do have to live with Him in our lives. Everything we do should be done with God in mind. Everything we strive for should be done with Him in mind. We need to recognise that He was with us in everything we achieved. We need to remember that He is always with us. We need to live with Him because He wants us to live with Him.

Points to Ponder:
Do you read instruction manuals?
 
Do you live with God?