Saturday Reading: Colossians 1 9-17
 
Key Verse: Colossians 1 9
9  For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

Devotion:
What a joy it is to hear of someone who comes to know Christ. That is not the point where we should stop praying for them or stop teaching them but rather the point at which your prayers should change from being a hopeful request to a more focus request. We need to continue to pray for each one of our brothers and sisters in Christ because we will all face temptations and we all continue to need all the encouragement we can get. We need prayers to allow us to keep focused on God’s work and as we are we also need to pray for others so that they continue on in His knowledge and wisdom too. If you had a team of players and some of them dropped out, you would be short of players for your team and would have to go through all the hard work of finding and training others.

If you would want others to be able to pray for you, what better prayer would you like others to have for you than to be able to do your best for Christ? This then must be our earnest prayer for other in Christ too that they will continue to be able to do their best in the adverse conditions that we all live in. God is our Creator, Strength and Might and when we acknowledge Him to be that in our lives He gives us that strength to continue on in His name.

Through Jesus Christ we are able to share in that power and might each and every hour because of what He has done for us already. He has continued to support this universe that we live in because He continues to love us like no other. Our reasonable service is to continue to do our best for Him as He continues to do His best for us... Lifting up your prayers for others to know that they too can do their best for Him and continue to receive His best each and every day is just one small part of our faithfulness to Christ each day.

Points to Ponder:
Do you like wishing people well?
 
Are you wishing the best for them through Christ?

Friday Reading: 1 Corinthians 4 1-4

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 4 2
2  And the rest, it is sought among stewards that one be found faithful.

Devotion:
Christ lowered Himself to be a servant when He came to earth as a man. That servant may have been humble and lowly but He was also undervalued because He was and is the greatest! Think about the trust that has to be placed in someone working for another person, be it in a servant role or as an employee. The person in charge has to trust that the person doing the work will do the work and do it diligently. This being said, a servants role is actually quite important and may hold a very honourable role within the workplace or household because of the amount of trust that is part of their work remit. Whilst a servant cannot lift themselves up to the importance of their master’s position, they can work toward fulfilling their role as best as they can to ensure the position they work within holds the most trust and respect.

Paul saw himself as a steward of God’s word in that he was one of the apostles that took God’s word out to one and all. He had to make sure that he was working as a faithful servant would, dispensing as much of God’s word as he could to people who were willing to listen. He had to make sure that he did that with respect and honesty and in a way that would make others want to trust what he said too. His aim was never to lift himself up as the best proclaimer of God’s word but to be found as a faithful proclaimer of God’s word.

Far too many times people judge others flippantly by what they say and do without thinking about the consequences of their judgement. Paul was not one to be caught up by how others judged him because he knew that the final judgment would come from Christ and that is the only one that counts! He knew that by following in God’s will he would not be counted as useless when Christ came to judge him in the end. He knew who his master was and that was who he was serving to the best of his ability.

Points to Ponder:
What work do you do for others?
 
Are you a willing servant for God?

Thursday Reading: Ephesians 4 11-16
 
Key Verse: Ephesians 4 15
15  But that you, speaking the truth in love, may in all things grow up to Him who is the Head, even Christ;

Devotion:
We are not all apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors or teachers; indeed most of us are none of the above, but that does not mean that we are not useful as Christians. When you take a cross section of people from a town or village you will find that very few fall into the category of teachers but that would not stop us learning something from just about everyone that you meet. Each of us grown up and learn from our surroundings and carry that knowledge with us. When we meet others we can share knowledge with them and in doing so we learn more ourselves – so in truth we are all teachers of a kind.

Just what we are learning is going to be called into question! If we learned the wrong stuff for an exam or test then there is not much chance that we will pass with flying colours because we have not made the best of our learning time. If others try to learn from us and we start telling them of our life history instead of what they have asked, then we are not being any good to them. When I was at university and exams were coming up, the sun also came up (not a regular occurrence near Manchester!). That was enough to persuade some of us that cricket was the order of the day instead of revision; needless to say we did not learn as much as we could then!

We do have all manner of things that surround us and that will take us away from the things that we should be doing. That is just life. What we then do is our choice though. Whether we are going to give in and follow the ways of the world or continue on in God’s strength is our decision. God is going to continue to supply everything that we need in the right measure and at the right time – all we have to do is to take Him up on that offer. In order to continue growing in the best possible way we have to follow the best possible methods and not always the ones that we think look fun because everyone else does them.

Points to Ponder:
Do you get side-tracked easily?

Are you focusing on God?

Wednesday Reading: 1 Corinthians 1 26-31
 
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 1 27
27  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

Devotion:
How many times have you thought that you were not good enough to do something or thought that people should ask someone else because you are not capable? I’m pretty sure we have all thought of our limitations and have been surprised when we found out that we could actually do more than we thought? I can remember learning to swim and thinking how I would never be able to join the people in the deep end... until I tried it! Well, how many times have you thought that you were not good enough to do something for God, or thought that He would never ask you to do anything because He would not think your were good enough?

We can look up to a lot of very intelligent scientists in our world who have learned so many things about how the world works right down to parts of atoms. They know that various things exhibit various properties or behaviours, but quite why they exhibit those properties or behave in those particular ways are in many cases still unknown. The plain fact is that God has created such an intricate universe for us that no matter how much we learn, there is still going to be more to learn! It is not just the physical world that is like that but the spiritual world too. Yes we have our bibles and they are finite in length, just 66 books, letters or writings bound together into one book for our ease of use; and yet church leaders are still learning from it every day.

God allowed some pretty ordinary people to become great leaders over time. He has allowed some ordinary people to become great preachers and evangelists. There are also many very intelligent people who have become church leaders, preachers and evangelists. But the down to earth fact is that they have all learned their biblical knowledge from people who were (amongst others) shepherds, fishermen and carpenters. God uses all sorts of people to reach others; He can even use you!

Points to Ponder:
Are you always confident in what you do?
 
Do you know that God is always with you for His work?