Thursday Reading: 2 Timothy 2 14-21
 
Key Verse: 2 Timothy 2 20
20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.

Devotion:
Have you noticed that most people who actually look busy are busy doing small things? In our wonderful world we have so many things to do and most of them may seem trivial but work for the greater good. Then there are some things that men work at for many years and still they seem trivial to most people in the end. Then there are the small things that actually turn out to be momentous events in mans history – but they seem to be far and few between. But the fact remains, each one of those things that has been done has been done for a reason – we may not see the reason in the beginning, but we will at some stage.

You will be surprised at how many things in life are not towards God but are centred around making man happy or fulfilling primal desires. It does not mean that all of these things are a waste of time because without them man would not be what he is. But if man would concentrate on doing more for God, then his life would be more centred around Him and He would eventually get more of the glory that He deserves. Each one of us has been made in God’s image for the express purpose of pleasing God. Nothing would please God more than to see us happy for eternity. We have the choice as to whether we are going to make Him happy or not.

Around the house we have a few different kinds of brushes; from toilet brushes to hair brushes and toothbrushes. We would not dream of using a toilet brush for anything other than cleaning the toilet because we know what it has been used for. We would not turn round and use our toothbrush to clean the toilet either... But the task of cleaning the toilet is a very important job that has to be done regularly in order to keep germs at bay. There are things in life that we will not like doing, but they need to be done. There are little things as well as massive things which all should be done in our lives. God wants to use each of us as much as we are willing to let Him; we are not all going to be called to be preachers and teachers, but we can all be good at what we do do in His name!

Points to Ponder:
What is your least favourite task?

Do you show others that you are willing to do God’s Work?
 

Wednesday Reading: Ecclesiastes 7 23-29
 
Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 7 23
23  All this I have proved by wisdom; I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me.

Devotion:
Our first impressions of King Solomon may well be that he was a very rich man and that he followed God because he built the great temple. But through all those riches and wisdom given to him by God, he wanted to find out more – what makes man that he is. In his wisdom he decided to have a go at just about everything to see what it is like, to see if that particular part of life would bring him happiness. But as this section of verse sounds out, his wisdom got him nowhere other than making him realise just how far short of the mark he fell in everything.

Here we have a king who is richer than anyone, has the most of everything and can have anything that he desires. To that extent he did do exactly that because he tried all manner of things; even having many women. That single act sheds light on his feelings here. He had tried having lots of women to see if that would make him happy, but instead he found out just how wicked he had become and how wicked the consenting women had been as well. He very quickly realised that no matter how much he tried to do for himself, he would always fall short of the mark when considering God and godliness.

He knew that God has created man as upright and he knew the scriptures enough to realise that man had brought sin upon himself. He also began to see just how carried away we get with our sins and how much it affects our lives and especially our relationship with God. It is not just our lives that we ruin by consenting to sin, but our relationship with God too. We can thank Him for giving us His Son to die for our sins, because that is the only way we can escape from them; but we need to be more aware of what we do so that we do not grieve the Holy Spirit as He resides with us...

Points to Ponder:
How many things do you do for fun?
 
How many would be pleasing in God’s eyes?
 

Tuesday Reading: Proverbs 19 21-23
 
Key Verse: Proverbs 19 22
22  The charm of a man is his kindness, and a poor man is better than a liar.

Devotion:
Despite all that we can think of doing, and all that we can imagine, God’s Word is still going to be taught all over the place. We can see the amount of things that people now come up with to do on Sundays because their lives are so full of other things during the week – but God’s Word is faithfully preached up and down the country still. Despite all that tempts us, we still do seek to find the truth and we go to churches that preach that truth to find it.

God’s Word does not just teach us about God and about Jesus and all the rules that the Jews had to follow in the early days; it also teaches us how we should be to show others that we are Christians. One of those things that Jesus continued to remind us of is to be kind one to another. The first step of love is to show kindness; that in itself will discourage all manner of temptations that you may be facing. Showing kindness will discourage others from being angry with you and discourage them from letting rip with their mouths. Would you rather trust someone who shows you kindness or someone you know is telling lies to make you feel better?

But no matter how much we try to spread that peace by starting with the first smile, none of it is going to count to much unless we can bring God back into it. He is being left out of life too much nowadays and that is why the peace and brotherly love has left the people. If we base our lives on our fear of God, then we are going to show others the true meaning behind our peace and happiness. If they can see that through us, then we have made the first step of reminding them that they need to be with God too! We may be able to start peace in the land with a smile, but true inner peace can only come from God!

Points to Ponder:
Do you like making people happy?

Do you let God’s Light shine through you?
 

 
Key Verse: Ephesians 4 32
32  And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.
 
Devotion:
What makes you swear? What makes you blurt out something that you then regret? I would say that almost every time it can be put down to your emotions getting the better of you... Does this mean we should put away our emotions? Far from it! Without emotions we are nothing but a computer. God created us with emotions so that we can for views on subjects or things that happen around us. We are the ones that have corrupted those views and hence bring forward “corrupted” words when our emotions run wild. Those words have to come from somewhere – they don’t just spring up...

Each time we hear another rude or filthy word, it gets into our heads. The more that we hear that word, the more likely we are to remember it and then the more likely we are to repeat it when our emotions get a bit high! That corruption has come from external sources, but we have probably allowed it in without any rejection. If we stood up to people repeating those words, they would be more likely to reserve their speech when in front of us and we would be less likely to hear those words... Sounds so simple... but we just don’t get round to trying to stop people because we don’t want to offend them! Well, how much are they offending us when they repeat those words?

If we want to be able to clean up our lives, then we have to start by trying to set an example. That example has got to start by showing others that we reject filthy language – the first step is going to have to be for us to slow ourselves down and stop using those words ourselves. If we aim towards Christ’s teaching by loving one another and forgiving one another, then we are going to be much less likely to have our emotions run so wild that we lose control of our mouths. It is not just in arguments when our emotions are running wild but also in excitement. Far too often we get excited over something that is happening and start describing event in rather crude ways – because we have heard those crude ways said over and over again...

Points to Ponder:
Do you really know how much comes out of your mouth?

Are you showing forgiveness to others like Christ has shown you?