Thursday Reading: Romans 1 18-21
 
Key Verse: Romans 1 19
19  because the thing which may be known of God is clearly revealed within them, for God revealed it to them.

 

Devotion:
It is difficult to swim against a strong current. It is difficult to run up a steep hill. It is difficult to keep a weight lifted up for a long time. In almost everything we are up against basic physical laws that work against us; we have to do work in order to move forward. That also applies in our lives and even in our spiritual lives. If we do not do anything, we will not get anywhere… For many people it all comes down to a question of “does God exist?” This question then justifies so much that we do or do not do in our lives.

 

It is far too easy to simply say that God does not exist so that we can go off and do our own things and not have to worry about breaking God’s laws – so why do we feel guilty about doing it? The truth of the matter is that we all have a basic need for a belief system because that is part of being human. That basic belief system is built into each of us and we live by it. Much of our belief system is built up through visible clues and through example. If we watch the outside world we will learn from it. If we watch ungodly people then we will learn ungodly ways. But if we are willing to spend a little time and look closer at things, we will come to the conclusion that God does exist and that we should be living for Him and not against Him.

 

It’s not necessarily a fact that we have to go to Sunday school, church, Christian youth club and the like thereof so that we can be convinced that God exists; we can look around us and begin to realise that there must be a God who has created us. All of our basic laws in physics point to the fact that something must have started the ball rolling. Motion, thermodynamics, order and gravity all point to the fact that something had to start it all off… from nothing… and that is exactly what our bibles teach us. In the beginning God created everything. If we see a rock on the beach, we think nothing of it. If we see a watch on the beach, we know someone made it because of the complexity. Have a long look at the complexity of our universe and tell me that it happened by accident!

 

Points to Ponder:
How closely do you really look at things?

 

Do you doubt our universe could suddenly explode itself into existence?

Wednesday Reading: Romans 7 14-17
 
Key Verse: Romans 7 15
15  For that which I do, I know not. For what I desire, that I do not do; but what I hate, that I do.

 

Devotion:
We all try… We all would like to do things right… But, somehow, we always end up messing things up at some time or another. We know the right way of doing things and yet we persist in doing things that we know are not right. What do you think that looks like to others?

 

I do not want to lay a guilt trip on anyone but just to get us all to think before we act. We live in a world where people are acting first and then thinking afterwards, right from the very tops of our governments down to us… Living our lives with double standards will only lead to disappointment and friction between us. We need to realise why we do things and know that we are all still human. We live in a world of sin and because of that we get carried away with things we do. We do not always like what we do and certainly do not mean to go out of our way to hurt people, but we just seem to do a good job of it sometimes!

 

There is no way that we can live up to God’s standards because we are weak and give in to sin. But that does not mean that we should stop trying! We know we are going to trip up and fall at some stage, but at least trying to do that which is right will allow others to see that we are trying. God knows that we cannot leave sin behind us, but He sure does want to see us at least trying… Yes we do live in a world of sin. Yes we do give it to sin. Yes we do say one thing and do another. It is not because we are bad people; it is simply because we are caught up in sin.

 

If we continue to rely on ourselves more than on God, we are effectively re-writing God’s instructions to say that we should do our own thing before doing God’s will. We know we are not perfect because we continue to do things that we tell others they should not be doing… Let Christ in to help you to rely less on sin in your life. Rely less on yourself. Rely more on God’s Word.

 

Points to Ponder:
Can you remember the last thing you did after telling someone else not to do it?
 
God continues to uphold what He tells us to do…

Tuesday Reading: Romans 7 7-13
 
Key Verse: Romans 7 12
12  So indeed the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

 

Devotion:
There is no way for us to learn what sin is unless we are told what sin is. Whilst we may well be able to live a good life when we do not have any outside influences, we are surrounded by sin all the time which works its way into our lives too. We may not know that it is wrong to begin with because we are being taught otherwise through example. But when we are able to find out the truth through God’s Law, we then have out eyes opened to what sin is. If we are willing to read God’s law, we will find out more about what sin is and even how to avoid some of it. This does not mean that God’s Word is a book to show us how to sin!

 

We are born with a certain knowledge of good within us but for as long as we live in this world, the world teaches us how to ignore that and live in a sinful life. Without the knowledge that we are doing things against God’s will, we do not know that what we do is sin. But when we learn what sin is, that built-in knowledge kicks in and we know what is true. All of us can probably think back to a time when we were living without God’s laws because we did not know them; we may have been told about them but we did not listen to what they meant. That is the deception of sin itself; we are carried away in doing things without realising that we are sinking further into sin.

 

God’s Word is holy. God’s Laws are just and true. The Commandments are there so that we can find out about our sin. We do not die because of God’s law; we die because of our sin nature. Christ came not to condemn us but rather that we would find out the truth and come to repent so that we can be forgiven. He upheld the commandments so that we could know what we have done wrong and why we have death hanging over our heads. He wants us to live! We need to know the truth about sin so that we can put it behind us and live in Him!

 

Points to Ponder:
Have you been caught out by “terms and conditions” lately?

 

Do you know God’s terms and conditions?

Monday Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4 13-18
 
Key Verse: 1 Thessalonians 4 13
13  But I would not have you ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, that you be not grieved, even as others who have no hope.
 
Devotion:
When was the last time you worried about what was going to happen to you when you died? As Christians we do not have to question this anymore because God has given us the answer, nicely explained in this text. If we die before Christ returns, He will take us to heaven. If we are still alive when it’s time for Him to return, we get to go there sooner! God has got things planned out already and He has told us so too; we just have to be ready for the event when it happens.

 

Being ready for your homecoming is making sure that your house is in order. I’m not saying that we all have to have a clean and tidy house (I could never say that to you all if you were to see the state of my house). What I am talking about is making sure that you are right with God – our bodies are His house and making sure that we keep our lives in a manner that He would approve is important. If we think we have holes in our lives where God should be or gaps made by us driving Him out – those are the places we need to make right. Yes, our futures are secure once we have confessed our belief to Him, but allowing Him to continue living in a reasonable state is also important!

 

The first thing that Christ will take care of when He does descend is to raise up all the dead Christians... well, to raise up their physical bodies because their spiritual bodies will already be with Him. Once that is accomplished, He will then take us up in like manner – we will be transformed into our new bodies, leaving behind all the sickness and worries and death. What a wonderful day that will be! So we definitely have something rather special to look forward to.

 

But that does not take us out of this earth yet because we still have to put up with all manner of sickness, pain and even suffering before we go. We are human. Our bodies are still human. We still live in amongst all the sickness and death; obviously we are still open to those same sicknesses and to our physical death – but what an outlook!

 

Points to Ponder:
Are you fortunate enough to live a healthy life?

 

Do those that are less fortunate know about God’s gift?