Wednesday Reading: 2 Peter 3 8-10
 
Key Verse: 2 Peter 3 9
9 The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some count slowness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any of us should perish, but that all of us should come to repentance.

Devotion:
Today's reading starts out with the quote that God's day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like one day. This has been used by many to try and justify things that do not happen on time or that have been left for a long time; but I think we just have to remember that God is the one that created time to start with. One thing that we do struggle to come to terms with is that single fact that God lives outside of time! To us, that is totally alien and unimaginable – because we have been created within time and we know nothing else other than living in a linear state of time change.

That fact should then give us a reason to remember how it is then possible for Him to be able to answer our prayers outside of our time-scales and in ways that we think not possible. God is not constrained by the laws of our universe – He is the one that created them in the first place- how can He then be constrained by something He has created!

So when we bring our prayers to God, we have to remember that we are the ones living within the constrains of our universe and within time. God is the one that is not constrained at all and can hence organise for our prayers to be answered in the best possible time. He is the one that created a beautiful place for us to live in and a universe that we can enjoy ourselves within – He organised all of this before-hand and continues to maintain it and will continue to do so. He has done all of this because of His love for us and that is why He continues to make sure that we can still live. The over-riding fact being that He is working outside of time... something we may never be able to grasp!

He has already planned things to such an extent that He knows what is going to happen at the end of the world – but that is only measured by us because we live within the time-line that He has created...

Points to Ponder:
Does your brain hurt thinking about things like this?
 
Do you realise that He actually planned this all to start with!

Tuesday Reading: 1 Peter 4 1-3
 
Key Verse: 1 Peter 4 2
2 in order no longer to live in the lusts of men, but in the will of God the remaining time in the flesh.

Devotion:
One thing that we do not too often think about is that Christ actually came to live as a human being. In other words He was here and surrounded by all the same things that we are surrounded by – OK, maybe not exactly the same because we are living a few thousand years on, but the same sort of social and peer pressures and temptations would have surrounded Him as they do us. He was the one that was able to stand up against everything that came His way – so how did He do it?

The first thing that comes to mind is that He was God so He could not sin... but He was a man, born to a woman (albeit a perfect birth). The same temptations that drew others in did not draw Him in; instead He would have been disappointed that the people around Him would give in or would even tempt Him. It is a different way of looking at things – instead of being drawn in by the things around us we need to separate ourselves from them so we can see them for what they are (easier said than done).

The second thing may be that we already given in to sins and have made them a part of our lives, so when more come along we simply accept them rather than reject them to start with. We have allowed that corruption into our lives to such an extent that we no longer see it as a problem.

The third thing is that Christ always stood on the Word of God. He always made sure that God's Word was something to be depended upon and central to His life. If we move toward doing the same we will see a move towards strength to resist the temptations that come our way and guidance for the situation that we face where we do not know the answers. When Satan himself tempted Christ the Word of God was what was used to oppose Him in every temptation. Use God's Word as something that will uphold His will in your life...

Points to Ponder:
Do you feel like you are weak?

Are you relying on God's Word too?

Monday Reading: Mark 11 27-33
 
Key Verse: Mark 11 28
28  and said to Him, By what authority do you do these things? And who gave you this authority to do these things?
 
Devotion:
Have you ever questioned the authority of someone else? Have you ever questioned whether someone else has the authority to do something that they say they have? It is quite human to do so and we tend to do it when we are in a position whereby someone else is exerting authority over us and we do not like it. This tends to come to a point when we are trying to get our way and someone else steps in and stops us or does things another way instead.

Jesus made sure that people knew what was right and what was wrong. When these chief priests came to Him to question His authority on the matter, they did not think they were questioning God and they probably did not realise how their question would be seen by those of us to come later on. Their questioning of Jesus authority sounded like they were not seeking the truth but a victory of Jesus so that they could remain in charge of religion! Jesus plainly told them that what John was teaching and what He taught came from God. He knew that the men knew that the people thought of John as a prophet and so would not go against John; so Jesus used this fact to trap them in their own attempt to trap Him. Jesus answered them in a question by getting them to think about whose authority John was baptising people in.

When we see just how much Christ does for us, how much He has done for us and how much He has promised for us, how can we imagine that this does not come from God? When these men saw how much Jesus was doing for them, how could they question Him? The simple answer is that we do tend to question God in many ways because we do not understand His ways. We must understand from our bibles that what Christ does for us is indeed what is best for us because this is the evidence that is there for us plainly to see. Let us accept His will in our lives and live with Him....

Points to Ponder:
Do you like being told what to do?

Do you listen to God’s Word?

Sunday Reading: John 3 25-28
 
Key Verse: John 3 27
23  And John answered and said, A man can receive nothing unless it is given to him from Heaven.

Devotion:
So many times in our lives we are caught up in the things of the world and allow the things of God to be forgotten. Well, maybe not forgotten, but certainly put into the backs of our minds or ignored to some extent. John was faithfully doing what was expected of him, knowing that he was baptising people in a stream or with water whilst Jesus was coming to baptise us in the Holy Spirit. He knew that he was to spread the word as much as possible so that others would get to know about Jesus so that they could make their choice to follow Him.

In our little worlds that we close ourselves into we like to filter out all the things that we don't think we need or that we don't agree with. When that happens, it is very easy to then be persuaded by worldly things and follow on in the path of others. I sometimes wonder if John would think about what others saw in him and worry that they would be putting him on a pedestal. John did not put himself up on any pedestal, indeed he lowered himself to the level of a hermit (socially speaking) so that people would not lift him up. Through that example people knew that what he was teaching was true and not made up.

When John said here that a man cannot receive anything unless it came from God, he was not talking about earthly things but of spiritual things. There is no way that we can gain access to heaven no matter what we do on earth. There are so many earthly things that we can gain through what we do here, but what eventual use are they when we get to heaven? John knew just how special Jesus was through what wisdom was given to him. Each of us can gain wisdom by continuing in reading God's Word and allowing Him to teach us through it – with that new wisdom we too can go out and pass on that knowledge to others in the name of Jesus.

Points to Ponder:
Are you holding on to earthly things?
 
Is God being allowed to work in your life?