Tuesday Reading: Ephesians 1 15-21
 
Key Verse: Ephesians 1 18
18  the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

Devotion:
Each time that Paul wrote to the various people and churches he reminded them of all of the prayers that he continued to say for them. This is not him boasting that he was praying for everyone but rather a reminder for the people to encourage them into fervent prayer too. Paul knew the power of prayer... how? Because he used it!

There is no way that you will find out the true strength behind anything unless you are able to observe or have firsthand knowledge of something. When we hear something on the news or from others we always have a level of doubt about the authenticity of what we hear; that doubt stems from us knowing that we have exaggerated about things in the past and we then think that maybe others are exaggerating about what they are saying... When we observe something happening then we have to believe that that is true – to the extent that illusionists can almost get us to believe that they are actually magicians...

It is difficult to try and tell someone about Christ when they know nothing at first. It is difficult to show others how much you know when they cannot see what you see. But through God anything is possible; that is why we need to rely more on prayer! God wants to bless us each and every day but He also wants us to come to Him in prayer and show Him that we are serious about our relationship with Him. He knows what is on our minds and knows what we need but He still wants us to come forward and ask in prayer so that He can see our faith. When we show Him that we depend on Him, He is more than willing to bless us in ways that He knows best. It does not matter how great a Christian we think we are, prayer is what will be answered!

Points to Ponder:
Do you believe everything you hear?

Are you doing and asking the same from God?

Monday Reading: Proverbs 20 12
 
Key Verse: Proverbs 20 12
12  The hearing ear and the seeing eye, Jehovah has made both of them.
 
Devotion:
A good painter can paint a picture of an eye that looks full of life and yet it cannot see. Man can make glass eyes that match peoples own eyes and it is hard to tell the difference, but they cannot see. It is God that made our eyes and ears so that we can see and hear. We have done our best to copy them in microphones and cameras of various kinds but they still cannot compare to the amazing ability of the organs that God has given us!

Why did He give them to us? So that we could see and hear... But not just anything; so we could see and hear what He wants us to see and hear. Yes there is so much around us that we would love to record so that we can continue seeing and hearing things, but God wants us to be able to see and hear what He has provided. What use are the abilities to see and hear if we are not going to use them to see and hear His Word?

These may just be two of our senses, but they are very important senses in our ability to get to know God. It does not mean that people who are deaf and blind cannot get to know God because they too can see and hear by other means. What we do with what God has given us is the important part! Because He has supplied us with such great fortunes, should we not use those fortunes to the best effect when getting to know Him?

The farmer who tends to the fields out the back of my flat was up as soon as it was light so that he could ready the field for the next crop; he is making the best use of daylight to do what he does best. That is the attitude that we should have towards doing God’s work as well. We need to step up and do things as soon as we are able, not put them off until someone asks us or until we want to... God wants us to be ready to do His will all the time.

Points to Ponder:
Are you pro-active?

Are you doing what God wants you to do?

Sunday Reading: 1 Kings 3 5-15
 
Key Verse: 1 Kings 3 9
9  And give to Your servant an understanding heart, to judge Your people, to discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge this, Your great people?

Devotion:
What would you ask for is God came to you and asked what you would like? That is a difficult question because we are surrounded by so many things nowadays; but most of those things that surround us are just trinkets when it comes to comparing them to what God can give us!

It is very easy to get caught up in physical things and to start asking God to supply you with physical things thinking that that will make you happy and that you would be able to help people more with more money or more time or more goods. That is not what God wants from us. He wants us to change our hearts so that we are more willing to go out there and make a difference. If we are more willing to set aside our own stuff and do things for God, then He will be there to support us in whatever we are doing for Him.

Solomon could have asked for anything. Indeed he had a whole lot of things because his father David was king and had so much. His wish was not to enlarge his own wealth or life, but to enlarge his heart and his wisdom so that he could do more for his people, God’s people.

When Christ says that we should turn our backs on the world and focus on spiritual things, this is what He is talking about. We need to put aside the physical and focus on the spiritual because God will supply the physical to match the spiritual we are willing to achieve...

Points to Ponder:
What would you like?
 
Do you think God would approve?

Saturday Reading: Romans 6 11-15
 
Key Verse: Romans 6 14
14  For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under Law, but under grace.

Devotion:
Could you imagine being locked up in jail for the rest of your life, or even worse being chained up in a room for the rest of your life? The only thing that you would want to hear from anyone or anything is when you would be released! When we do get to hear about the truth that God is God and that we are His creation we then get to know that that is the state we are in; and the best part about it is that we get to hear about our freedom as well.

Jesus came to this world to save us from that punishment that we would otherwise face for eternity. We live in a time when He has already given up His life for our sins; or in other words we live under His grace. If we do not know Him, then we live under the law and the law will find us guilty, but when we get to know Him then we are set free from that guilt by His grace and mercy – we are no longer subject to the law.

That certainly does not mean that we can forget about it because the law is still there, but we can know that the law will no longer find us guilty because Christ has paid our price already. With such encouragement we should be working towards living for Him and not for the law. As soon as we live for Him, we work as one with The Living God and not as one for a cursed enemy. Living for Him means putting our worldly things behind us and breaking free from the law that has sat over us for so long a time.

God has given us the news that we want to hear and all we have to do is believe that truth that He has told and shown us already. Just that act of believing that truth will set us free from our chains. That does not give us the right to go out and break every law we can because that would be working against the One who has set us free!

Points to Ponder:
Are you bound up or free?
 
Are you working against God?