Saturday Reading: Proverbs 3 1-6
 
Key Verse: Proverbs 3 5
5  Trust in Jehovah with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding.

 

Devotion:
What better summary of the past week’s devotions can there be than this passage. Would you rather live in constant disagreement with those around you, or would you rather fit in and be happy? That is a loaded question because most of us will look at it from our human perspective. We like to make sure that we are not rubbing people up the wrong way so that we can live more in harmony than in friction! But at what cost? How many times do we actually look at the cost of what we do?

 

If we go along with what others are doing around us, are we going against God? If we do what pleases man, are we doing what pleases God? Most often the two are opposing each other because what man does and what God would have us do are different. What we have to remember is that we are only together with man for a short while, but our life with God is eternal. We need to focus on our eternal life and do what is right in God’s sight. When we do that we will begin to find that doing God’s will becomes part of our lives and living with God and His rules becomes a whole lot easier.

 

But you know what the strange thing is… people around are going to see a change in you. They may not like the change at first because it makes you different. But if you are willing and able to stick with God’s will and His commandments, they will then see in you a new strength that allows you to stay with what you believe. That change will impress them more than someone who gives in to their surroundings. They may not say it at first, but that is what they think – I can remember thinking that about other Christians. People will not like it if you tell them how much of a sinner they are or how they are doing it all wrong, but if you simply stand up and say that you want to do things the right way – that will make them think about what they do without confronting them. We cannot judge people and we cannot tell them how to run their lives. What we can do is to judge our own actions against God’s laws and correct how we live our lives. That change will allow others to see that they don’t have to give in to temptations either.

 

Points to Ponder:
How often do you “go along with it” to have fun?
 
Ask God for direction and listen to what He tells you!

Friday Reading: Psalm 73:22-26

 

Key Verse: Psalms 73 24
24  You shall lead me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.

 

Devotion:
Do animals listen to you? I’m not talking about your dog that has been with you for many years but, let’s say, a deer in the forest… Wild animals do not listen to requests from humans but rather go about their business in whatever way they think best. We do not know what goes on in their minds but we can observe them and wonder at their movements and intentions. Place a wild animal in a new home and it is totally lost; it will have to spend time finding it’s way and getting to know its surroundings.

 

We are much like that on earth. We have been placed here and we have to get to know our surroundings. We have our family and friends who will do their best to teach us the right ways and lead us until we can find our own way. But that does not necessarily mean that we know where we are going. If we get dropped off many miles from home in the countryside, we may well struggle to get home – even more so if we do not have transport. We will be surrounded by things we do not recognise and maybe people we do not know. Unless we have a good idea of where we should be heading, it may well take us a long time to start going in the right direction!

 

We need guidance in our lives. We need direction. We need to know that we have a goal to seek and that we have a reason to be. Without these we are as lost as a wild animal in a new park. We have learned that we can sustain ourselves through God, but unless we are willing to follow His guidance, we may well be walking off in the wrong direction when we start! We may find that we live to be a lot older than all our friends and even family, proving that we do not have a reliance on anything here. Rather we have to rely on God and His guidance. We need to seek His counsel. That means we need to find out what He wants in our lives. Before that we obviously need to find Him. As I look back in my life I can see so many things that happened that were guiding me back to Christ and yet I ignored so many of them. Don’t ignore instruction otherwise you will not be able to find God’s direction in your life!

 

Points to Ponder:
Do you constantly ignore instructions and rules?
 
How much of God’s instruction are you ignoring?

Thursday Reading: Ezekiel 15 1-8
 
Key Verse: Ezekiel 15 2
2  Son of man, how is the vine tree more than any other tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest?

 

Devotion:
It is not only when Jesus walked amongst us on earth as a man that we have been compared by Him to vines. The prophets have records of Him inspiring them to write about such things as well. Here, Ezekiel was impressed to write about the value of a vine that is fruitful against the value of a vine that no longer bears fruit. If you have done any studying of caring for vines or even watched a film where they care for vines at some stage, you probably would have picked up on the fact that a vine needs constant care and constant pruning.

 

If a vine is left to grow by itself, it will very quickly take over the place where it is growing and choke itself so that it will not bear as much fruit as previous seasons. Unless you are willing to be quite harsh with the vine and cut it back when it gets unruly, you will be left with less fruit than the previous season. However, when you keep it in constant check by pruning, it will deliver more fruit season after season. However, if you simply cut back and do not care for it such as watering in the right ways, it will not bear as much as it can. Unless you nurture it, the fruit-bearing capacity will not be as great as it can be.

 

God continues to try and make sure that we and pruned back when we get unruly. He continues to prune us when we go wayward. Yet He also makes sure that we are cared for for as long as we want to be. With that combination of love and care what else can we do but grown fruitfully when we walk with Him?

 

We are all capable of bearing fruit – as is any vine. We are all capable of being useful. We are all also capable of ignoring God and ending up of the pile that will be burned as useless wood. The choice as to where we would rather be is ours to make. The care that we receive if we decide to walk with God will be second to none!

 

Points to Ponder:
Do you feel like you have a fruitful life?

 

How much do you listen to God in His desire to give you a fruitful life?

Wednesday Reading: John 15 1-8
 
Key Verse: John 15 4
4  Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

 

Devotion:
It seems pretty obvious to us that when we go to the shops and buy a bunch of grapes we will not get any more grapes growing from the branch after we have eaten them. If you take a close look at the branch, everything seems ok on the first day, but by the second day the branch is already withering. Leave it another day and the branch may even look like it has been in a desert for a few weeks as all the goodness is drawn out of it by the grapes. After that, you’re going to be left with grapes that start turning to raisins! No matter how big the branch, the same thing is going to happen and eventually the grapes will not get any goodness from the branch.

 

Each branch needs to be sustains in some manner and that manner is by it depending on another branch or on the trunk itself. The trunk has a similar problem; without the roots it is not able to survive. Take out the roots from the equation and you have a dead tree of bush just waiting to happen. The more fruit that it is bearing the more quickly it will seem to wither and die. In essence the branches and trunk are witness to the fact that the unseen roots are there, that they are real and in good condition. We would know something was wrong when we started to see things wither. There is a big difference between withering and a lean year for fruit. In a lean year, the bush may not give forth much fruit but you can see that it is still in good health.

 

Why did Jesus compare Himself and God to the trunk and branches? Well the answer should be fairly obvious now that we have had a quick nature lesson! Without Christ in our lives we are not going to be able to bear fruit. We may look good with a bit of fruit, but if we do not continue to depend in Christ, we are not going to be able to feed our fruit for long. We will wither and fade away before we know it! But whilst we are in Christ, He is in us as He feeds us intravenously – sometimes we don’t know how we get that food, but we get it! We know it has come from God because we continue to get it!

 

Points to Ponder:
Have you ever tried to grow a plant without roots?
 
We cannot even start to grow without God!