Wednesday Reading: 2 Corinthians 5 6-8
 
Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 5 6
6  Then being always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are away from home from the Lord;

Devotion:
What gives you confidence? Well, it’s normally experience... that experience does not necessarily have to be your own but could be someone else’s. We draw on experience of various things to allow us to make decisions in the future when we come across similar situations. Hopefully we build up the right experiences and can then make good judgements as to what is good and bad. But there are going to be times when we are in doubt as to which way to turn. Being able to call on someone and ask for advice is always good and normally very helpful if you know who to call. What you do with that advice is then, again, your decision. With repeated advice we build up confidence in that person if the advice is always sound.

We know that when we walk alone in this world we are never truly alone because God is everywhere. What we are doing is in effect walking with Him but totally ignoring Him as we walk. Whilst we ignore Him we are not listening to His advice nor asking His advice and hence do not get it – that is our choice. We cannot see Him when we do walk with Him, but we do know He is there – that is a step of faith, just knowing He is there.

Because we know He is there, we can then have more confidence that He is going to help us and guide us – so long as we are willing to listen or ask. The more that we rely on that confidence, the more that we can be sure that He is there because the more we will find out just how much He does do in our presence. Trying to justify everything and prove everything will cast doubts in our minds because we will then be relying on our own sight again rather than having the confidence to rely on our unseen God. Yes it can be a difficult situation to be in when you try to figure things out yourself, but it can be a pleasing situation when you do rely on Him with confidence!

Points to Ponder:
Who do you trust?
 
Are you trusting God?

Tuesday Reading: Ephesians 3 13-19
 
Key Verse: Ephesians 3 19
19  and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Devotion:
How do you think you are affected when you love or care for someone? Do you go out of your way to do things for them? Do you change your life so that they can benefit from what you can do for them? These are not the sort of things that you do think about when you start to care for someone though they may well be what you think about afterwards when things have changed.

The Apostle writes to the Ephesians telling them that they must not concern themselves with what happen to him. He was facing many trials and tribulations by continuing to do God’s work but he did not want other people to have to worry about what was happening to him; rather he was the one worrying about what would happen to them. He had placed his care squarely in the hands of God by believing exactly what Christ had told him to do – believe on Me and all your needs will be taken care of. Because he knew that he was safe in Christ’s hands, he knew that he would be able to focus on doing things for others rather than having to worry about himself – that is why he wanted them to know that he was in safe hands and that they should not have to worry themselves on his behalf.

When we need to look for a helping hand or reach out for safety, there is nobody else that we should have to ask for than Christ. Everything that we could ever want or need can be covered by Him. Everything that we need without even knowing about is able to be supplied through Him... All we need do is to believe that He is able and to trust that He is able. That is all He wants us to do – he does not want us to be concerned with how much He had to do or put up with or how much it cost Him – just how much He loves us and cares for us right here and right now!

Points to Ponder:
Do you always count the cost?

Are you trusting fully in Christ?

Monday Reading: 2 Timothy 3 1-7
 
Key Verse: 2 Timothy 3 7
7  ever learning and never able to come to the full knowledge of the truth.
 
Devotion:
Don’t these verses paint such an awful picture of man-kind? How are we able to see that there is a God when we are surrounded by so much evil and so much corruption? It is little wonder that so many people never get to hear about Christ and hence never make it in to church when there is so much going on in the world! It is not as if we don’t know people that fall into these categories either because we are surrounded by people from all walks in life who are willing to give in to the carnal pleasures of this world rather than find out the truth.

It is not as if we cannot find the truth because Christ promised that the truth will always be available for anyone who is willing to listen; we only have to look around us to see just how much good there could be in this world if only people would put the evil behind them instead of inviting it in. People are more concerned about getting what they can get out of life than looking out for one another. People have lost sight of the ability to live with others and focus instead on themselves only. It’s not just the business world where people are like that because we can look into family lives and see that children are no longer obedient to or respectful of their parents.  We see parents no longer having the natural love for children... All because they have lost sight of the truth.

When God is left out of people’s lives a whole lot more disappears as well; not just the love for God but the natural love for each other goes as well. When we lose sight of who has given us our daily blessings, we lose sight of who is in charge! If we take God’s gifts and use them as the fuel for our lusts then we are going to focus our attention on those lusts rather than on God. We do have the ability to find out the truth and let others know about it! He has given us our gifts in good faith; let us not abuse them anymore.

Points to Ponder:
What do you focus on in life?

Are you abusing God’s gifts to you?

Sunday Reading: 1 Timothy 2 1-4
 
Key Verse: 1 Timothy 2 4
4  who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Devotion:
Let us never forget just how important prayer is... If you loved someone and never got round to telling them and never showed them, then how would they ever know that you loved them? Even if they liked you, you may find to your dismay that they ignore you because they think that you don’t like them because you seem to take every opportunity to ignore them – the exact opposite affect that you desire!

When Christ reminded us all that we need to lift up our prayers to God it was a reminder that we need to continually show Him that we love Him. Without our prayers we are seemingly ignoring Him. Yes God has the advantage of being able to know what we think, but without our prayers we are not reinforcing those thoughts... He may know what is on our minds, but unless we continue in prayer we are the ones that are going to be affected because our minds are weak. Praying is going to strengthen us because it will help us to strengthen our love with Christ.

Christ did not die on the cross for those people who would eventually come to accept Him; He died on the cross for every single person so that we would all have the same chance of getting to know Him. Once we do get to know Him we then have to try to make sure that we do not falter in our walk with Him – prayer is what will hold us together and will strengthen us so that we remember just how important our relationship is with Christ.

We all have our positions in society because God has deemed it possible and pleasing to Him to allow us to be in these positions. Everything will work towards the glory of God because He is in charge of everything. Our prayers will hold us together so that we can be a better and stronger part of His world.

Points to Ponder:
Do you remind people that you care about them?
 
How often do you talk with God?